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Labor Charges

Labor Maintenance​

From the DockMaster menu, select Service Management > Maintenance Functions > Labor Charges

Purpose: To track Labor on a Work Order by Operation. If you don't want to track labor for each operation, create an Operation Code called LABOR and add all labor for the Work Order to that operation.

Labor is added to a Work Order operation by using the 3 Labor Tab in Work Order Operations Maintenance. Each time you enter the window, you will see ALL labor entries, which have been added to the operation. You can delete a labor entry or change the hours and department at any time until the operation is billed out.

Once you bill out an operation to a customer, the billed labor will appear highlighted in blue and you will be unable to affect these entries. To remove a labor entry that was erroneously billed to a customer, you must enter the labor hours again with a negative hours figure.

To add Labor Hours to an Operation, select the Operation that you are adding billing charges and select the 3 Labor Tab or access it through Labor Charges directly.

--Time Entry--​

  • Technician- Enter an Employee number (Technician).

  • Date- Enter the Date the labor was performed. The Labor Date must be greater than or equal to the work order creation date and cannot be greater than today’s date. The Labor Date is used for reporting purposes and timecard information. Future Use: When the Payroll module is interfaced to Service, the Timecard Entry program will use this date to calculate a technician's time for a given pay period.

  • Department- Enter the Dept the labor was performed in or press Enter to accept the default Department. The department is used to generate the accounting entries for any labor time entered on a Work Order.

  • Each labor entry added to a Work Order must have a department. The order in which the system will look for a department is shown below.

    1. The system will check the Labor Department field in the Operation Code File.
    2. The system will check the Work Order Category Code; if there is one defined on the work order, it will check the Labor Department field on this work order category code.
    3. The system will check the Department field in the Technician File.
    4. If a department is not found in either place, the default GL Accounting found in the Service Parameters will be used.

  • Hours/ Start and Stop Time- Depending on your set up in Service Parameters, this field will either show "Hours" or "Start Time/Stop Time". If you are using Hours, enter the number of labor hours this technician worked on this job. The time will be displayed in the grid below time entry.

Start and Stop Time​

  • Enter a Start time for this labor entry default is set to 12:00AM. The format should be Hours: Minutes. If you use Military Time, the system will convert the hours and minutes to standard hours.
  • Enter a Stop time for this labor entry. Note: Once you enter the Stop time, the Hours field in the grid below will show the number of hours entered. The hours in the grid can be set to print decimal format by changing your Service Parameters.

Negative Time Entries - If you are deducting time from an operation, you can enter a Stop time that is less than the Start time.

Note: Refer to the Time Entry Options 1) Print Time in Decimal and 2) Enter Hours Only in Service Parameters for the affect these options have on the way labor time is displayed.

  • Price Rate- Enter a billing rate that the Technician charges per hour. The billing rate is derived from the Technician File. To the right of Price Rate is where you select whether the rate is straight time, Time and a Half or Double Time, make your selection using the drop down menu.
  • When entering in the rate on an "Internal" work order, the options in the "Type" drop down listing include: Holiday Time, Vacation Time, Sick Time and Jury Duty.
  • Each hour a technician works will be costed at the hourly cost rate in the Technician File. If you want to increase the cost of a technician's time for overtime or holiday work, you can multiply the technician’s cost by 1.5 or multiply the cost by 2.0.
  • Extension- The extension amount will default based off of the number of hours multiplied by the Price Rate. This number can be overridden if necessary.
  • Discount- Enter a Labor Discount if applicable. If you are using discounts, make sure your accounting has been set up in the Service Parameters.
  • Cost Rate- The Cost Rate will default if the cost has been entered in the Technicians file. This field can be password protected so the cost does not show unless the correct password is entered. To the right of Cost Rate is where you select whether the rate is straight time, Time and a Half or Double Time, make your selection using the drop down menu.
  • When entering in the rate on an "Internal" work order, the options in the "Type" drop down listing include: Holiday Time, Vacation Time, Sick Time and Jury Duty.
  • Each hour a technician works will be costed at the hourly cost rate in the Technician File. If you want to increase the cost of a technician's time for overtime or holiday work, you can multiply the technician’s cost by 1.5 or multiply the cost by 2.0.

Flat Rate Jobs:​

If the operation code is a flat rate type, the Extension field will say FLAT and you will not be able to change the extension. The Extension field affects the number of billable hours for an operation. The system will divide the Extension by the Rate to calculate the billable hours for a labor entry. For example:

A technician worked three hours on an operation and his usual billing rate is $50.00. You decide you can't charge the customer $150.00 for the work, so you change the Extension to $100.00. Using the formula above, the system will calculate the billable hours to be two hours ($100.00/$50.00 = 2). Therefore, when you look at you Work Order productivity reports, this technician will show three hours worked and only two billed.

--Technician Comments--​

  • The Technician can enter an unlimited number of comment lines regarding the Labor on this Operation. These comments can be printed on reports or Work Orders.

--Manager’s Comments--​

  • The Service Manager can enter an unlimited number of comment lines regarding the Labor on this Operation. These comments can be printed on reports or Work Orders.

--Deleting or Removing Labor Time--​

  • If an operation has not been billed out to a customer, move the cursor to the desired labor entry and press the Remove Charge button from the Command Panel.
  • If an operation has been billed out, you must re-enter the labor with a NEGATIVE hours figure. (Labor that has already been billed out will appear highlighted).

Note: If labor charges are removed and the date of the charge is within a closed accounting period, the WIP Journal Transaction will be created with an effective date equal to the current system date.

--Labor Grid--​

  • The Labor Grid at the bottom of the Labor form will list all the Labor charges for the Operation selected. The labor highlighted in blue indicates they have been billed out. If you would like to see a break down of the information in the Time Entry screen, select the line of Labor you want to view and click on it with your mouse. Note: The information in this grid cannot be modified.
  • When finished entering in the Labor Charges, press the Update button from the Command Panel. Press the Close button to return to the Work Order Maintenance window.

--Opcode Summary Area--​

  • In the upper right hand corner of the Labor screen is the Opcode Summary Area. This area looks at Total Charges, Total Discounts, Labor and Labor Hours.
  • Total Charges – Displays the total charges on the selected operation.
  • Total Discounts – Displays the discounts applied and billed on the selected operation. Note: The total discounts will only be shown once the work order has been billed.
  • Labor – Displays the total labor charges for the selected operation.
  • Labor Hours – Displays the total labor hours for the selected operation.

--Move Detail--​

  • The Move Detail option is available in the Command Panel to allow you to transfer a charge to another work order. The link will become active once a charge has been added to the operation.
  • Detail can also be moved by right clicking with your mouse on the detail line and selecting Move Detail.

--Reprice Labor—​

  • Click on the Reprice Labor link if you want to update the pricing on selected labor charges. For example, if the price on labor for a technician has increased and you want to reflect this in your work order, press the Reprice Labor link to update labor to the current price. This can only be used on work orders that have not been billed out.