AERIS/400 Documentation - Job Cost
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Job Cost Highlights

  • The Ticket, or work order, is the focus for assembling billings.
  • Simultaneously collection of billing and cost data.
  • Labor and material consumption history is retained in full detail.
  • Equipment usage is recorded along with task data.
  • Batched entry of labor and materials.
  • Employee labor is assigned to Tasks.
  • Operator comments about equipment captured during labor entry.
  • Three forms of labor entry:
    • Daily Ticket.
    • Employee Time Card
    • Shop Labor Entry
  • Cross checks the daily labor to weekly time cards.
  • A variety of pre-posting reports.
  • Gravel Haul data captured with trucking tasks.
  • Work Order support for shop operations.
  • Expanded Equipment definitions to support management analysis.
  • Automatic calculation of G.S.T.
  • Daily Equipment & Labor report to get billings approved before they are invoiced.
  • Labor is passed to the payroll for payment. It is extensively massaged to calculate overtime and provide accurate data for Employment Insurance.
  • Prepare subcontractor payments from the same labor input. The invoices are passed to Payables for payment. Associated distributions are passed to the General Ledger.
  • Prepares Gravel Royalty payments. The invoices are passed to Payables for payment.
  • Several Ticket formats with selection controlled by the Customer Definition.
  • Purges for out-of-date Tickets and labor.
  • Extensive tables used to validate and extend codes.
  • Year 2000 Compliant

The full AERIS400 Job Cost System also includes General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Invoicing, Inventory, and the Canadian Payroll.



Dictionary of Terms

Console
The master terminal for the computer. Certain operating functions are reserved to the console on some computers. e.g. diskette and printer control. On some computers the console can also serve as a Work Station.
Job Queue
A series of procedures which are run one at a time as the system has sufficient resources available. Reports are often produced this way.
Menu
A list of options that are available to be performed. The user enters the number of the option to be selected.
Work Station
A terminal that communicates with the computer. It is used to enter input to application systems and select the sequence in which functions are to be performed.



Procedures and Facilities

The Job Cost system can be simple to operate and very effective. However, some thought is required in order to use the features of the system effectively. This section provides a guideline for successful use of the basic functions of the system.

Customers

CUSTOMERS

Job Cost uses the Customer Masters from Receivables. It interprets some codes in specific ways to support services in job cost. Codes used for job cost include:

Code Description
Customer Type Customer Type implies the default Ticket Type. It is controlled by the General Table R-CT in Receivables. When a ticket is created, this Customer Type is used to access the General Table J-CT in Job Cost. If a matching entry is found, the Reference defines the default Ticke Type.
Company Group MS here means the Customer is exempt from GST and fuel surcharges.
Discount It is the default Bid Code when a ticket is created. 

Customers

RESTRICTED BID CODES

For some customers we want to use only Tasks that have been defined for their Bid Code. They do not default back to the general Task when the entry has not been defined for their Bid Code.

The Bid Code is defined by the Ticket on the Labour entry. The Bid Code on the Ticket was defaulted from the Discount Code on the Customer Master but may have been overridden. Restricted Bid Codes are defined in the Code Table for Bid Codes (J-BC). If the Cross Reference on the Bid Code table entry begins with "NO " that is a Restricted Bid Code entry.

The Bid Code is recorded in the Task Group with the Task on the Labour entry but can not be directly edited. Also, the Task Group does not appear on any screen or printed report. Where the Task is used for sequencing, the Task Group is included as a subgroup to it.

Operator Comments

Operator Comments

Good management of the equipment is facilitated by the comments provided by the operators. Often times these comments are submitted along with the time reports. These comments can be captured during Time Entry using the Comment add feature. The comment is attached to the Equipment Unit referred to in the labor entry. It is dated with the Effective Date of the labor entry. The accumulated comments for a unit are available through the Equipment Display. The comments are changed through the Equipment Update. The comments are also available through Work Order functions. The Comments History is updated directly. As such, the comments are immediately available for inquiry, unlike the Gravel History which only comes available when the labor batch is posted. There is a chance that corrections to the labor entry after the comment is logged could leave the two files inconsistent.

Customers

FUEL SURCHARGE

A fuel surcharge can be automatically applied when the DE&L is generated. A number of codes must be in place before using this service.

Table Code Field Value
Tasks 9FUEL Overhead Percent of total qualified billing.
  A unit Overhead Type P
Payroll Employees 9000 FUEL none  
Customers A customer Company Group Any value except MS

During the generation of the DE&L, the Prices in all labor categories for qualifying tasks are added up and the total is multiplied by the Overhead percent on the fuel surcharge task to give the Price on the surcharge entry. A task qualifies if its Overhead Type is "P" and the customer for the ticket is not exempt, Company Group is not "MS'.

WORK ORDERS and PICK LISTS

WORK ORDERS and PICK LISTS

A work order defines what services are to be performed on a unit as a guide for the people in the Shop. It also lists what parts are used to perform each service along with useful comments. This information is different from that needed for picking the parts from the Stock Room. A pick list can be created for a work order either as part of the Work Order Print or as an independent function.

A Work Order can be printed as part of a series of work orders. In this case the associated pick list is printed as it was last generated, if it exists.

When a particular work order is printed from the Work Order Select you are given the opportunity to generate the associated pick list. If the pick list already exists, you can update it, or delete it then regenerate it. If it does not exist, the process is started to generate it. In either case you can bypass the pick list processing if you want.

The work order is selected for printing by filling in the Equipment Id and Date. The Date will default to the current open work order if no Date is entered. F22, Print, begins the printing of the one work order. The associated Pick List number is shown if it already exists. Otherwise, a new number is presented. F12 here bypasses the whole Pick List update and just does the printing. Enter brings up the Pick List Header for update or addition. The most direct way to synchronize the Pick List with the Work Order is to delete the existing one then add it again. To see what parts have already been put on the Pick List and make small changes, press F7, Details. To add parts based on the Work Order, press F10, Apply. You then see a list of all parts for all services on the Work Order with suggested quantities. If no parts need to be added, press F2, Continue. Otherwise, when the new quantities are in place, press F10, Apply. In both cases you are then shown a complete list of the parts on the Pick List where you can make final changes to quantities, if needed. Then press F10, Apply. The work order is then printed along with the pick list, if it exists.




Regular Functions

This section contains descriptions of the functions that are used regularly in the course of Job Cost processing.

Time Entry

Command Keys

F5
Comments Add. A comment record is created immediately for the next available line for the unit referred to by the Task. All other key codes are also copied to the comment record. Then the Comment Update is called. Processing returns to entry of the current time record.

Comments Update

The Comments Update is used to edit existing Comments History records. It is always called trhough some other update, like the Equipment Update. Only the Comment and the Effective Date can be edited. However, other fields that were copied from the labor record can also be seen.

Comments can be deleted.




MAINTENANCE FUNCTIONS

This section contains descriptions of the functions that are used infrequently in the course of Job Cost processing. Some of the functions appear only on the Management Functions menu and are not available to the general user.




The Database

This section contains descriptions of individual segments of the database. It outlines how these files are designed and used. Specific fields are described only if they play an unusual role in the application. See the current file definition for a complete list of fields on the record.

Comments History

The Comments History captures any information submitted by operators and other people that could be useful in managing equipment ant operations. Usually the comments are submitted by the operators along with their work reports so get entered during labor entry. In theory a comment could apply to any and all codes on the labor entry. So provision is made to capture these codes when the comment is created from Labor Entry.

A comment is primarily assigned to one equipment unit. For maximum flexibility comments are assigned consecutive numbers as they are assigned to a unit. All other codes can be changed without affecting the unique key to the comment. Initially only the date and the comment line can be updated.




Reports

All reports can be produced separately by selecting them from one of the report menus. Some reports are also an integral part of other system functions like month-end processing. The reports listed below are available to all users. Some installations may have additional custom reports.




Application Start Up

The Job Cost system is contained in 2 program libraries, usually named JC and UT. The standard entry point to the system is a procedure called SETUP in JC. The corporate database consists of a corporate library, e.g. CO01, and two data libraries, e.g. CO01JC and CO01UT. The system uses:

  1. Payables functions in program library XP to access the Supplier Master in data library CO01XP.
  2. Receivables functions in program library AR to access the Customer Master in data library CO01AR.
  3. Payroll functions in program library PR to access the Employee Master in data library CO01PR.
  4. General Ledger functions in program library GL to access the Char of Accounts in data library CO01GL.

The system comes with a model database. This can be adjusted or cloned to become the production database. Once the system is installed, the user takes the following steps to prepare for operation:

Application Start Up assumes that the AERIS Corporate environment is already in place and that the Job Cost was never installed before.

To do application startup:

  1. Update the Job Cost portion of the Application Configuration.
  2. Load the Job Cost program library.
  3. Load model Job Cost data base.
  4. Implement the Job Cost.

Application Configuration

JOB0001 Program Libraries
JOB0002 Data Base Libraries
JOB0011 Application Name
JOB0020 Save Option
JOB0023 Tape Device Type
JOB0101 Labor Type 1
JOB0102 Labor Type 2
JOB0103 Labor Type 3
JOB0104 Labor Type 4

Implementation and Start Up

  1. The System Manager sets up the System parameters, if any.
  2. Use the General Code Table Update to define the values in the tables with Application Code "J".

The Job Cost application is now ready for use.




CONTENTS

This manual contains the entire documentation for this system. It defines this system as it is known at the present time.

VERSIONS

The System Manual documents the functions in the recent standard release of the system. Older Releases may not contain all the functions described.

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