Cost Rates

Modified on Mon, May 20 at 5:31 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Set Cost Rates in the Fieldclix system
Labor Cost Rates History
Synching Cost Rates from Payroll System
Payroll Period Cost Rates Table
- When Payroll Period Cost Rate Table updates

In the FieldClix there are several places where we can determine cost rates of Employee’s payroll. We use Cost Rates to calculate the financial distribution based on the Employees’ Time Cards data.

The way we use Cost Rates to calculate financial distribution depends on a few things:

Do we sync cost rates from the company's payroll system.
Whether Cost Rates follow a certain priority.

Let us deal with Cost Rates created in the FCX System.

Set Cost Rates in the Fieldclix system

First, consider the scheme of Cost Rates priority in the Financial Distributions.

Employee's Cost Rates

Open Employee Card to create or open Employee’s Costs.

Weekly Cost Rates

As you remember weekly cost rates are essential if your Salary Employees are clocking-in/out to record their actual hours but are still being paid a fixed salary. The Weekly Cost Rate allows FCX not only to record exact hours, but also to dynamically adjust the employee's Hourly Rate in such a way that, regardless of the number of hours worked, the total cost remains the same.

The FCX system takes an Employee's weekly cost rate and divides it by the total number of regular hours worked in the previous week. The data is taken from the Employee’s Time Cards.

The Weekly Rate method is only applied to REGULAR hours.

All non-regular hours (overtime, double, etc.) are calculated using Employee Cost Rates. In this case, the FCX takes the Employee Costs Rates (from the table) to calculate the Time Cards Financial Distributions for the current week.

The Weekly Rate always takes precedence over the Daily Rate in calculations.

Daily Cost Rates

The Daily Rate determines the rate paid for a day.

The system takes the total number of hours (sum of hrs of all wage types) from the Time Card.
Checks if the total exceeds the half-day threshold.
Calculates the total for a day = Daily Cost Rate from the Employee Cost.
For hours below the threshold, the total rate = Daily Cost Rate from the Employee Cost * 0.5.

The Daily Rate is applied to hours of all wage types.

Employee Cost Rate Table

We use the Cost Rates table to record the Employee’s hourly rate. Here we add the rate on all types of wages that the company has — regular, overtime, double.

PW is an additional feature for the wage type. If a wage type implies prevailing cost rates as well, you should add a new line with "YES" PW for each such wage type. These PW rates will be used to cost regular hours allocated to the "prevailing wage" dispatch. If you set up PW limits in a State card, you should also set up rates for PW Overtime and PW Double hours.

State is another data section for rates. You can add a rate paid for hours worked in a particular state. You can read more about how we calculate Time Card hours within a state here.

As for payroll items we fill in these columns in Cost Rates table to match Time Cards data with Time Sheets in the payroll system. You should specify a payroll item for each wage type you use.

Also, if your company’s Time Keeping requests configuration allows you to send a request for mileage reimbursement, per diem and so on, you should add a payroll item and cost rate for each non-wage item.

Time Card hours are totalled via Wage Type + Payroll Item + PW + State.

To calculate the Employee's payroll, the system searches for a rate that matches with this combination of data.

Note, that if there is no rate for a particular group of wage type+payroll item+state, it will take a rate that matches the wage type+payroll item.

Site Cost Rates

We indicate cost rates for a Site to charge all working hours allocated to Work Orders scheduled to this Site. In Site Cost Rates we specify only the required wage types. For instance, to mark all hours assigned to a particular Site as prevailing, we add a line with required wage type and and mark the PW as Yes.

Work Order Type Cost Rates

You can set certain Cost Rates for each Work Order Type.

Each time you create a new WO Type the system creates a Cost Rates record in Rates Library. Open Work Order Type card → open Cost Rates library → set up Cost Rates.

In the WO Type Cost Rates, you can only specify the types of wage you use.

Additionally, if you want to calculate all the Time Card non-wage items assigned to the appropriate Work Order, add a non-wage item rate.

Labor Cost Rates History

Cost Rates have a validity period. Whenever you adjust the weekly cost rate or make changes in the cost rates table you should specify a date when rates take effect.

Synching Cost Rates from Payroll System

Cost Rates are a part of Payroll data. You can keep track of Cost Rates in the FCX System or pull rates from payroll systems for certain Employee Categories.

Read more about QuickBooks and Paylocity integration.

We sync Cost Rates when a Payroll Check moves to the 'Paid' stage.

