Time Costs

The Work system tracks the costs associated with each Work Order Resource in order to determine the total cost of performing the work. Employee and Equipment Resources are typically measured by the amount of time they are engaged in the work. However, the process of accounting for this time may vary, depending on factors such as:

• Is this standard work?
• Is this work performed in excess of standard expectations?
• Is this billable work?
• Does this work represent time the employee was on-call for emergencies?

Lucity enables agencies to accommodate variations in rates by establishing different Time Costs. Time Costs can be calculated using either of two methods:

• Multiplier Time Costs apply a multiplier to the resource's Unit Cost. This strategy is useful for calculating time-and-a-half or double-time. There are several multiplier time costs built into the system by default.

  Example: An employee is normally paid $10 an hour. Any work time in excess of 40 hours per week is considered paid overtime, which is compensated at 1.5 hours of pay for one hour of work (time-and-a-half). The "Overtime" Time Cost option multiplies an employee's Unit Cost (here, her hourly rate) by 1.5 before multiplying it by her overtime hours.

• Straight Time Costs set a flat rate that overrides the resource's Unit Cost. This strategy could be used to establish a fixed pay rate, like those some organizations apply to on-call work.

  Example: An employee is normally paid $10 per hour. However, the employee is also on-call two days per month. Should they be called in, they are paid a straight $25 per hour for their on-call work. The straight "On Call" Time Cost multiplies their on-call work hours by $25.

Predefined Multiplier Time Costs

The following Time Codes are predefined in EAM and used in Work Order calculations:

Time Cost	Definition
Regular Time	Represents the standard time spent working. Lucity treats Regular Time as the default Time Cost. Predefined as Time Cost Code|Text:1|Regular Time. An agency can customize the term used for Regular Time (that is, the Time Code Text) ; however, Lucity will always usethe Time Cost record with a Time Code of 1 to determine a Work Order resource's Regular Unit Cost.
Overtime	Represents work performed outside of regular hours. Predefined as Time Cost Code|Text:2|Overtime. An agency can customize the term used for Overtime (that is, the Time Code Text) ; however, Lucity will always usethe Time Cost record with a Time Code of 2 to determine a EAM resource's OT Unit Cost.
External Regular Time	Represents work performed during regular hours for an external agency. Predefined as Time Cost Code|Text:3|External Regular Time. An agency can use a Time Code other than 3 to represent this type of work; however, Lucity will always look for the Time Cost record with the Time Code Text of External Regular Time to determine a Work Order resource's Regular External Rate.
External Overtime	Represents work performed outside of regular hours for an external agency. Predefined as Time Cost Code|Text:4|External Overtime. An agency can use a Time Code other than 4 to represent this type of work; however, EAM will look for the Time Cost record with the Time Code Text of External Overtime to determine a Work Order resource's External Overtime Rate.

Lucity administrators can change the default Multiplier Units for any of Lucity's predefined Time Costs using the Time Cost Setup module. They can also set up custom Time Costs.

More information about how Time Costs relate to Employee Cost fields

More information about how Time Costs relate to Equipment Cost fields

Custom Multiplier Time Costs

Administrators can create Time Costs—each with a unique Time Cost Code, Text, and Multiplier—to meet their agency's needs. Agencies, should not, however, reuse any built-in codes/descriptions listed above.

How to create a custom Multiplier Time Cost

Custom Straight-Time Time Costs

Agencies can create custom Time Costs that represent a set or static cost per unit. When a user applies a straight-time Time Cost, the system simply overwrites the resource's Unit Cost.

How to create a custom Straight-Time Time Cost