Set Up Job Cost Category Types (STO Accounting Only)

The Setup Job Cost Category Type screen displays the Job Cost Categories received from the STO Accounting company assigned to the current Division. For each Job Cost Category, the following actions can be taken:

• associate a WMS Job Cost Category Type.

• nominate if a budget amount will be sent to Job Cost when items assigned to that category have budgets issued

• nominate if a committed cost amount will be sent to Job Cost when items assigned to that category have purchase orders issued

• nominate if items assigned to that category will be visible on a printed purchase order

• nominate if a purchase order will be printable if it only contains items assigned to that category

• nominate the category as the default variance category to be used when adding change order estimates

• nominate the category as the default variance category to be used when refreshing costs in Purchasing

• nominate the category as the default variance category to be used when automatically adjusting tax rounding in Invoice Manager (Payments)

Understanding Job Cost Category Types in WMS
 

The Job Cost Category Type is a classification or grouping which is assigned to each Job Cost Category in WMS. There are 3 defined values for the Job Cost Category Type. These are :

• Base/Original Cost

• Change Order

• Non Billable Variance
   

The Job Cost Category Type determines which Job Cost Categories are available for assignment to Job estimates and items when :

• Adding Change Order estimates

• Cancelling and re-issuing purchase orders

• Creating Variance purchase orders in the standard VPO process

• Adding additional items to a job estimate

• Tracking Variances after the job budget is finalized

• Tracking Variances on differences between Budget and Committed Cost.

The Job Cost Category Type applies only to the WMS purchasing workflow and is not sent to STO accounting with budgets or purchase orders.

The Job Cost Category Type is distinct and different from the Job Cost Type in STO Accounting as explained below.

Understanding Job Cost Categories in STO Accounting

Job Cost Categories are additional classifications/groupings of costs incurred, and provide a method to track costs in Sage Timberline® Office Accounting. Job Cost Categories also facilitate cost analysis in the Sage Timberline Office Job Cost module. Job Cost Categories allow the user to track estimates, actual costs, and other important information at a sub-level below cost codes. For example, one of the cost codes might involve concrete forming, and it is necessary to distinguish labor costs from material costs. This can be accomplished by setting up one category for labor and another for materials. Both types of cost can be reported separately as labor and material at the category level. Both costs combined can be reported as concrete forming at the cost code level. Categories are first set up in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost, and imported into the WMS database. See Receive Cost Categories from Job Cost for additional information.  

Understanding Job Cost Types in STO Accounting

Whereas Job Cost Categories are user definable in STO Accounting (i.e. each company can define as few or as many Job Cost Categories as necessary), there are six (6) defined Job Cost Types available in Sage Timberline® Office Accounting:

• Labor - Commonly Designated by L in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost

• Material - Commonly Designated by M in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost

• Subcontract - Commonly Designated by S in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost

• Equipment - Commonly Designated by E in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost

• Other - Commonly Designated by O in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost

• Overhead - Commonly Designated by OHD in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost

The Equipment Job Cost Type is commonly renamed to Variance, using the STO Custom Descriptions function, and is used to group/accumulate all the Job Cost Categories which track and define the reasons for un-billed variance costs on jobs.

Each Job Cost Category is assigned to a Job Cost Type in STO Accounting. This is also referred to as the 'Accumulate As' value. The cost amounts for each Job Cost Category are automatically 'Accumulated' into the its Job Cost Type in STO Accounting reports and inquiries. The Job Cost Type assignment is also stored in WMS (read only) when Job Cost Categories are received/updated from STO Accounting. See Receive Cost Categories from Job Cost for additional information.

To assign Job Cost Category Types:

1. Verify the accounting company currently active is the one for which the Job Cost Category types need configuring. (This is the accounting company assigned to the current division.)

2. From the Integration menu, selectAccounting > Set Up Job Cost Category Types.

The following screen displays.

A complete list of all Job Cost Categories, their descriptions and JC Cost Types will display on this screen. This list reflects the information up through the most recent date the Update All Timberline Files process has been run. The left-hand columns are for information only, and cannot be edited in this screen.

3. Select the Job Cost Category in the grid.

4. Click the Category Type drop-down menu to display the Job Cost Category options.

The description for each Category Type follows:

Base/Original Cost

1. 1. Issue Purchase Orders - Once the budget has been finalized in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost, any item with a job cost category that is set to Base/Original Cost will cause an error message to display in the Issue Purchase Orders process, and a purchase order will not be allowed to be issued. In order to issue a purchase order after the budget has been finalized, the category type must be set to Change Order or Non Billable Variance.

