|
What's covered? Hide |
Time tracking is integral to monitoring employee productivity and may also be used to determine employee pay, so it is important to fully understand the various aspects of time logging to get the maximum benefit from ServMan. This session will cover the concepts of time logging and then discuss the process for completing payroll in detail.
The software is designed to allow you to efficiently capture employee time detail to orders, jobs and departments allowing you to:
Prior to using the software it's important to understand the basic concepts on Time Management and tracking for your employees. Lets start by providing a few important points when it comes to time tracking.
Time is logged to using item codes. You can log time from a variety of places but one constant is true. Whenever you are logging time, be it to an order, job or department, you are required to use a Labor Item Code. These codes are setup in your item master and each code has a variety of options associated with it that will control how it is reported. For example a time code can be flagged as "Double Time", effectively driving payroll calculations. Additionally certain settings like Productive/ Unproductive, Travel, etc.. All are used by the software to classify, report or drive calculations. Most are obvious by their name, some are not. Review the Labor Item documentation for full details on all of the available options.
You only log time once. You will discover there are lots of ways to capture time entries, from ServMan mobile, from time entry screens on the dispatch board, from orders, on jobs, automatically when changing order status codes, many, many methods. But one constant holds true, once time is logged for an employee, you've got it! It will not need to be entered anywhere else in the system again. Like wise, you can see time log entries from many locations. For example, you can log time to an order and also see the same entry from the job tab the order is linked to or from the time log screen associated with the employee it was logged for. If you edit or modify the entry, you've changed it everywhere.... there is only one entry.
Time logged to orders and jobs effects reported cost. When we log time to an order or job we are adding cost. The amount of the cost can be one of many options based on how you choose to view it. In can include a burden factor, it can be actual employee pay rate or it can be a standardized cost based on the item code used to log it. When you log time to an order and run an order profitability report, you'll see labor cost on it. Likewise for your jobs and projects. The options you choose when running the report will drive how the labor cost is displayed.
Labor posted to orders and jobs does NOT effect general ledger balances. Labor cost is like a non-stock item. The cost is tracked and reported for your orders and jobs but the actual COST of the labor only hits your general ledger when you post your payroll.
Time Logging and Time Clock entries are two completely different things! If you are using the software to produce your gross payroll calculations the system actually drives payroll reporting based on time clock entries. It just so happens the software allows options that will, optionally based on your configuration, automatically create time clock entries when you log time. This is the most popular configuration option we have, and probably enabled if you have not made request otherwise. Think of it like this, every time you log time, the software punches the time clock in and out. Because the time log includes the order or job the employee worked on, we can also cost your projects. Read the Payroll module documentation for more on this.
One of the first decisions you will want to make with your Project Manager is determining how you will be logging time for your employees. This will be determined first by wether or not you will be using the software to product Gross Payroll Reports, and second on if you will be using ServMan Mobile.
If your company will be using the software to produce your gross payroll calculations you will need to make a decision right immediately. Will you be logging all time for employees, or just logging the time they work on projects and orders? This is an important decision as it affects how your system will be configured. If you are going to pay employees based on a time clock, the software provides the option of punching in and out for the day, then also just logging time that you want to track for orders and job costing. Then, when calculating payroll, the employee will be paid based on their TIME CLOCK PUNCHES. You can even have the software automatically produce a time log entry to the employee's home department for the purposes of reporting for the difference between the two.
We find that more and more companies are logging ALL time for their employees so they can assure that the time is being posted to the proper departments when making their payroll's journal entries. Using this approach, you don't use a time clock but instead log all time for the employee, allowing the software to manage the time clock punches for everything. You log vacations, holidays, sick time, everything. The software in effect looks and acts like an employee time sheet.
Once you decide wether you'll be logging all time or just on job time you'll need to choose your method for actually making the time entries.
Under this approach all employee time is logged. Literally every minute of every work day, vacations and sick time is recorded in the system. Time is entered using a variety of labor codes that are configured to properly allocate time per your reporting requirements. These labor codes are associated to either a Department, Job, or Order number. Forming these associations allows you to properly allocate an employee’s cost. When logging all of an employee’s time, the best result is achieved by using time sheets. The employee logs all of their time to a single form by day/week. Each time entry includes at minimum, time start, time end, a time code and either a Department, Job or Order number to classify the time.
