Labor Rates Setup

User Personas: Admin | Project Manager

Labor rates in eSUB Fusion are built from two pieces. Labor Classes are the trades and levels your company employs. Rate Templates are the actual dollar figures for those classes, and you can hold several so that a prevailing-wage job and a private job do not have to share one rate sheet.

Get these right and your job cost reporting is right, because every hour recorded on a Daily Report is costed against them according to the crew member's labor class and the rate within the project's assigned Rate Template.

To perform the actions described in this article, you must have the Company - Labor Classes - General Permissions and Change Status permissions.

Use the links below to jump to a topic:

• How Labor Rates Fit Together
• View and Manage Labor Rates
• Create and Manage Labor Classes
  • Create a Labor Class
  • Edit a Labor Class
• Create and Manage Rate Templates
  • Create a Rate Template
  • Edit a Rate Template
• Assign a Default Labor Class to a Crew Member
• Manage Rate Templates on Projects
• FAQ
  • Our pay rates went up. Do I edit the template?
  • A Labor Class is missing from a Daily Report.
  • Why would I need more than one Rate Template?
  • Do these rates carry into Change Order Requests?
• Permissions

How Labor Rates Fit Together

The setup order matters, because each step depends on the one before it.

Assign a Rate Template to the project and give every Crew Member who will enter time a Labor Class. Both must be set before any Daily Reports or Time Cards are entered, since Job Cost Reporting calculates labor costs from the Crew Member's Labor Class multiplied by the project's Rate Template. Time entered before they're defined won't cost correctly. See Create and Manage Users and Crew Members, and Time Management for more information.

View and Manage Labor Rates

1. Select Settings on the global navigation menu, then select Labor Rates from the slide-out menu.
2. Select the tab for the settings you want to configure.

Create and Manage Labor Classes

Labor Classes are managed under the Labor Classes tab. Set these up before Rate Templates.

Create a Labor Class

From the Labor Classes tab:

1. Select the Actions button, then select Add Labor Class.
2. Enter the new Labor Class name.
3. Select + Add Labor Class to add another, and repeat as needed.
4. Select Save when finished.

Edit a Labor Class

From the Labor Classes tab:

1. Select the Actions button, then select Edit Labor Class.
   1. Select a Labor Class and edit its name inline
   2. Use the toggle under the Status column to make the Labor Class unavailable or available.
2. Changes are made automatically.

See the Available and Unavailable Statuses article for how this works across eSUB.

Create and Manage Rate Templates

Rate Templates are managed under the Rate Templates tab. Labor Classes must be configured first. Once created, Rate Templates cannot be deleted, only edited and renamed.

Select an individual Rate Template to view additional details.

Create a Rate Template

From the Rate Templates tab:

1. Select Add Rate Template on the action button.
2. Enter the template details described below.
3. Configure the rates for each Labor Class.
4. Select Save when finished.

A Labor Class has to be Active on the project's Rate Template before anyone can track time against it in a Daily Report. If a class is missing from time entry, this is the first place to look.

Edit a Rate Template

From the Rate Templates tab:

1. Select the three-dot button on the Rate Template, then select Edit Rate Template.
2. Make your changes.
3. Select Save when finished.

Editing a Rate Template changes historical data. Hours already recorded against it get recosted at the new rate, which will move job cost numbers you have already reported. When rates change, create a NEW template instead.

Assign a Default Labor Class to a Crew Member

Each Crew Member can carry a primary Labor Class, so that time entry defaults to the right class without anyone having to remember it. The class can still be overridden on a Daily Report when someone worked out of class for part of the day if enabled in the Company Settings.

Crew Members are managed alongside Users. See the Create and Manage Users and Crew Members article for where to find a Crew Member and how to set their primary Labor Class.

For overriding the class on a specific day, see the Daily Reports and Daily Reports (Mobile) articles.

Manage Rate Templates on Projects

Missing labor commitments or labor dollars after entering a Daily Report with timecards? Ensure you have Labor Classes Assigned to your Crew Members and Labor Templates assigned to your Projects! The usual cause is a missing Labor Class or Rate Template. Blank values in the Labor Class field on the Crew tab of a Daily Report, or in the Timecard Management log, are the first tell. If no Labor Class or Rate Template was assigned when the Daily Reports were entered, the Job Cost Report will not show any committed labor dollars. To correct it: Assign a Labor Class to every Crew Member and a Rate Template to each affected project. In Timecard Preferences, enable Labor Class Override. Open each affected past Daily Report, go to the Crew tab, select the employee, and use the Labor Class drop-down menu to set the correct Labor Class. Save the Daily Report. The Job Cost Report may take a few minutes to reflect the change.

In Project Info and Project Settings, Rate Templates are labeled Craft Templates. The two terms mean the same thing.

A Rate Template does nothing until it is assigned to a project.

1. Select Projects on the global navigation menu, then select a project.
2. Select Project Info under Settings on the slide-out menu.
3. Select Edit on the action button, then select the Craft Template(s) field and choose the templates for the project.
4. Select Save when finished.

See the Project Settings article for more guidance.

FAQ

Our pay rates went up. Do I edit the template?

No. Create a new Rate Template and assign it to the projects going forward. Editing an existing template changes how already-recorded hours are costed, which moves historical job cost numbers you may have already billed or reported against.

A Labor Class is missing from a Daily Report.

Check two things. First, that the Labor Class is Active on the Rate Template assigned to that project. Second, that the project has a Rate Template assigned at all. A class that is available company-wide still will not appear on a job whose template does not include it.

Why would I need more than one Rate Template?

Because not all your work pays the same. Prevailing-wage and public works jobs, union versus open-shop work, and different geographies all justify their own template. Build one per rate structure, then assign the right one per job.

Do these rates carry into Change Order Requests?

Yes. When you select a Labor Class on a COR labor line item, the rate comes from the Rate Template on that project, so the rates you set up here are the rates you price change orders at. See the Change Order Requests article.

Permissions

Administrators can adjust permissions; see Set Up User Permissions.