Setting up labor categories
Labor categories are the kinds of work your people bill and record, such as Project Manager, Field Technician, or Archaeologist 1. Setting them up well decides two things for every hour your firm records: its rate, and whether it is billable. Set them up before your team records time. Administrators with access to Settings maintain them, and their rates.
Jump to:
- How labor categories are organized
- Add a labor category
- Set its rates
- Keep the list clean
- Example: a new GIS role
How labor categories are organized
Labor categories are a dimension, and its members can be grouped. EVX Software's suggested setup has four groups: 1. Billable, 2. Indirect Labor, 3. Preliminary & Proposal work, and 4. Time off. See Organizing records by labor category.
Add a labor category
- Show Labor categories in the left panel with View more if it isn't there.
- Click New in its section, and fill in the form:
| Field | What it sets |
|---|---|
| Name | The name people choose on tasks and time entries. |
| Located under | The group it belongs to, such as 1. Billable. |
| Billable | Whether its hours are billed to clients by default. |
| Is time off | Whether it records leave. |
| Color, Description | How it shows in lists, and what it covers. |
- Save it.
Located under puts the category in its group.
Set its rates
A labor category gets its rates from billing categories: one for each rate schedule that uses it, with a billing rate and a cost rate. Add them after you create the category. See Billing categories.
Keep the list clean
- One category per role you bill differently. If two roles bill the same, use one category.
- Number or letter the categories so they sort as people expect.
- When a category is no longer used, archive it instead of deleting it, so past time keeps its category. See Archiving and restoring.
Example: a new GIS role
A firm starts billing GIS work separately. The administrator adds GIS Specialist under 1. Billable, with Billable checked, then adds a billing category for it in each of the year's rate schedules. Project managers can now choose it on mapping tasks, and its hours bill at the GIS rate.
What you can do next
- Billing categories to give the category its rates.
- Setting up rate schedules for the schedules that hold the rates.
- Labor categories for how your team uses them.