How To Set Up Costing

I. Introduction

Costing is an optional set of features which enables you to one or more of the following:

• define a list of jobs for which employees may select one when clocking IN.
• enhanced job classifications, using job phases and and cost codes

Costing is available on all account plans.

II. Set up

We'll walk you through here how to set up the costing features so you can use them in your business.

A. Enable

First, you'll want to enable the costing features, which is disabled by default. To do that, log in to the Admin Console at https://console.fareclock.com. From there, click on 'Settings' in the top menu bar, and then select Costing. You should see the following:

 

You'll first want to enable the feature by selecting the Costing mode menu. There are two options to enable costing:

1. Simple - This mode allows you to enable a job list for which employees clock IN.
2. Enhanced - This mode enables more complex job classification, including jobs phases and code codes.

After you make your selection, make sure you click the green Save button.

B. Defaults

After you've enabled Costing, either Simple or Enhanced, you should see a couple more options display on the screen as follows:

At the bottom are additional checkbox options, including:

• Job selection required to clock IN - If checked, the may not clock IN without selecting a job. Conversely, if left unchecked, the employee will have the option to clock IN either into a job or not.
• Auto select job by geo fence - If checked, and the worker clocks IN while inside the geo fence for a single job, then the worker will automatically clocked IN to that job without the worker having to view the job list and select a job. If there are multiple jobs in that geo fence, then only those jobs will be displayed in the job list.
• Auto select single job - Regardless of geo fencing, if only one job matches the worker's criteria based on permissions, then that job will automatically be chosen.
• Job transfer enabled on time clock - Job transfer allows an employee who is already clocked IN to immediately transfer to a different job. If left unchecked, a clocked IN employee only has the option to clock OUT. Of course, the employee could afterwards clock back IN to a different job, but job transfer lets them do that in one step rather than two.
• Prompt job label on time clock - Jobs can be labeled with something called a Work Label in order to classify jobs that share something in common. If this setting is checked, then the timeclock will prompt worker to choose a Work Label to filter down jobs before actually selecting a job from the job list.

C. Jobs

The heart of Costing is the Jobs list. To go the list, click on the Jobs icon at the top. You should see a screen list as follows:

 

The job list will be empty. To add your first job, click the Add Job button above the empty list on the right. This will open an edit form as follows:

 

There are a lot of options here you can configure.

In particular, note that you the Permissions section can be configured to control for whom and when this job will be an option.

D. Job Phases

If you enabled Enhanced costing mode, you'll be able to optionally set up Job Phases. To do so, click on the Job Phases tab at the top. There will be an empty list. If you click the Add Job Phase button, you'll see the following:

Similar to a Job, there are many permissions options to control when the job phase is in use. In addition, you can specify which jobs and job work labels the job phase may be used for.

E. Cost Codes

If you enabled Enhanced costing mode, you'll be able to optionally set up Cost Codes. Cost Codes are similar to Job Phases, but give an additional level of job costing reporting. To do so, click on the Cost Codes tab at the top, and then click on the Add Cost Code button. You'll see the following.

III. Time Clock

On the time clock, after an employee logs in, he/she will see a screen as follows:

When you set up your costing defaults, if you enabled "Job selection requires to clock IN", then the simple "Clock-in" button will not appear. The employee will only have the option to "Clock-in to Job". Also, if there are no jobs which exist for the clock's org unit and employee's department, then there will only appear the "Clock-in" button regardless of any other settings.

If the employee taps on "Clock IN", then the following workflow will appear:

     

If you've only enabled Simple costing mode, or if any of the costing lists is not enabled for this employee, then only the relevant lists in the workflow will appear.

1. Job - Worker must select a job.
2. Job Phases - If there are job phases for that job, then this list will appear. Whether the employee will have the option to Skip job phase selection and move on in the workflow, depends on whether you had set the job's Job Phase Mode to Require.
3. Cost Codes - If there are cost codes for that job, then this list will appear. Whether the employee will have the option to Skip cost code selection and move on in the workflow, depends on whether you had set the job's Cost Code Mode to Require.

IV. Reports

There are several reports which display costing information:

A. Time Cards - Can display Job and Pay Codes for each employee's labor hours, with options to export to your 3rd party payroll system. To display these columns, they must be moved from the Hidden to the Visible box of the Columns tab in Report Settings, as follows:

B. Roll Call - Can display Job for each employee currently clocked IN.

C. Raw Punches - Can display Job for each punch.

D. Totals - This report gives you the most options for calculating Costing numbers. You can group totals in any number of ways as follows:

For example, if you want to group by Job, then by Job Phase and Cost Code, it would look like this:

E. Raw Punch Totals - This report is similar to the Totals report, but it runs faster. If you're not interested in viewing overtime and pay codes, then this report is more suited.

F. Job Transfers - This report has a special layout suited for workers who switch between jobs a lot, and in particular travel between jobs. It has an option to specify a "Travel" job so you can easily follow a timeline for the day of each job a worker was at, for how long, and how much travel time they used.