Charge Rate Types

Charge rates are used in JAQ for time sheets, employees book hours to a charge rate for a job and the job can keep track of the costs in labour. But what are Charge Rate Types?

Many businesses may have several similar charge rates. As an example, they may have a plasma cutter, a laser cutter, and these use different charge rates, depending on material and machine. But overall its still the same sort of process, cutting. Same for the different boiler maker rates, for apprentices, qualified employees, etc, but all boiler making.

When it comes to allocating hours to the job, we don't need to know the individual rates. If you allowed 10 hours boiler making for a job, you don't need to know that 7 hours were sent to an apprentice and 3 hours to a qualified boiler maker.

This is where Charge Rate Types come in. When you edit the job you could allow 10 hours boiler making, and JAQ knows several different charge rates are classified as boiler making, so can give you an idea how many hours have been booked to boiler making. This means you don't need to go through the jobs time sheet report looking for all the different boiler making charge rates, JAQ has already done that for you.

You could allow 10 hours boiler making, 5 hours cutting, 2 hours admin. JAQ will tally up all the individual charge rates under these types and display a progress graphic to quickly display how the job is progressing.

This information can also be used to give you an idea how many hours need to be delegated to complete a job in time. A job could be due by the end of the week, so JAQ can tell you how many boiler making or cutting hours need to be set aside for this job to be completed on time. A report shows hours already booked to the Charge Rate Type's, and hours remaining to complete the job.

To set up Charge Rate Type's, first add the types on the JAQ Setup page. Think about these first, as they will be difficult to change at a later date. Remember these are generic, not to specific. For example, a generic Charge Rate Type of Admin could cover all charge rates used for office duties, invoicing, stores, QA, etc. I depends on how you want to break down a job, to assign hours.

On the Edit Charge Rates page, select what Charge Rate Type best covers the individual charge rates.

You're now ready to use Charge Rate Type's.

When you edit a job, you can nominate how many hours you expect will be needed for each Charge Rate Type ( Expected Hours Breakdown ). You can add these hours to a Quote as well, and when the quote becomes a job, the hours will be transferred to the job for you.

As hours are booked to the job, JAQ will keep track of the accumulated hours going to each Charge Rate Type, and display these on the job card for you ( in the Booked Hours tab ).

JAQ also has a generic Charge Rate Type report, under the Manager section. It displays hours needed for each Charge Rate Type to complete all jobs on time. This will help you plan the days ahead, delegate labour to different areas and quickly see if you are falling behind.