It means that according to the Payroll Check Closure Process a Payroll Administrator checks Payroll data and completes Payroll in Quickbooks/Paylocity (send Paychecks), and after that he/she completes the job “Confirm Payroll Check is Paid”. So, the Payroll Check is marked as "Ready for Sync from Payroll" in FCX System, and it is a trigger to sync Cost Rates from a payroll system.

A Payroll Check must meet the following conditions for synching Cost Rates from payroll systems:

The checkbox "Ready for Sync from Payroll" in Payroll Check is active.

A Payroll Administrator has changed the period stage to "Paid".

The checkbox "Sync Cost Rates from QB" in Employee Category is active.

To determine Employees for whom we need to sync Cost Rates from payroll systems.

Thus, when all the conditions are met and synchronization was completed successfully, the system fills out a corresponding table in a Payroll Check — Payroll Check Cost Rates Table.

A Cost Rates Table is a specific view of Cost Rates data presented as a list of records. It's not a separate reference.

The lines in the table are added up over Employee and Payroll Item. Here in the Payroll Check Cost Rates, we show Hours, Rate and Amount (synced from a payroll system).

Payroll Period Cost Rates Table

To view the Payroll Period Cost Rates Table open Payroll Card and click on "Show Cost Rates".

The Payroll Period Cost Rates table is a summary of all synced Cost Rates from the related Payroll checks. The lines are also summed over Employee and Payroll Item. The table contains several sorts of data:

Employee (from Cost Rates table of payroll check)
Department (calculated according to Employee)
Payroll Item (from Cost Rates table of payroll check)
Addition Type (from Cost Rates table of payroll check)
Applied Addition Type (countable)
Hours (from Time Cards in payroll checks)
QTY (from Time Cards in payroll checks)
Rate (countable)
Amount (from Cost Rates table of payroll check)
Adjusted Rate (countable)
Average Adjusted Rate (countable)
Last Rate (countable)

Hours and QTY are taken from Time Cards included in Payroll Checks.

Rate = Amount/Hours (or QTY).

Amount are always pulled from synced Payroll Checks.

As for Addition Types of Payroll Item, there is only information about amount. So, Hours and Rate columns are empty for that kind of Payroll Items.

However, if some synced details of payroll item with specified addition type contain not only amount but also hours, those hours will be cleared.

Applied Addition Type describes what exactly addition type of payroll item will be put in the Cost Rates table to calculate adjusted rates.

Addition Type is always equal to Applied Addition Type. The exceptions are:

line has N/A addition type and empty hours → apply the Adhoc - Overhead addition type.
line has a Proportional or Fixed type with some amount and no N/A lines (on a particular employee) to which we can apply fixed or proportional increase → apply the Adhoc - Overhead addition type.
line with some amount and an empty Addition Type → apply the Ignore addition type.

They do not factor into adjusted Cost Rates calculation.

Based on retrieved Rates from the payroll system and applied addition type of payroll item, FCX system can count Adjusted Rates. Adjusted Rates are calculated only for lines with Hours. The adjustment is counted according to applied proportional or fixed increases.

The Average Rate is shown only if there is an adjusted rate. It is calculated according to the adjusted rate scheme, but the data is summed over the last 6 months.

Last Rate indicates known Average Rate for the certain group of Payroll Item and Employee from the last Payroll Period.

For Non-Wage Payroll Items (Adhoc BP) Last Rate is equal to the Rate from the last Payroll Period.

Last Rates are counted each morning for open and closed payroll periods. Last Rates are used for calculating Time Keeping Financial Distribution for the open Payroll Period when Cost Rates haven't been synced yet from payroll systems.

Given that Adjusted Cost Rates are more relevant, the system recalculates Financial Distribution considering Adjusted Rates.

Apply cost rates to financial distributions

We have a setting in the Employee Category Card — 'Apply Adjusted Cost Rates'. This setting controls which Cost Rates will be used in Financial Distributions.

If we toggle on the setting the system calculates financial distributions based on adjusted cost rates from the Payroll Period Cost Rates Table.

If, in contrast, we leave the checkmark empty the system will take cost rates from WO Type, Site, or Employee Card to calculate financial distributions.

When Payroll Period Cost Rate Table updates

The Cost Rate Table updates each day with the Time Keeping Processing.

Also, you can update the table manually by clicking “Recalculate Cost Rates” action in the Payroll Period Card. The system will recalculate Cost Rates, and then update financial distributions according to schedule.