It's not complicated, but it's powerful. Accurate rates give accurate profit tracking. We'll go through the different types of pay rates you'll encounter and what they mean to your business.

The base rate is what you'd expect - the hourly rate your employee is paid. This rate doesn't include payroll taxes, worker's comp, etc.

A loaded pay rate is the base rate + payroll taxes (7.65%) + workers' comp (10%) + benefits (%). It represents your total labor cost for an employee and provides an accurate view of what jobs really cost. To get loaded pay rates we apply the percent labor overhead to the base rate.

The system calculates loaded rates from your labor overhead settings: Settings>Payroll>Pay Profiles. Click on the profile and edit the percentage. Don't include revenue costs in this rate, such as franchise fees, leases, utilities, and supplies (revenue % goes into another field when entering a job budget).

The Labor Overhead % company default can be changed - go to Settings>Payroll>Labor Overhead. If you only have contractors you can turn off Labor Overhead.

What is a living pay rate? You hire an employee at $12 an hour. You conduct a performance review six months later and bump the employee to $13 an hour. This pay increase impacts the job budgets. Better than a spreadsheet - look at reporting for any date range, and the correct pay rate is reported on past, present, and future job costs. You can view the pay rate history of when the raise was given and by whom.

Pay bonus rates for employees working weekends or other events you create with Pay Codes. Add a dollar amount or percentage to the base rate for the bonus rate. Make a shift for an employee and apply the weekend pay code as an override. When the employee clocks into the shift, Pro calculates the labor costs using the bonus rate.

Job cost reporting shows a weighted average pay rate. Essentially a heavier weight is based on a pay rate for people with more hours. For example, you have a job where two employees work. Employee A makes $12 an hour, and Employee B makes $16. It's easy to assume that the average pay rate is $14 and use that for job costing. But let's break it down a bit further.

Employee A works 10 hours ($120)

Employee B works 25 hours ($400)

Total hours = 35

Total pay = $520

Weighted average pay = $14.86 ( $520 / 35)

By comparing this weighted number to the budgeted pay rate for the job, you can determine whether you're staying on track or not.

Hopefully, you'll see that Pro uses pay rates to bring your business to life, giving you the ability to truly know how you're doing.

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