Tech Tips

Recording Contractor Costs on Work Orders

Challenge:

Contractor costs may eat up a large amount of a maintenance budget. Mainsaver categorizes work order costs by materials, internal labor and contractor labor. If contractor costs are recorded on a work order it provides data to produce summary cost reports to determine if cost savings may be realized by hiring additional staff rather than pay a contractor.

Methodology:

There are four methods to record contractor costs in Mainsaver.

  • 1- Set up the contractor in personnel and reference a purchase order with a blanket number of hours. Record timecards to document time spent on individual jobs. This method works well with resident (always onsite) contractors.
  • 2- Create a purchase request, either manually or through work order planning and then place the approved request on a PO. Once a purchase order is created, the amount is actually charged to the work order when the purchase order is received in the Materials module. This method will be used for periodic contractor utilization.
  • 3- Record the cost of the contract against the work order in the Time and Material Used module. This works without a purchase order and may be performed either before or after the work order is closed.
  • 4- Enter the contractor cost when closing or completing the work order.

Each of these methods allows the recording of a specific amount of time and/or money against a work order.

Method 1 – setting up a contractor as an employee

Step 1 – Set up a normal service purchase order with a line item listing hours along with the craft code of the contractor.

For example, the following screen print shows a PO for 1000 hours.

Step 2 – Set up the contractor as an employee. Be sure to check the contractor box and enter in the current purchase order number for their services.
(Note that the purchase order must be for hourly services and have the contractor’s craft code on the PO detail line.)

Step 3 – charge hours Once this is set up, this employee may be charged to work orders or even directly to an asset or cost center. Each timecard that is entered into Mainsaver will automatically cause a receipt against the purchase order. There are two places to charge time;

1. Time and Materials Module, Time then New

Required Fields
Report Date – this is the date of the service. Double click to see a calendar.
Employee ID – The ID of the contractor
Hours – the number of hours
Work Order Number – this will also charge back the time to the asset
Pressing the ‘Detail’ button allows entry of additional optional information.

2. This same screen is available in the work order CLOSE and COMPLETE functions.

Timecards must be posted at the end of the day or week to apply the charges. Managers may review and change timecards before they are posted. Viewing posted contractor timecard information. There are three ways to view this information.

1- Work Order Module
a. Work Order Actual Detail report from the Lists menu
b. Work Order History report from the reports menu

2- Time and Material Module, Time sub-module
a. Use a query to retrieve contractor records
b. Use the contractor time report from the Lists menu

3- Purchase Order Module
a. Edit the purchase order
b. Run the supplier reconciliation report or the supplier history report

Method 2 – planning, purchasing and receiving services

Step 1 – Request services in the work order planning phase

Answer ‘Yes’ if prompted to ‘Request Parts and Services’. This will create a purchase request.

Step 2 – Create Purchase Order

Use the ‘Select Purchase Req’ button to find outstanding purchase requests. The purchase order must be received before the charges will be applied to the work order.

Step 3 – Receiving the PO Materials Module, Transactions, Receive Enter PO Number

Press the ‘Receive’ button to receive. The received services will be charged to the work order.

Method 3 – record contractor costs outside of a purchase order

This option allows for recording the cost of a contractor visit with no purchase order or pre-planning.

Time and Material Used Module Contracts New

Required Fields
Work Order Number
Supplier –Use the F3/Lookup feature if desired
Receive Date – change date if applicable
Receive quantity – enter number of days, hours or 1 if a job
Receive UOM – select unit of measure
Item Cost – Price per hour, day or job

Press Receive when complete. The charge will show up on the work order and

Method 4 – Charge Contractor when Closing or Completing a Work Order

Use the ‘Contracts’ tab

Press ‘Apply’ and the charge is recorded immediately.

Mainsaver offered a variety of CMMS solutions that matched the way our business works. They provided customizable solutions and integration options that effectively manage our maintenance requirements and save us quite a bit of money in the process.