Processing labour applications using the external costs section

In this article

• Labour applications
• When to process labour using the external costs section
• How to process labour in the external costs section
• Removing the accrued labour costs
• Want to know more?

Labour applications

Labour applications can be received in various formats, such as handwritten or spreadsheets. Managing incoming labour applications can be one of the biggest reasons costs can escalate beyond budgets and out of control.

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When to process labour using the external costs section

The labour bill is the primary area of Chalkstring designed to process labour, however, depending on your business, you may prefer to speed up the process of adding labour claims to a project by adding them to the external costs section instead.

Using the external costs instead of the labour bill to process labour applications means you are sacrificing the granularity of tracking labour claims against your level of progress marked for speed.

Using the external costs to process labour applications means you are taking your claims on trust as you are bypassing the checks in place from within the labour bill which display where labour over claims are occurring.

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How to process labour in the external costs section

1. Expand the main Chalkstring black menu bar and click on the ‘Projects’ menu.
2. Search for and click the 'Project' required.
3. Within the project view page, click the ‘On site’ sub-menu.
4. Expand the main Chalkstring blue menu bar and click ‘Costs’.
   1. Click the '+New external cost' button.
   2.  Enter the details for the cost.
   • Name - Add a descriptive name for the labour cost. This could be the subcontractors name and a date.
   • Package - Select which package from the drop down that the labour cost is being allocated against.
   • Effective date - Add the effective date which you want the labour cost to apply to the project. This is typically the date the subcontractor is claiming up to.
   • Supplier - Select the subcontractor who is making the application from the drop down list.
   • Budgets - Enter the monetary value of the labour claim into the 'Labour' cell.
   • Nominal code - Select a relevant nominal code for the cost budget from the drop down list.
   • VAT rate - Select the VAT rate applicable for the cost. This ensures the correct transfer of accounts data in relation to these costs into Sage 50 or 3rd party accounts software (CSV file). 
   • Attachments - Attach any supporting information, such as receipts & invoices.

5. Click ‘Save Cost’.

Removing the accrued labour costs

Once you have completed adding your current batch of labour claims into the external costs section, you will need to 'write off' the work in progress accruals from the material bill as they are not going to be paid out via the labour bill.

As progress is marked in Chalkstring, the labour bill will display the level of progress for each labour activity which will have been completed to reach the current marked level of progress.

This will automatically calculate the accrued costs of labour which will be displayed throughout Chalkstring various reports. As labour claims are received and approved, these become actual costs but as the actual costs have been added via the external costs method. You will need to 'write off' the 'in progress' accruals as they will not be processed via the labour bill.

1. Expand the main Chalkstring black menu bar and click on the ‘Projects’ menu.
2. Search for and click the 'Project' required.
3. Within the project view page, click the ‘On site’ sub-menu.
4. Expand the main Chalkstring blue menu bar and click ‘Labour’.
5. Select the required assessment from the 'Assessment' drop down
6. You will be presented with the details of any in progress labour which Chalkstring has calculated has been completed based on the current level of progress marked. This is what Chalkstring expects your subcontractors to be claiming for.
7. Work your way through your products adding them to a labour application
   1. Click the '+' button for any products which display as value higher than 0 in the 'In progress' section
   2. On the pop up modal, change the 'Applied rate' value to £0. This will add the 'in progress' quantity applied to the application, but at a rate of £0

8. Repeat this process until all 'In progress' quantities have been added to your draft application. You’ll know you're done when the 'In progress' (B) column shows 0 for all activities.

9. This will apply all the progress Chalkstring has identified as completed — but it will apply it at £0, because the actual cost is being captured through the External Costs section instead.

10. Once all quantities are entered, go to the 'Bill actions' menu and click 'Save draft'. Choose the correct effective date and set your own business as the subcontractor.
If your business hasn’t yet been added as a subcontractor, click the purple 'Add' button to create it.

11. After saving the draft, go to the 'Review applications' tab in the top navigation bar.

12. Click 'Approve' next to the relevant application.

13. Approving the application will ‘write off’ the accrued costs from reporting, as Chalkstring now considers the work to be complete (at £0 via the Labour Bill). However, the true cost has still been recorded correctly under External Costs, ensuring your actuals remain accurate.