In this article
- Changing from unit rates to time rates
- How to change from unit rates to day rates when paying labour applications
- Want to know more?
Changing from unit rates to time rates
There may be times where the labour required for a project was calculated using a measure based rate at estimating stage, but once onsite, the applications you receive from your subcontractors will be in a timed based rate.
How to change from unit rates to day rates when paying labour applications
- Expand the main Chalkstring black menu bar and click on the ‘Projects’ menu.
- Search for and click the 'Project' required.
- Within the project homepage, click the ‘Project hub’ sub-menu.
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From the 'Project Hub' screen, click on the assessment you wish to update from the menu bar at the top.
- Click on 'Rate build up' in the menu bar at the top.
- Using the filters, locate the product(s) which contain the labour activities you want to change from unit rates to time rates.
- From the component menu for the product, click 'Add labour activity'
- Search for the time based activity you want to swap to and click on it. If you don't have the existing activity in your database, click '+New labour activity' in the top right to create a new one.
- Ascertain what the current labour value of that component is based on the unit rate, and set a quantity for the time based unit which equates to that value.
- Update the quantity for the old activity to 0.
Example
- In this above, the labour in the '1st fix boarding' component is based on measured at £3 per m2 for the activity 'Plasterboard per skin (walls)'.
- The time based activity added is called 'Hourly daywork rate'. The quantity to enter will depend on the rate being paid for this activity.
- The rate for this time based activity should be divided by the rate set for the previous unit based activity being replaced.
- Once this rate has been established, multiple this by the total previous quantity from the old activity being replaced to give you the quantity to enter for the new activity.
- The 'Calculated product unit cost' should be the same for the newly added time based activity as it was for the unit based activity.
Breakdown
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£3 labour rate from on the old 'Plasterboard' m2 unit of measure.
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Divide this by the rate (£20) for the new 'Daywork hourly rate' per hour.
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£3 divided by £20 = 0.15.
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0.15 multiplied by 6 (the quantity from the original activity being replaced) = 0.9.
- This equates to £18 per unit for the component, the same as the unit cost from the previous unit based activity.
Equation: Old rate - *divided by* - new rate - *multiplied by* original quantity.
The rates and values in the example above will change based on the rates set in your products where you are swapping a measure based activity for a time based activity.- When processing labour applications, you will now add the application against the newly added time based activity in the labour bill.