Labor in Change Orders - D-Tools Forum

AVIR · 01-16-2008, 10:40 PM

We're simply too busy to take a day off to migrate to SI5 which we already have sitting on my desk here. We'll do it soon, but in the meantime I have a question about Change Orders.

When doing a change order, this incurs additional engineering and project management time even though we might be removing a system or reducing the overall labor even slightly. In a Change Order the PM and Eng. end up lower instead of higher.

How can we make a change order without the PM and Eng. being affected? How do we add this labor?

I've tried making labor reports for these but the change order report ends up having two "Management" lines, one calculated and one added. It is not ideal.

If this is taken care of in SI5, I will be a happy man.

**Kevin Mikelonis** · 01-17-2008, 01:20 AM

We have not seen this addressed, but I can think of a few ways to overcome it by using the SI4 or SI5 database structure to pull the MGMT and DESIGN time back into the project with an item or two added to your database. The best option would depend on if you need to 'hide' this transaction, or if you can sell it to the client if it shows up in the change order.

AVIR · 01-17-2008, 04:26 PM

We can definitely sell more PM and Enginering time to the client. Change Orders don't just change the original design, it also adds labor to both of these even if the overall installation labor goes down.

AVIR · 01-22-2008, 06:14 PM

So should I then just assume I can't do what I'm looking for? Is it possible to do this in SI5? If I can't do this I'm not sure D-Tools is going to be useful to us anymore. Right now we're having to edit the Change Orders in Acrobat to make them right. That makes D-Tools Change Order reports useless.

SenoS · 01-22-2008, 07:31 PM

I think I understand what you are saying. Labor is tied to every product, you account for PM and Engineering labor by using the "Managment" and "Design" fields associated with Phases. Any products that you remove from a revision, adjust their labor accordingly, and in reality, you want to charge the client extra money for PM and Engineering due to the changes in the project that they requested. If I understand your scenario correctly, the software is doing what it was designed to do for change orders: show the difference between two revisions of a project. To show an increase in PM and Engineering labor, you need to add some to the project. You can do this in the form of a product using the Category "Labor". Create a "labor product(s)" and add it/them to the project.

avzone · 01-22-2008, 08:07 PM

Would making a Labor SKU called "Change Order" help?

AVIR · 01-23-2008, 12:43 AM

As I said before, I've created a labor item for Management but on the Change Order report is doesn't populate the management with calculated management. On the summary page there are two lines for "Management" and if they're both positive they both show additional labor, and if one is positive and the other negative than it's really confusing. I have to edit the PDF in Acrobat to make it appear right.

It doesn't make any sense that when you drop thousands of dollars in a program you would have to work in weird hacks and edit reports outside of the program just to get it to do simple tasks like this.

**Kevin Mikelonis** · 01-23-2008, 01:48 AM

Try This:

1. Create a new Phase:

'Change Orders'

Set your Base price for labor to '0' and sell price to '0'

Set your Misc labor cost to '0' and sell price to '0' and factor to '0'

Set your Mgmt labor cost to your 'cost' for Mgmt and sell price to your 'rate' for Mgmt
and set the factor to 100

Set your Design labor cost to your 'cost' for Design and sell price to your 'rate' for Design
and set the factor to 100

2. Create an Item in the database:

CATEGORY = Labor
TYPE = Change Order
DESCRIPTION = Change order management to add, delete, or remove equipment
PHASE = Change Orders
LABOR PRICE: Select the button for 'Both (fixed and variable)'
AND
Check the box for 'Use the labor cost and sell based on the phase'

LABOR HOURS: 1

3. Anytime you have a change to equipment in a ZONE/LOCATION of the project, add this new line item to the project. You will essentially be adding 1 hour of Mgmt and 1 hour of design back into the project for each of these items you add to the project. To add multiple hours, either increase the quantity of this item, or after you add the item to the ZONE/LOCATION in the project, open the item and increase the Labor Hour field as needed.

Run a Change Order Report, an Hours by Phase report, and a Gross Profit by Phase report and see how everything lays out!

There is not too much I have found that can not be accomodated in the strucutre of the D-Tools database.

I do not consider this to be a work around or a hack, but rather a way to accomdate your particular business process into the software.

Not every integrator thinks about labor valuation or running their projects the same way.

I do hope this helps!

AVIR · 01-24-2008, 06:20 PM

It definitely does help. Thanks.

**Kevin Mikelonis** · 01-24-2008, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by AVIR

It definitely does help. Thanks.

ALL-RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!