   2. Issue Budgets - Once the budget has been finalized in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost, the Issue Budgets icon will be disabled, and entries will not be created for any new costs in the Send to Timberline Accounting application. The existing budget information may still be viewed in this screen.

   3. Job cost categories with this type are not available for selection when a variance or change order category is required in the Issue Budgets/Purchase Order screen.

   4. Job cost categories with this type are not visible in the Security Manager screen when assigning group or user privileges to variance categories.

Change Order

2. • Issue Purchase Orders - Once the budget has been finalized in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost, any new item with a job cost category that is set to Change Order will allow a purchase order to be issued.  The appropriate entries will be created in the Send to Timberline Accounting application and the new purchase order will be committed in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost.

   • Issue Budgets - Once the budget has been finalized in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost, the Issue Budgets icon will be disabled, and entries will not be created for any new costs in the Send to Timberline Accounting application. The existing budget information may still be viewed in this screen

   • Job cost categories with this type are available for selection when a variance or change order category is required in the Issue Budgets/Purchase Order screen.

   • Job cost categories with this type are visible in the Security Manager screen when assigning group or user privileges to variance categories.

Non Billable Variance

2. • Issue Purchase Orders - Once the budget has been finalized in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost, any new item with a job cost category that is set to Non Billable Variance will allow a purchase order to be issued.  The appropriate entries will be created in the Send to Timberline Accounting application and the new purchase order will be committed in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost.

   • Issue Budgets to JC - Once the budget has been finalized in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost, the Issue Budgets icon will be disabled, and entries will not be created for any new costs in the Send to Timberline Accounting application. The existing budget information may still be viewed in this screen

   • Job cost categories with this type are available for selection when a variance or change order category is required in the Issue Budgets/Purchase Order screen.

   • Job cost categories with this type are visible in the Security Manager screen when assigning group or user privileges to variance categories.

Blank (Null)

2. • any category with no job cost category type assigned is treated the same as a job cost category with Base/Original Cost type.

5. Once finished with all changes, click Save.

6. Click Close to exit the screen.

To set properties for Job Cost Categories

1. Verify the accounting company currently active is the one for which the Job Cost Category types need configuring. (This is the accounting company assigned to the current division.)

2. From the Integration menu, selectAccounting > Set Up Job Cost Category Types.

3. In the Setup Job Cost Category Type screen select the Job Cost Category to be updated.

4. Check or un-check each column as required

3. Select the categories whose budgets should be sent to Job Cost. This setting will now include BOTH the former Cat 'O' budget and Variance budget to Accounting described below.

• • Items designated as JC Category 'O' will be sent to Job Cost and will be included in the budget in Job Cost.

  • Budgets for items that have a JC Category with a category type of 'Non Billable Variance' will be sent to Job Cost and included in the budget in Job Cost.

4. Select the categories whose purchase order commitments should be sent to Job Cost.

5. • Commitments for items designated as JC category 'O' will be sent to Job Cost, and will become commitments in Job Cost.

5. Choose whether or not to print prices on purchase orders. Selecting this checkbox will include BOTH the former Cat 'S' and Cat 'O' amounts described below.

• • Print Cat 'S' (Sub) Amounts on PO - Items that are assigned a job cost category of 'S' (Sub) will include printed prices on purchase orders.

  • Print Cat 'O' (Other) Amounts on PO - Items that are assigned a job cost category of 'O' (Other) will include printed prices on purchase orders.

6. Click within thePrint PO if all this Cat checkbox to allow a purchase order to print even if all items are assigned a job cost category of ‘O.’

7. Click within the Default CO Cat checkbox to assign a default cost category to all change orders received from the Sales Center and to any manually issued change orders (created in the Purchasing module) not assigned a specific category. This provides a method of tracking costs in Job Cost for change orders separate and distinct from the original budgeted costs.

• • The following table illustrates how the configuration of individual Job Cost categories replace the Global Settings found in versions prior to WMS 4.5:

8. Once finished with all changes, click Save.

9. Click Close to exit the screen.

Related Topics

Setup Job Cost Category Types

Finalizing the Budget in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost