Report

You need a report that shows your actual machine hours and costs within a block by phase so that you can monitor your actual performance against your targeted (budgeted) performance. Often, the mills for whom you work set both volume per hour targets as well as cost per volume targets. You need a way of tracking your actual performance against the mill's benchmarks to help in your rate discussion process with the mill. This report displays your actual metrics against the mill's targeted metrics.

Focus:

This report is most popular among Canadian users who own most of their own machines, who generally pay operators of those machines by the hour, and who receive targeted productivity and costs rates for each phase of operation from the mill(s) to which they deliver. This report is an invaluable tool to assist in rate discussions with your mills.

Note: this report is a companion to report #147. Report 147 allows you to see how you compared to your budget purely on the basis of your productivity (that is, your volume per productive hour). This report allows you to see how your actual results stack up to your budget based on both your productivity and your overall cost structure. This report also takes into account time spent on a block that you do not classify as "productive" time (e.g., walking, delay, supervisory time), but that you need to understand when forming a picture of your cost structure.

Selection Window:

Detailed Description:

The selection criteria determine the date range and blocks that appear in the report. If you run the report for multiple blocks, you will get one panel per block. Generally, you will want to run this report for a date range encompassing the entire lifespan of the block.

Each panel in the report begins with a header for the selected block. The header includes:

Block: block where work is performed
Description: The Description of the block where the work is performed
Cruise Volume: volume amount entered in the cruise filed in the block setup wizard
Delivered Volume: volume based on the load tickets whose date_out is within the date range you selected for the report.

The body of the report lists each piece of equipment used on the block, grouped by phase (that is, by "Activity Group"). The columns are:

Phase: Phase (that is, the "Activity Group") associated with the Activity coded on the time slip.
Eq Code: The code for the equipment unit.
Activity: Specific Pay Activity coded on the time slip for the particular machine/block combination.
Actual Prod. Hours: Total hours for time coded for each piece of equipment. Because this report includes all types of time, not just productive hours, this report should show total hours recorded for a given block, whether productive or not.
Budgeted Prod / Hr: Ratio showing the Production you expect to harvest per hour. This value is set up under the Contract | Budgeting menu item in the main system.
Estimated Production: Budgeted Production per Hour ratio multiplied by the hours worked by that particular machine unit. (For activities where there is no budgeted production per hour ratio, this column will show the estimated production for the activity that is flagged as the "production indicator" under the Setup | Pay Activities menu item in the main system.)
Actual Prod: Actual Production from the block. If you do NOT track equipment on your load tickets, then this column will show total volumes from the load tickets for this block. If you DO track equipment on your load tickets, then this column will show the actual volume from the load tickets for this block and the specific machine displayed in the given row.
Empl & Equip Cost: This column includes employee (loaded) cost and company-owned equipment costs that are based on hourly rates. It also includes costs associated with production slips (e.g., day rates for hand-falling, for example) as long as there are also machine hours entered for the equipment involved in harvesting the block. (For example, if a hand faller is paid a day rate, but you want his labor costs to appear in this report, you should enter an equipment time slip for the hand faller for the estimated hours that he worked (where you've set up the chain saw as a piece of equipment).
Contractor Cost: This columns includes costs associated with contract workers, whether the costs are connected to time slips, production slips, or load tickets. The key is that the equipment must have time entries in the system in order for the equipment (and thus the costs) to appear in the report. You can make these entries using the equipment time slip entry window.
Total Cost: Sum of the two prior columns: Emp & Equip Cost and Contractor Cost.
Total Cost / Hour: Total Cost Column divided by the Actual Production Hours column.
Budget Cost / Hour: Calculated value based on two entries made in the Budgeting grid (found under the Contract | Budgeting menu item): Prod / Hour and Rate (which is Cost per Volume). By dividing (Prod/Hour) by the Rate ($/Prod), you get a budgeted $ per hour figure.
Total Cost / Actual Prod: The ratio of the Total Cost column to the Actual Production Column. If you track equipment on the load ticket, you will see the cost per production for each equipment unit, as well as the overall cost per phase. If you do NOT track equipment on the load ticket, this ratio will be blank for each equipment unit, but will show a ratio for the overall activity group, where the actual production is the total volume from the delivered loads.
Tot Cost / Est Prod: This ratio takes your actual costs and divides it by the estimated production that you've harvested (as calculated by the actual hours worked and the volume / hour target you set for the phase). These values are useful statistics to review prior to delivering the actual harvested wood to the mill because it allows you to compare this cost per volume rate with the mill's targeted cost per volume to see if you are on track with your budget.
Budget Cost / Est Prod: This column displays the value entered in the Rate field in the Budgeting grid (under the menu item Contract | Budgeting) for this phase.
Variance: The difference between the Budget Cost / Est Production column and the Actual Cost / Estimated Production. A positive variance means that you were able to perform the particular phase of operation for less cost per volume than the mill expected.

Note that for each activity group, there is a row labeled "Total, Estimated" and a row labeled "Total, Delivered".

The "Total, Estimated" row is useful to use before all the wood from the block has been delivered to the mill.
The "Total, Delivered" row (based on actual delivered volume) is useful to use after the wood has been delivered to the mill.

It is also useful to compare the two rows (Estimated versus Delivered rows) for each phase upon completion of the block in order to understand the reason why your actual cost per volume differ from your budgeted cost per volume. For any given phase, the difference will be attributable to one of two factors: 1) your actual productivity (as measured by volume harvested per hour worked) differs from your budgeted productivity; or 2) your actual cost structure (e.g., standard cost per productive hour worked) differs from your targeted cost per hour.

To determine if the problem is due (at least in part) to your productivity, look in the column called "Budgeted Prod / Hr." If the value in the "Total, Estimated" row exceeds the value in the "Total, Delivered" row, then you were less productive than your target. This shortfall in productivity will have the effect of raising your actual cost per volume relative to the budgeted cost per volume.
To determine if the problem is due (at least in part) to your cost structure, look at the Variance column in the "Delivered Volume" row. This comparison is helpful because the variance is showing the difference between actual and budgeted costs relative to a fixed deonominator (estimated production). If that variance is negative, then your actual cost per volume exceeds your budgeted cost per volume because the numerator (costs) exceeds the budget. The Loading phase in the report shown below is a good illustration of a phase where the variance is negative, indicating a problem with the cost structure rather than productivity. Note that the actual productivity exceeded expected productivity (based on the comparison described in the prior bullet), but the actual hourly cost to operate the loader ($164.25) was higher than the budgeted hourly cost ($135), so the variance for this phase is negative.
If both of the above are true, then your reason for missing your targeted cost per volume is a result of a problem with both your productivity and your cost structure.

Report: Block Block Equipment Budgeted Cost Report (#148)

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Example

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