Job Costing System Profiles (1/3)

Enter Jobs by SL Acc (excluding Compact)

Setting this option allows you to specify during the job creation process the customer account that the job is being processed for. If set then all jobs must link to a customer account, if not set then the customer account can still be recorded as a memo against the job but is not mandatory for all jobs.

Add 1 to Job Codes

If your job costing code format is numeric then this option offers an automatically incremented job number each time you create a job. Select as required.

Retain all job costs

The job record contains a flag to identify whether job costing transactions for active jobs are to be retained during the cleardown procedure to remove completed jobs. Setting this option controls, when you add a job record, whether this flag is to be set by default or not. It is the flag on the job record itself that controls whether costs are retained not this option it itself.

Linked to Payroll

Select this option to update job costing time sheet details to payroll.

Lookup Employee on Payroll

If set to link the job costing system to payroll then you would usually set this option so that when maintaining cost codes and creating/updating an employee cost code you can use <F4-Select> to choose the correct employee.

Use Payroll Employee Rates

This is the first of several options that determine the rate defaulted to on time sheet entry. If this option is set then time sheet entry uses the hourly/overtime rates on the employee record rather than his/her employee cost code. If not set then during cost code maintenance you will be asked if you wish to copy the rates from the employee as a default.

Update Payroll with Values

If linked to payroll then the update of time sheets transfers the basic and overtime entries.This option controls whether entries for ‘switch’ values, i.e. extra payments and deductions, that may have been entered within time sheets are updated to payroll.

Set Category from Pay Code

The cost category, i.e. labour, materials, etc., recorded on timesheets would usually be taken from the cost code entered per timesheet line so that the category is recorded against the process that the time sheet was entered for rather the employee code entered.Setting this option records the category as per the employee cost code – usually labour.

Write Stock Transactions

Select to update stock control when entering stock transactions (usually set when stock application purchased).

Allow Time-Sheet Complete Status

Setting this option allows you to change the job status to prevent the entry of further time sheets against a job but still allow the posting of direct costs.

Linked to Purchases

If you want to enter job details for invoice and credit transactions entered through the purchase ledger then set this option.

Purchase Link Mandatory

If previous parameter set then setting this option forces the input of a job code against purchase invoices and credits entered within the purchase ledger.

Purchase Suspense Job Code

If linked to purchase ledger in batch mode (where costs are not updated real-time but instead updated separately) and set to link as mandatory option then it is possibility than some purchase transactions generated via Invoicer, Purchase Order Processing or Purchase Ledger Batch Update may have an invalid or missing job code. Enter here a ‘suspense’ job to be updated to in these circumstances. This option is not applicable if updating in ‘real-time’.

Omit Forward Purchases

If linked to purchase ledger in batch mode then this option controls whether forward transactions entered within the purchase ledger are to be updated or whether they are to be held until the first update after the purchase period end. This option is not applicable if updating in ‘real-time’.

Update purchases real-time

If set then invoice and credit transactions entered within the purchase are updated immediately to job costing immediately after the update of purchase ledger rather than as a separate batch routine in job costing.

Update sales-inv real-time

If set this option allows invoice and credit transactions entered within the sales ledger to be analysed against a job code and the amount invoiced to be updated on the job record. If not set then the value of invoices raised would need to be separately entered as an ‘amount invoiced’ transaction within job costing itself.

Prompt "Contract Costing”

Some companies prefer to call job costing "Contract Costing”. Setting this option changes the system prompts – such as when you are entering time sheets – from Job Code to Contract Code.

Rates from Line Cost Codes

When entering time sheets the rate used comes from the employee cost code (if not the payroll employee record as set above). Setting this option takes the rates from the ‘process’ cost code entered on the individual time sheet entry line.

Rates from EE Default Code

An employee cost code is required for each employee you need to enter time sheets for, but several employees may be paid at the same rate and entering/amending rates for all applicable employee cost codes may be a time consuming process with an increased possibility of error. As an alternative to entering rates per employee you can nominate against individual employee cost codes a ‘default’ cost code (also known as a grade code).

If this default EE/grade code in use, and taking the time sheet rates from the employee code rather than the ‘process’ code entered line-by-line then setting this option takes the rates from the applicable default code rather than the employee code itself.

If taking the cost codes from the ‘process’ code then the ‘process’ code will initially be set to the default EE/grade code if referenced in the profiles (regardless of this setting).

Confirm Emp. Trade Code

The option exists to record a ‘trade’ code analysis against the cost code and to copy that to entered time sheet transactions. This trade code would be used to analyse the type of work the employee is usually involved in. Setting this option allows you to confirm this analysis code when entering time sheets and record the type of work they were ‘actually’ involved in for the time worked.

Purchase Cost Mark-up %

This feature allows the system to mark-up costs entered into job costed by the stated percentage to enable you to take account of otherwise unrecoverable overhead costs when determining job costs. All costs – time sheets, stock issues, and direct costs – are marked up by the percentage set here.

As an alternative to setting a global mark-up percentage you can set a mark-up percentage per cost code.

Time Sheet @ Category Rate

When entering/maintaining cost codes you have the ability to set a category rate and, if employee cost code, the rates for standard and overtime. If set then the rate used for time sheet entry (when picking up rates from a cost code, be it the employee, process or grade code) is the category rate and not the standard/overtime rates.

Use Stock Price No (0=Cost)

When you charge out stock to a job you may either use on of the selling prices, or charge it out at the current cost price recorded on the stock file. Leave as "0” if charging at cost price; otherwise specify the selling price to use.

For this purpose you may define one of the selling prices as cost times a factor to take account of stockholding costs when posting stock issues to a job.

Split Job Code (Premier Only)

This feature allows you to break down jobs into a number of separate sub-jobs (sometimes known as contracts and operations), so that each sub-job can be managed as a separate entity.

Split Job Code

Select to use this feature, leave blank to ignore.

Size of 1^st part

The job code format, set within the Code Formats option, is defined for the full format – contract plus operation code. This option asks for the size, in number or characters, of the contract portion of the format. If, for example, your job codes were in the form 0123/567 where 0123 was the contract and 567 was the operations then you would enter ‘4’ as the size of the first part.

1^st Part Name

2^nd Part Name

Here you give the titles for each of the two parts of the job code – i.e. ‘Contract’ and ‘Operation’ or ‘Main-Job’ and ‘Sub-Job’ for example.

2^nd Budgets Link to 1^st

2^nd Actuals Link to 1^st

If you set these questions, which – for actuals at least – you would usually do, then any budget values entered against the operations are accumulated to the contract and any transactions posted against the operation are also accumulated to the contract.