WO Time Allocation

How it Works

For Financial Analysis purposes, it is very important that we can allocate all labor hours to the right Regions, Markets and Projects (where applicable). This helps a company line up its income and expenses and make important business decisions.

We’ve mentioned before that the system can automatically allocate an employee’s time to a specific WO. It does this by cross-referencing GPS data, the Dispatch Schedule and Approved Locations. Since each WO is specific to one Project, Market and Region, this takes care of most labor hour allocation.

But what happens if an employee works on multiple WOs in a single day? How can we tell which hours to allocate to which WO? To do this we use Geo-Fencing. WOs always have a Site (through their BP) and each Site has GPS coordinates. GPS data tells the system when the employee entered and left the Site and therefore when he or she was working on that WO.

But this presents a problem because, even though every WO on a BP is associated with a Site, some WOs on a BP may not be worked on at the Site, but rather somewhere else. An example of this is an equipment Prep WO. These WOs are worked on at the Warehouse before the field crew deploys to the Site.

NOTE
WO Time Allocation is controlled by the WO Type. WO Types have a setting “Work Type” that stipulates “Use GEO Fence to automatically define WO or no”. We select a “Site” work type for regular Dispatch WOs and a “Warehouse” work type for “off-Site” WOs, like those for WH or Prep. 

If an employee only works on one WO off-Site per day, the system can extrapolate where to allocate his or her time.

In specific situations where an employee works on more than one WO off-Site in a single day, the WO time will be allocated proportionally between all scheduled Warehouse WOs.

 The employee must manually allocate their time among the various WOs, if there are any unallocated hrs.

When this situation occurs, the mobile app will prompt the employee to perform WO Time Allocation the next time they log into Time Keeping. It will prevent them from Clocking-In until they have performed this allocation.

All WOs are displayed which the employee was assigned on that day and for which there is not already an allocation. The employee must simply select the approximate percentage of his or her time that was allocated to each WO.

NOTE
If some of an employee's day has already been allocated to a WO, as in if he or she worked one on-Site WO and two off-Site WOs, the allocation made by the Employee will be applied to his or her unallocated time.

So if the employee worked ten hours and spent three on an on-Site WO, he or she would choose what percent of the remaining seven hours went to each of the off-Site WOs. The total to allocate will always be 100%. It is possible to allocate 0% to a WO.

Only certain employees are likely to run into this situation, so the WO Time Allocation requirement is turned on for each Employee Login to which it applies.

Errors made in WO Time Allocation are handled by TARs. The TK Administrator can reset a day, so an employee can re-allocate it on their next login.

NOTE
In earlier versions Allocations made through WO Time Allocation in the App showed up in Time Entry Allocation Table as “MANUAL” Entries with a total amount of Approved Hrs., BUT no Start/Finish Times. Although they are named “MANUAL”, the system created these Entries, and you can tell this because MANUAL Entries created/edited by a User show up in the “Comments” field with the name of said User next to them.

Now, Allocations made through WO Time Allocation in the App show up directly in the allocation table in Time Entries.

Review Time Cards to Enforce Standard Payroll Rules

• Time should be accurate to what was recorded plus what is allowed by company policy.
• Time should not violate company policy regarding what kinds of activities are paid and unpaid.
• Time should be 100% Allocated to BPs and WOs.

Review Your Subordinates’ Time Cards

Review Time Cards for Employees reporting to you per BP and/or per Org Structure rules.

Standard Time Card Routing Based on BP Role & Dept. Heads

• IF WO Allocator Time Card could be auto-allocated, routes to assignee for designated BP Role
• NOTE: BP-Allocation does NOT direct Time Card to BP Role assignee, because BP not determined until after manual allocation.
• Where the reviewer cannot be determined via WO/BP, the Time Card goes to the Head of the Employee’s Department.
  • Time Cards Route to Dept. Heads in the following cases:
    • WO Allocator, but no WO could be Allocated-to.
    • BP Allocator
    • Non-Ops Emps
• Time Cards Resolved as “Change Time” and TARs Resolved as “Approved” go to TKA to make changes.
  • Reviewers Resolve with Comments clearly explaining changes requested from TKA so he/she can do his/her job with payroll, w/o having to research every Time Card that hits their desk. 
  • Reviewers can reassign TCR to another Reviewer
  • Reviewers can get help w TCR using Tasks/Jobs

To learn more about Time Card Reviewer Determination, click here

Differential Employee Cost Rates for Job Costing

Existing Employee Cost Rate Overrides WO Type Cost

Employee Cost and WO Type Cost are Mutually Exclusive: Must Choose.