Activity Codes are an optional feature used at clock-in to give further definition to an employee's time card. The activity reports what is done at the job site. Your list of Activity Codes is universal and can be applied to any job. Activity Codes aren't tied to a specific job.
Why Use Activity Codes?
It can be important to know the labor time and costs for each activity. Worker's comp rates can vary based on the time spent on each activity. Our activity reports helped one customer lower his worker's comp rate. His rates increased by 25% because he cleaned exterior high-rise windows. But our activity reports proved that window cleaning was a tiny fraction of his business.
We can also pass activities over to QuickBooks as billable Service Items.
How to Set Up Activity Codes
Go to List Maintenance, Activity Codes and Add New Activity Code.
Assign a 3-digit code that employees will enter when they call to clock in. We have to turn on this feature for it to be active on clock-in. Please let us know.
Name the activity.
Check the billable box if you'll use the activity code as a Service Item in QuickBooks.
Check the active box and leave the "admin use only" box unchecked.
Don't worry about the Pay Type Override just yet. That's a QB or Payroll Snapshot-related item. The External Codes are fields that can appear as columns on CSV exports. That's another conversation. Let's move on...
How Employees Clock In with Activity Codes
For call clock-ins, we ask for the 6-digit employee access code, then the 4-digit job code, and then the 3-digit Activity Code.
On app clock-in, your employee will press Go, choose the job from the list, and then choose the activity by its name.
Reporting on Activity Codes
We have 3 activity reports:
Employee Activity Detail Report
Employee Activity Summary Report
Job Activity Detail Report
The Employee Activity Detail Report
Reports > By Employee > Emp Activity Detail
The Employee Activity Detail Report shows every employee's worked shifts for the pay period. The following is reported:
The employee's total hours
Each shift worked with date, in/out times, job, and duration
Subtotals of hours worked by each activity
The Employee Activity Summary Report
Reports > By Employee > Emp Activity Summary
The Employee Activity Summary report is similar to the detailed report, yet it doesn't show each shift worked. This report summarizes the total time worked at each job and activity.
The Job Activity Detail Report
Reports > By Job > Job Activity Detail
The Job Activity Detail report is similar to the Employee Activity Detail report except it's broken out by job instead of employee. This report shows total hours worked by each job and activity.
You can export every activity report to a .CSV file for further manipulation and use dropdown filters for employees and jobs.
Using Activity Codes Internally
Perhaps you want to track a few tasks, but not at every employee clock-in. You can also use Activity Codes for administrative purposes, such as approving time cards and tracking call-outs. You can do these things without requiring employees to clock into an Activity Code on every clock-in.
Create the Activity Codes and check the Admin Use Only box. The system will not prompt your employees to enter them on clock-in. But you can manually tag time cards with activities under Payroll Functions, Edit Time Cards.
That's about it. Let us know if you have any questions. 😊
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