Labour activities
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      Adding and editing labour activities

      In this article

      What are labour activities?

      The labour activities section of Chalkstring is a database where you create, store and maintain the complete inventory of labour activities which define what your subcontractors need to do and how they are paid in order to deliver your projects.

      Labour activities can be added manually or can be imported using our activity import template. Instructions for adding manually are given in this article. For information about using the labour import spreadsheet please contact our support team. 

      Adding a labour activity

      To add a new labour activity you will need to have the necessary permissions. If you don't see the options in the steps below but believe you should have these permissions, please speak to your system administrator or contact our support team.

      Steps to add a labour activity

      1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the 'Resources' icon.
      2. Click the ‘Labour activities’ sub menu.
      3. You can check to see if the activity is already set up by typing part of the name into the filter at the top of the screen.  If it is not already set up you can add a new item. 
      4. Click the '+ New labour activity' button in the top right of the screen.
      5. This will open a form with the following fields:
        1. Name (required) - enter the name of the labour activity as you or your subcontractor  would refer to it (remember this will be used on  applications when the project is on site). Names need to be unique.
        2. Trade - choose the trade applicable for the activity from the dropdown. This is a way of categorising activities and helps when searching for labour e.g. Drylining, SFS, ceilings. It also is used to track any cost associated with the activity incurred on each project against that specific nominal code assigned to the trade. If the trade you want isn't currently in the list you will need to add a new trade. See article Adding and editing trades
      For example, a trade of 'plastering' with an assigned  nominal code of '12345', will have lots of different labour activities within it – e.g., 'Plastering per m2', 'plastering per linear', 'dot & dab', 'hardwall' etc.
      Each activity will record its cost implications against the trade  specified here and the subsequent nominal code assigned in the 'Accounts' section of Chalkstring.
      This enables you to periodically review how much you are spending on each trade.  

      c. Quantity unit (required) - choose from the dropdown. This should be the unit the activity is priced in and will determine how you quantify its use when the activity is used in project rate build up . For example, 'Plasterboard wall per squared meter'.

      d. Description (required) - enter the any additional details about the activity to clarify what is, or is not, included in the activity.

      e. External links - this can be used to add links to external web pages e.g. subcontractor website.

      f. Documents - this can be used to upload files such as PDF files.

      6. Click 'Save activity'.


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        Editing labour activities

        If a labour activity needs to be updated you can use the edit option.

        We don't recommend changing the 'Quantity unit' for activities that may already be used in product templates. Instead, we recommend using the 'Save as new' option to create a copy of the activity with the new units.

        Steps to edit a labour activity

        1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the 'Resources' icon.
        2. Click the ‘Labour activities’ sub menu.
        3. Find the activity that you wish to edit and click on it to view the details. 
        4. Click the 'Edit' icon in the top right of the screen. If you aren't sure which icon, hover over them to see a tooltip.
        5. Make the changes you wish to make.
        6. If you want to update the existing activity wherever it is currently being used, and you are not changing the 'Quantity unit', then click the 'Save changes' button. This will update the existing activity record.
        7. If you want to make changes to the 'Quantity unit' or create another version of this activity then make sure the name is unique and click 'Save as new'. This will create a new activity record. 

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        Archiving labour activities

        If you have activities that you no longer want users to be able to choose but that have been used on existing projects or product templates then you can archive them. This will stop them showing up as active activities and will prevent users selecting them on new projects or on newly created product templates.

        Steps to archive a labour activities

        1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the 'Resources' icon.
        2. Click the ‘Labour activities’ sub menu.
        3. Find the activity that you wish to archive and click on it to view the details. 
        4. Click the 'Archive' icon in the top right of the screen and then click the 'Confirm archive' button that appears. If you aren't sure which icon, hover over them to see a tooltip.
        5. This will leave the activity record in the system but hide it from dropdown lists.

        Steps to unarchive a labour activity

        If for some reason you need to reinstate an archived activity you can do so with the following steps:

        1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the 'Resources' icon.
        2. Click the ‘Labour activities’ sub menu.
        3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tick the 'Include archived' checkbox.
        4. Find the activity that you wish to unarchive and click on it to view the details. 
        5. Click the 'Unarchive' icon in the top right of the screen and then click the 'Confirm unarchive' button that appears. If you aren't sure which icon, hover over them to see a tooltip.
        6. This will reinstate the activity record in the system. 

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        Deleting labour activities

        Deleting labour activities cannot be undone so only proceed if you are absolutely sure that you want to remove the record permanently from your system.

        If you have activity records that were created in error and they have not been linked to any other data (such as projects or product templates) then you can delete them using the following steps:

        Steps to delete a labour activity

        1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the 'Resources' icon.
        2. Click the ‘Labour activities’ sub menu.
        3. Find the activity that you wish to delete  and click on it to view the details. 
        4. Click the 'Delete' icon in the top right of the screen and then if you are sure you want to delete the record permanently, click the 'Confirm' button that appears. If you aren't sure which icon, hover over them to see a tooltip.
        5. This will permanently remove the activity record from the system.

        If you receive an error when trying to delete, this means the activity is linked to other data in the system. In this instance use the Archive option instead. 

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