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Pay: Employees, by the Hour; Company Owned Equipment; Activity Differential

Steps:

You go through the normal steps of setting up and paying an hourly employee.  The only difference is that you set up an activity differential (See Step 3 below).

1. Set up the Employee. Select Setup | Workers | Worker Setup from the Main Menu.

2. Set up Base Rate.  Select Setup | Workers | Worker Setup from the Main Menu.  Select the Tab 'Employee Base Rates'.

3. Set up Activity Rate (Required) Select Setup | Workers | Employee Activity Rates from the Main Menu.  You can set up a rate differential (relative to an employee's base rate) if you want to pay a premium (or a lower rate) for certain selected activities.

4. Setup the Equipment Unit that the Employee is Operating. Select Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Equipment | Unit Numbers

5. Set up the Standard Cost for the Equipment.  Select Setup | Equipment / Trucks | Equipment | Equipment Costing.  This allows you to set up your equipment costing for your own machines.

6. Enter Time Slip.  Select Data Entry | Time Slips | Employees | Enter Slips.

7. Run Employee Calculator.  Select Calculators | Employees - Full. 

8. Review Employee Statement.  Select Reports Employee Statements.  Alternatively, Select  Reports | Hourly | Employees.

Troubleshooting Common Errors:

1.    "Error: No Pay Rate for: XX, date: MM/DD/YYYY".  

This error occurs when a valid pay rate is not found for the a time entry for an employee for a certain date.

Things to check when this occurs:

• Is there a base pay rate setup?  Check under Setup | Workers | Worker Setup from the Main Menu.  Select the Tab 'Employee Base Rates'.  Be sure there is a rate set up in the grid for the employee.
• Is there a rate?  Check the effective date.  Is the time slip entry date prior to the base rate effective date?  If so, the system cannot identify a rate to apply to the employee.  Is the effective date valid?  
• Check the 'Rate Type.'  The Rate Type must be set to 'HR' in order to pay hourly employees.

2.    "Warning: STD_COST Cost not found for Equipment Code: XXXX, MM/DD/YYYY"

Things to check when this occurs:

• Is there a standard cost rate setup?  Check under Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Equipment | Equipment Costing from the Main Menu.  Be sure there is a standard cost rate set up in the grid for the equipment.
• Check the effective date.  Is the time entry Prior to the effective date?  If so, the system cannot identify a standard cost rate to apply to the equipment.

Note:  If you don't care about equipment costing, you can always set the standard cost rate to $0.00, and thereby eliminate the warning message.

3.    "Warning: FULL_FOUNDED_RATE Cost not found for Equipment Code: XXXX, MM/DD/YYYY"

Things to check when this occurs:

• Is there a standard cost rate setup?  Check under Setup | Equipment/Trucks | Equipment | Equipment Costing from the Main Menu.  Be sure there is a full rate set up in the grid for the equipment.
• Check the effective date.  Is the time entry Prior to the effective date?  If so, the system cannot identify a full rate to apply to the equipment.

Note:  If you don't care about equipment costing, you can always set the full rate to $0.00, and thereby eliminate the warning message.

4.    The wrong rate is applied.

Things to check when this occurs:

• Are there multiple base rates setup?  Check under Setup | Workers | Worker Setup from the Main Menu.  Select the Tab 'Employee Base Rates'.  Be sure that the date of the your time entry is subsequent to the rate you want applied.  If so, is there another rate between the date you think should apply and the date of the time entry?  If so, the system will use that rate.  The system will use the rate that is (1) prior to the time entry, and (2) the most recent of those that are prior to the time entry.
• Do you have a base rate setup under the 'ALL' employee?  The system will use this rate if there is no specific rate setup for the employee.  If you do not want to apply the 'ALL' employee rate, setup a base rate for your specific employee.
• Does your base rate work, but your activity differential does not apply?  Check under Setup | Workers | Employee (Worker) Activity Rates from the main menu.  Is there a differential for the employee and activity on the time entry?  If you want a differential to apply, check the effective date.  Is there more than one rate with different effective dates? The system will use the rate that is (1) prior to the time entry, and (2) the most recent of those that are prior to the time entry.  Is the 'Rate Type' tagged as 'HR'?  An hourly rate differential will only apply if the Rate Type is tagged as 'HR'.
• Do you have an activity rate setup under the 'ALL' employee?  The system will use this rate if there is no specific activity rate setup for the employee.  If you do not want to apply the 'ALL' employee differential rate, setup an activity rate differential for your specific employee.  Note:  you can always setup a $0.00 rate for a specific employee if you want to exempt that employee from the 'ALL' rate.