Closing Billable Hrs For Techs?

[jrservice]

We have some technicians in our shops that are paid flat rate. I think it would be beneficial to have the ability to close labor lines on an open repair order at week end so that the billable hours report reflects exactly what the technician has produced. Example: An engine job comes in and the technician removes the engine on Friday and has about 4 hours into the job at week end. The ability to close 4 hour labor line on the repair order for engine removal, giving the rest of the time to the technician on the next weeks billable hours total. It is fair and moral to pay the techs for exactly what is completed and prevents the manipulation of the work flow. What would motivate a tech on a Friday engine R and R if he or she is not getting credit for it. We used to be EZ RO software users prior to Shop Stream and that management system has the ability to do close specific labor lines on any repair order at the time of completion. I was just wondering if any other shop owners would find this beneficial. I definitely do not want to sound like a complainer because I love the Mitchell Shop Management Software. It's just that we are operating multiple shops and the more accurate the report, the easier it is to payroll exact. Thanks! Jeff Lee Owner J&R Service Center & Coaler Auto Center

[brianp87]

I print a tech productivity report when making payroll for a time period adding a few days before to be safe in case I missed something previously. From this I mark off the jobs they previously got paid for and add any that are partially done or that I expect them to finish that day. Not perfect but how I do it. there are always jobs pending payment that need to be added or removed once they are posted.

[David Donham]

We have some technicians in our shops that are paid flat rate. I think it would be beneficial to have the ability to close labor lines on an open repair order at week end so that the billable hours report reflects exactly what the technician has produced. Example: An engine job comes in and the technician removes the engine on Friday and has about 4 hours into the job at week end. The ability to close 4 hour labor line on the repair order for engine removal, giving the rest of the time to the technician on the next weeks billable hours total. It is fair and moral to pay the techs for exactly what is completed and prevents the manipulation of the work flow. What would motivate a tech on a Friday engine R and R if he or she is not getting credit for it. We used to be EZ RO software users prior to Shop Stream and that management system has the ability to do close specific labor lines on any repair order at the time of completion. I was just wondering if any other shop owners would find this beneficial. I definitely do not want to sound like a complainer because I love the Mitchell Shop Management Software. It's just that we are operating multiple shops and the more accurate the report, the easier it is to payroll exact. Thanks! Jeff Lee Owner J&R Service Center & Coaler Auto Center

Jeff, I allow my techs to up flag work at the end of the week. It is easy to accomplish.
First create a customer named "Up Flag."
At the end of the week start a ticket for Up Flag and then start listing the up flags for each tech.
I created 2 canned jobs that I keep on the drop down menu.
First when you have started the R/O for Up flag, you put the canned job"
"Up-flag technician _?__Hours from RO# ? [u]Show as plus in pay & account hours"...[/u]You don't put any hours in the actual labor charged to the customer, you merely fill in the "?" and then down on the tech hours you put in the time you want to up flag.....These hours are shown as a positive number.
The second half of this and most important is to go to the actual R/O and install the second canned job.
"Up-flag technician _?__hours on this job. Show as a minus on pay hours and account hours."
At this point you still don't install any hours in labor charged to the customer, but you fill in the "?" with the hours, and then go to the actual tech hours and put them in as a minus, or back flag.
This will keep your books straight when the R/O closes, and get your tech paid at the end of the week.
It sounds complicated, but is is not. Once you get the 2 canned jobs built it is a matter of a few clicks. I made myself some notes "Show hours as a minus, and show hours as a plus, just so I don't get confused while doing the up flags. Once they are done just erase the plus and minus verbiage. It works well for our shops, and is easy to accomplish.