Payroll timesheets are posted to a single cost centre, but include diverse overhead items in addition to the number of hours worked. These include:
- Premium time and a half and overtime hours,
- Travel,
- Living out allowance,
- Mileage,
- Site allowance,
- Turnaround,
- Taxi and bus,
- Retro pay,
- Vehicle allowance,
- Payment in lieu,
- Other taxable pay,
- Retention,
- Recruitment, and
- Fringe
When payroll is complete, the costs from the timesheets and their cheques are costed to the job costing and general ledger. Abio will disperse these overhead amounts to separate cost centres based on the dispersion type set up on the job’s area.
The mechanism for dispersing labour overheads to centres different than the actual labour on the timesheet is a labour dispersion rule. One timesheet can be mapped to as many labour dispersion records as necessary to disperse costs as per the dispersion type.
Additionally, dispersion records can be used to correct labour postings. Say, for instance, you’ve posted timesheets to a job in error. You could correct this by deleting the cheques and timesheets and recreating the timesheets posted to the correct job. This is a lot of unnecessary work if the employee’s pay is unaffected. Plus, it might be that net pay may be different at that point. If WCB, CPP, or EI maximums have been reached, their contributions will be less than they were originally. Instead, you can perform a labour correction that simply backs out the labour dispersion records and redirects them to the correct job. You can do this item by item, or for a range of jobs and dates.
To review labour dispersions, navigate to [e] Job Costing, then [j] Labour Dispersion Entry.
The list tab shows the current, unextracted labour corrections.
Click on the Details tab to review a labour dispersion.
Labour Dispersion Actions
item Move
The labour dispersion records are primarily created when payroll is costed to the job cost system. While there is a Z action (unaudited change), the only action you will likely use is the item Move action. This action reverses the current labour direction and redirects it to a job of your choosing.
Labour Dispersion Fields
Primary Key
employee, date, dispersion item
These three fields uniquely identify a labour dispersion.
Timesheet Assignment
time job, time area, time centre, time item
These fields identify the originating timesheet for this labour dispersion.
Dispersion Assignment
cost job, cost area, cost centre
These fields identify the cost centre the labour dispersion directs costs to.
orig disp item
When you use labour dispersion to move labour costs, the original dispersion item is reversed, This moves the cost out of the original cost centre. Then, a new labour dispersion is created that moves the costs to the new cost centre. This field will refer back to the original dispersion item. Initially, it will be the same as the current dispersion item.
Other
source
Labour dispersions that were created when payroll was costed to the job costing system are assigned a source of ‘PR’, for payroll.
When you correct a labour dispersion, the source of the new records are ‘JC’, for job costing.
union, occupation, shift, GL yyyymm
These fields display the coding from the original timesheet.
snapshot
If this field is populated, it indicates that the project manager is in the process of collecting costs that contribute to the budget forecasting for this job. While snapshot logging is active, payroll and materials can be added to the current snapshot. The project manager will do this if the item is deemed to have contributed to the current unit quantities being recorded.
Extract
One mechanism to ensure labour costs are billed to the job’s client is to extract them. Several reports have the capability to mark labour dispersions as extracted.
The Invoice Job Markup utility lets you add an hourly or cost markup on records based on their extract reference. This feature is documented here.
The Intercompany Invoice utility can also use these fields. If this record is included in an intercompany invoice, the date and invoice number will be recorded in these fields.
date
The date this labour dispersion was extracted, or when it was invoiced on Intercompany Invoicing.
reference
The extract reference this labour dispersion was included with, or the invoice number of the Intercompany Invoice that included it.
Timesheet Hours and Rates
The last labour dispersion record created for a timesheet records the hours posted on that timesheet. The hours and their rates are recorded here.
Costs
The costs being moved to the labour dispersion’s cost centre are recorded here.
Move Labour Costs Utility
The Move Labour Costs utility allows you to redirect a range of labour dispersions. This is the utility you will use if a range of employees and dates were posted to an incorrect job. To move labour costs, navigate to [e] Job Costing, then [k] Move Labour Costs.
The Batch Move Labour Dispsersions utility will display.
Selection Criteria
Specify the range of employees, work dates, and timesheet items in the selection criteria section.
Move Labour Dispersions
These fields indicate how the correcting labour dispersion records should be coded.
from job
Select the job with the incorrect posting.
to job
If you are moving labour costs from one job to another, enter the job the costs should be directed to here.
If you are moving labour costs from one area to another within the same job, set the to job to the same as the from job. Likewise if you are moving labour costs from one centre to another within the same job and area.
from area, to area
If you just want to post a range of labour costs to a new job, select ‘ALL Areas’. This lets Abio know to keep the same Area. It will also set the ‘from centre’ to ‘All Centres’. The labour costs will be posted to a new job, but retain the same area and centre coding.
If you specify the same area for from area and to area, that indicates that you want to move the labour costs to a different centre in that area.
If you select a different from and to area, that indicates that you are moving costs from the first area to the second area.
from centre, to centre
If you just want to post a range of labour costs to a new job and area, select ‘ALL Centres’. This lets Abio know to retain the same job cost centre. The labour costs will be posted to a new job, and a new area if the from/to area are different, but retain the same centre coding.
If you select a different from/to centre, that indicates you would like to move costs from one centre to another.
G/L Period
Select which G/L Period the new labour costs should be corrected to. Abio will not allow you to post corrections to G/L periods that have been closed.
Verifying Centres
If you try to move labour costs to a job where those cost centres aren’t defined, Abio will display a report of missing centres.
This might indicate that you’ve selected the wrong job. If you would like to continue you must first set up the missing centres in the target areas. The simplest way to do this is use the ‘Add and Remove Centres tab on the target Area.
You will be prompted before the labour dispersions are committed.
If you accept, the labour corrections will be recorded.
Reporting Labour Dispersions
Now you’ve moved labour costs, either by using
- a dispersion rule to record living out and other overheads in their own cost centres, or
- dispersions to correct a labour posting.
Where do you see the affect of this?