Of course an employee’s orders may also have some elements of time detailed to them as required to charge your customers, but the nexus for capturing and auditing their time is based on the time sheet they complete, sign and submit to you. Having a separate time sheet allows employees to total their time for the day, and see all time entries in a single view. If employees only log time to their service tickets, then there is an inefficiency created...they must refer back to their prior ticket to get the start time for their next entry so as to avoid any time “gaps”.
The time sheets that the employees complete in the field are subsequently turned into the office for data entry.
When using a time sheet for entering the employee’s actual labor it is best to completely segregate this process from their billings. Typically the order documents may come in daily, but a time sheet may only be turned in weekly. This said, orders are processed with a focus on the billing lines and detail only. You could optionally log time on the order, but this encourages inefficiency later when keying time from a time sheet. If time is logged on orders, then before entering the time sheet information into ServMan you must confirm whether or not the time was already logged by a billing clerk. In order to prevent duplicate time entries, this process should be avoided. We only log time once!
We have found that keying time using the Time Logging screen, located on the dispatch board, is best for entering employee time sheets. Using this screen you can see an accumulated total of all time entered for an employee for a day. When you key time entries using this method you should have the item codes set to NOT PRINT. (Remember, these time entries will be added to orders and jobs). ServMan allows you to log time to a closed ticket so you can get your time properly allocated to an order even after it may have been invoiced. Simply open the time logging screen and log the time normally as NOT BILLABLE. The time entries will be automatically added to the orders or jobs as required for proper costing and reporting.
When using SM Mobile it is possible for an employee to log ALL of their time by entering it directly to each order or Job they are working on. This said, like paper they must maintain reference to time they’ve already logged to maintain a “picture” of their time profile for the day as a whole. Because most businesses don’t allow orders to remain on the technician’s device once completed, they lose sight of these entries and must rely on an external document as well. Because of these issues the following approaches are common practices for companies that log all time, even when using mobile.
1) Treat mobile like paper, detailing all billing information and materials to the work orders. Then turn in a paper time sheet for approval and entry by the back office enterprise as described earlier.
2) Auto log time to work orders using status flips. However, this creates “gaps” between entries and creates time entries with non-rounded values. If this method is used then the employee can complete their time sheet using ServMan’s optional Web-based time portal, filling in their gaps as an end of day function.
Regardless of which Mobile method is used, it is recommended that all employees maintain a paper time sheet that can be referenced in the future - even if only for their own records.
The time logging portal can be accessed from any web browser anywhere where there is internet access. It is a separate module that feeds information directly to ServMan. Time can be logged to Orders, Jobs, Departments, standard expenses (Gas, Tools etc.) and can calculate vehicle mileage. This Time Logging Portal is especially effective if you have Teams where the Supervisor must approve the time entered by the employees or crews where the crew lead logs time for his entire crew at once. Find out more about the Time Logging Portal here.
If a company is not using SM for calculating and managing gross payroll, then they may only be concerned with logging time spent on jobs or work orders. For payroll time they may be using either the SM Time Clock, punching in/out or using a third-party solution. Under this scenario the company is only interested in capturing the actual time worked on jobs/orders and makes the assumption that all other time is simply applied to an employee’s home department. This allows the company to still see profitability by Jobs and Orders, but it is not burdened with having to log ALL time for every employee.
If paper based, then simply have your employees list their time directly on the tickets to which they are dispatched. Then, when detailing the orders, include the actual employee time with the billing and material detail. Later, if using the SM Payroll module, ServMan can be configured to create an automated time entry against an internal job ID under the employee’s home department for all remaining time, based on the employee’s time clock punches.
If using SM Mobile the software can be configured to automatically create time entries to the employee’s tickets based on the setting of status codes. Then, as above, all other time is logged to an internal job ID automatically by the SM Payroll module based on the employee’s time clock. Using SM Mobile an employee also has the ability to Clock In/Out from the mobile device.