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3.5 Capturing Time |
  
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3.5 Capturing Time |
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3.5.1 Recording Time in Latitude
Time in Latitude is recorded against Jobs, and can be recorded for both employees and equipment. Latitude employs the concept of timeslips, these are records of the work done for a particular date and optionally a specific start and end time. It is possible to have as many timeslips as required for any period of time, such as a day, or week or month. A daily timesheet is composed of all the timeslips for that date.
Time can be recorded for all the activities of your employees and equipment. A timeslip can be billable or independent of the work type you assign to the slip. This allows all time against a job to be recorded.
Jobs can be created for your company to keep track of general or administrative work not directly linked to a client or specific job. Jobs and work types can also be created to keep track of different types of leave (eg. Annual, Sick, Compasitionate, Military) or Time-in-Lieu taken by an employee.
Jobs can be broken down into as many tasks as required. A timeslip can be assigned to a specific task of a job. If you wish to assign time to a group of tasks, the timeslip can be assigned to a task type. Using tasks and task types in timeslips lets you assign costs and charges to the smallest detail of a job.
For each employee/equipment and work type you can setup the default cost and charge rates. These can be further refined if CBCodes are used. If required the default charge rates can be over-ridden. When a timeslip is entered the cost and charge rates are calculated and loaded automatically, but you have the option to change the values up until the timeslip has been allocated to an invoice.
Disbursements can be entered to record non-time based costs and/or charges against jobs. Disbursements are usually entered in via a timeslip and are identified as such by the work type assigned.
The recording of time in Latitude is flexible enough that there should be no reason for missed time in your timesheets. All time is categorised and assigned to jobs allowing you to analyze and get a clear picture of what is taking place in the company.
If you are entering timesheets for your equipment, it is possible to determine usage and identify idle time. You can enter the time for equipment useage as non-chargeable if you aren't billing the usage to the client directly. The usage information is helpful in order to schedule required maintainance dates, or to determine replacement needs.
Entering goods from inventory as disbursements when they are used and identifying them using worktypes alllows you to perform basic inventory control and determine usage rates.
Since all costs and charges for a job can be entered and tracked, it is easy to determine the actual margins for each component of your jobs and each type of work required for the job. Using this information allows you to determine ways to make your company more profitable. The same information in conjunction with the actual billed amounts, gathered over a number of jobs, allows you to review your quoting practices. This can lead to an increase in quoting accuracy.