1. Using Project Costing
  2. Labor Schedules

Labor Schedules

Use labor schedules to specify project and nonproject based rules that must be used when distributing a person's payroll costs. Labor distribution administrators use person assignments and pay elements to create labor schedules in the Labor Distribution work area.

Labor Schedule Components

Labor schedules contain three components:

  • Labor Schedule Header: Defines the labor schedule type. Labor schedule headers define the highest level of a labor schedule and relate to the labor schedule type by ensuring that the required attributes are properly defined. You can use these attributes to evaluate payroll costs and determine the applicable version and rules that must be used to distribute the cost.

  • Labor Schedule Version: The applicable version of the labor schedule. Each labor schedule version has a start and end date, and is active only for that period. One labor schedule header can have multiple labor schedule versions.

  • Labor Schedule Version Distribution Rules: Rules that determine how the application should distribute costs associated with a labor schedule version. One labor schedule version can have multiple distribution rules, and the sum of all distribution rules in a labor schedule can be less then or equal to 100%, but not greater. If the sum of all distribution rules is less then 100%, then the Import Payroll Costs process generates a differential cost to distribute the remaining payroll cost.

Labor Schedule Types

Labor schedules are of three types:

  • Person Assignment: Distributes payroll costs based on the associated person assignment..

  • Distributes payroll costs using the payroll element associated with the payroll cost, regardless of the person's assignment. This type is also defined per business unit and derives the business unit from the persons assignment on the payroll cost.

  • Distributes payroll costs using a combination of a person's assignment and the pay element on the payroll cost record. This distribution allows for specifying rules for a person assignment and pay element that may be needed to meet detailed business requirements.

Precedence of Payroll Costs Distribution

If all three labor schedule types can be applied to an imported payroll cost, the application processes person assignment pay element costs first. It then processes pay element costs, and finally processes person assignment costs.

For example, let's say a resource has the following costs in a labor schedule version:

  • A person assignment cost that's borne by the project sponsor

  • A tuition reimbursement pay element cost that's borne by the employing company

  • A parking charges pay element cost that's borne by some projects and not others, demanding that the pay element be specified for the persons charging the project through their labor schedules.

When the labor schedule accountant executes the Import Payroll Costs process, the application first processes the parking charges, then the tuition reimbursement costs, and finally, the project assignment cost.