Prevailing Wage, how to use different Labor Rates for different Projects?

Purpose:

Often each project has a particular labor rate. Contractor Foreman handles this based on the Job Cost Labor calculation.

The purpose of this article is to know other ways to setup our Contractor Foreman Account to be able to use different rates for our Labor Force and not only the ones shown in the Directory.

Why would you like to have a different rate for the Labor Items? Not only because every Project is different but also, because some of them require to have a Prevailing Wage. According to the Department of Labor: The prevailing wage rate is the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment.

What to do in Contractor Foreman?

The first thing to do is to change the Labor Calculation Method. In order to do that, we have to go to the Main Menu > Settings & Support > Settings > System Settings > Financial. Once there, we make sure to click the green pencil on the top right side of the screen under the Financial Settings. Look for the option “Job Cost Report: Labor Calculation” and change it to “Approved Estimate” and then click the blue button Save.

The next thing to do is to create the Estimate adding the Labor Items and assigning a Cost Code to each Labor Item with its perspective wage. See below picture as an Example.

When the Estimate gets approved, it will create the Project in Contractor Foreman allowing your field team to clock in into that Project, using the Cost Code given to that Project-Specific wage you want to have in the system.

Can I get a report from Contractor Foreman factoring different rates?

The quickest way to see your job cost reports of your projects, is to go to the Projects module, then click on the Reports option of the left panel.

Once here, you will have the freedom to see the different rates you have in a project, from the Wage Rate, Burden Rate, Billing Rate and the Rates set up by you using your Estimates and Cost Codes.

Remember that in the module Cost Items Database you can add the different rates you will have for your employees (laborers or field team) so you do not have to create them every time you add an Estimate.

Just go to the CIDB Module and once there, click on the tab Labor, then click on the “Select Option for Labor Items” drop down menu as shown below, and click on “Add Labor” to put in there manually but once, the different rates you use in your projects.