Preview Commissions?

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ambertsi
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Preview Commissions?

Post by ambertsi »

I was wondering if there was a way to preview commissions that a tech will have. Currently, from what I can see, all commission reports are from posted jobs only. I'd like to be able to view who is on what, how many hours they're set to bill for and all of that prior to them completing jobs as a daily "where are we?" type deal. The WIP report doesn't give me the information that I need, from what I can see, it doesn't even list techs at all. We're having hard time trying to fully manage a shop and commissions when we don't have access to a report until after a job as been completed. There are no real "snapshot" reports that show us where the techs are in their current assigned roles so, we can't really help them stick to deadlines without going through each individual job.
Amber McKinley
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Re: Preview Commissions?

Post by ricmorin »

As far as commissions are concerned, everything is predicated on posted invoices. There is no data available prior. I'm curious as to why you would need commission data while the work is being done, other than simple curiosity.

As far as technician progress management, in Propack https://mitchell1.com/propack/ there are progress bars in Mobile Manager Pro https://mitchell1.com/mobile-managerpro/ and WorkFlow Manager (part of Report Pro, which comes with Propack) that can help manage your techs work load. I find the Scheduler to be helpful too as it has a moving time bar, and if you couple that with placement of the schedule block you can see if they are on time or not.
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ambertsi
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Re: Preview Commissions?

Post by ambertsi »

ricmorin wrote:As far as commissions are concerned, everything is predicated on posted invoices. There is no data available prior. I'm curious as to why you would need commission data while the work is being done, other than simple curiosity.

As far as technician progress management, in Propack https://mitchell1.com/propack/ there are progress bars in Mobile Manager Pro https://mitchell1.com/mobile-managerpro/ and WorkFlow Manager (part of Report Pro, which comes with Propack) that can help manage your techs work load. I find the Scheduler to be helpful too as it has a moving time bar, and if you couple that with placement of the schedule block you can see if they are on time or not.
It's helpful to keep up with how much a tech is expected to get paid and to be able to pull a report on it. A tech might get done with a job on Tuesday and the customer can pick up and pay until Thursday so, until they pick up and pay, the RO/Invoice is just hanging out and isn't showing up on any reports. I could post it and wait for payment to come in but, my Service Writers would probably either (1) completely forget to call and make sure it's collected on because it leaves their screen or (2) freak out when the customer comes and they don't see the invoice on the WIP screen.

We have ProPack and Mobile Manager Pro and I've been trying (literally everything short of begging) to get the front counter to utilize Workflow Manager, especially since the update has made it so much better. The problem is, I feel like the programs together are great but nothing flows from one program to another entirely and reports for WIP don't really exist. So, for someone in the office who is trying to manage pay and workflow, all I see is a bunch of screens with a lot of information that's all over the place and inaccurate and I have no reports that just tell me "Here's what they've touched and here's the time they've spent on it."

I can get techs to clock in and out of jobs (because their pay depends on it), but that doesn't update Workflow Manager and I have no report to print their actual hours (actual being key). I can get Service Writers to look at Workflow Manager but, they can't see who is clocked in to what so, it causes confusion as well. Just like right now, I have a tech assigned to a job in Mitchell and it shows that he hasn't put in any hours, he's clocked in on Mobile Manager and, when he clocks out, only then will my actual hours in Mitchell calculate and the job is sitting in Waiting in Line in Workflow Manager so, if I have a Service Writer using it, it doesn't match what's actually happening unless he makes it match. So, if my Service Writer gets busy and doesn't drag that job to active and to the right tech until an hour after the tech has started, he has to remember that the timer is an hour off.

I just feel like everything is a cluster and there are no reports that puts the data in your face so you can sort the cluster.
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Re: Preview Commissions?

Post by ricmorin »

I understand that Mobile Manager Pro is coming out with an enhanced time clock. This may solve many of your control issues. :D Stay tuned.
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Re: Preview Commissions?

Post by ambertsi »

ricmorin wrote:I understand that Mobile Manager Pro is coming out with an enhanced time clock. This may solve many of your control issues. :D Stay tuned.
I hope it's something that will be more beneficial to us than the current set up. It just makes it hard that there's not one place to go that shows it for everyone all the time. I can see who is clocked in if I use Mobile Manager but there's no solid way to communicate that to the Service Writer unless they're also using Mobile Manager. We're having a lot of communication issues because there's not one good place for any one person to see all current happenings. I just feel like, if a tech clocks in, that should be noticeable somewhere immediately - the same goes for when they clock out. Right now we're relying on a lot of verbal back and forth and it's not working out. The tablets crash when we try to use the chat feature and the tablets are all within specs for the program so, I'm not sure what's going on there either.

Ideally, I'd like each employee to "stay in their lane" when it came to what they were accessing and how they were accessing it but the information needed is just everywhere and nowhere depending on where you're looking and what you're looking for.

As someone trying to manage from the backend, it's very frustrating because you can't manage by just looking at one screen or pulling one report.
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Re: Preview Commissions?

Post by ricmorin »

My SA has a tablet too. She can see who is punched in and to what order at any time by accessing the Time Clock screen. That might help in the interim. I realize it's a far cry to the level of detail you want, but it's a start.

We use chat all the time, no crashes. Best to contact support at Bolt-On for that.
Ric Morin - Volunteer Forum Moderator, Shop Owner, ASE Master L1
Motorcar Alternatives, LLC
603-622-6434 x203
www.motorcaralternatives.com

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ambertsi
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Re: Preview Commissions?

Post by ambertsi »

ricmorin wrote:My SA has a tablet too. She can see who is punched in and to what order at any time by accessing the Time Clock screen. That might help in the interim. I realize it's a far cry to the level of detail you want, but it's a start.

We use chat all the time, no crashes. Best to contact support at Bolt-On for that.
Thanks for the help! It's just a struggle trying to get it organized and get everyone on the same page. I want to get to where we only need to pull reports a couple of times a week.

Also, do you have any recommendations for set up/tracking techs who only get commissions after hours? We have heavy duty techs who are hourly M-F 8-5 but, after hours, they're paid commission. From what I can tell, there's no way to set up anything for that, it's just pulling their commission reports and weeding through regular calls and after hours calls.

I currently keep a spreadsheet, it's been working fine but we want to utilize Mitchell as much as possible for the business.

Edit: I just thought of something that might help short-term. We currently only have 6 techs so, I could create another tech setup for after hours. So, I have "Employee 1" in the system and I could create "Employee 1 AH" to use for that employee when they do an after hours service call. So, when I pull reports for after hours commissions, I could pull the report for "Employee 1 AH" or whoever "AH" and those commissions will be displayed properly.
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Re: Preview Commissions?

Post by ricmorin »

That could certainly work. You could also look at the 'Fixed Commission' check box within each part and labor window. When checked, this ignores the technician established data and allows you to deviate. Something to at least consider.
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I find my life is a lot easier when I use Special Orders
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