Penalty Rates

Calculate penalty rates for invoices and timesheets

Natasha Tyrrell avatar
Written by Natasha Tyrrell
Updated over a week ago

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Penalty rate rules

The penalty rate rules are applied in a hierarchal order, and a penalty rate is never applied on top of another penalty rate. The normal labour charge is applied as a base rate for the on site time of the job, and the penalty rate is applied on top of this normal rate. 

The hierarchal of the penalty rate rules:

  1. Unpaid break - the unpaid lunch break will be taken out as unpaid time 6 hours after the job start time. No other penalty rate will be applied during the unpaid break hours. The unpaid break is 30 min by default, this can be changed on the job page for each job.

  2. No lunch - this will be applied when the no lunch checkbox is checked. It's applied for 2 hours, 6 hours after the job start time. No other penalty rate will be applied to this time. When no lunch is checked, the unpaid break is not applied. 

  3. Overtime - will be applied as specified in settings, it will not be applied during the unpaid break or no lunch hours, except on Saturdays and Sundays.

  4. Inclement weather - is applied as specified on the job in the Inclement weather time dropdown. Inclement weather will not be applied if there is any other penalty rate applied at this time.

Site, Meal and Crib allowance are applied independent of the other penalty rate. Meal and crib allowance is applied as a fixed amount (as specified in settings) and the site allowance is applied on the job. Add the hourly site allowance amount on the job and it will be multiplied by the total hours worked for the invoice and timesheet.

The time line above shows that inclement weather was set for 7 hours, but only changed for 3 hours as it was overlapping with the no lunch and overtime penalty

No lunch rule

The no lunch rule applies after 6 hours of work, for a maximum of 2 hour, if the no lunch checkbox is checked on the job.  For example if the onsite time is 6am and the no lunch checkbox is checked the no lunch penalty rate will be applied from 12pm -14pm. 

  • The inventory item for this penalty rate is No lunch charge, you can edit this item including the description in Inventory - Additional charges 

Overtime penalty based on start & end time & hours worked
The overtime penalty rule applies for all hours outside normal working hours, or after a the selected number of hours on site. Whichever is greater. 

In the example below Penalty rate would apply before 7am in the morning and after 4pm in the afternoon or after working 8 hours on site. (if the workers have an unpaid lunch break this will be deducted from the working hours). 

  • For a job that starts at 6am and ends at 2pm, 1 hour of overtime would be applied.

  • If the job starts at 6am and finishes at 6pm, and the workers take a 30min unpaid break, overtime would be applied after 8 hours of work from 2:30pm to 6pm because that is greater than the hours before and after normal hours. 

  • The amount added in the Overtime rate paid to worker field will be added to the timesheet for the worker and the inventory item for overtime will be added to job items for the applicable hours. 

  • The inventory item for this rate is Overtime

Apply penalty rate all day on Saturday and Sunday

Check this if you want to apply the penalty rate overtime all day on Saturday and Sunday. Site, Meal and Crib allowance are applied on weekends. The no lunch rule is not applied on Saturday and Sunday when all day penalty rates are checked. 

Minimum Labour charge rule

Check the Minimum labour charge rule if you want to apply a minimum charge (hour) to invoices for jobs that are shorter than the minimum hours.  

  • In the example below, a job on a weekday that is shorter than 8 hours will still be charged as 8 hours and a job on a weekend that is less than 4 hours will be charged as 4 hours. 

  • This doesn't affect overtime or other penalty rates, it is just a minimum charge for normal labour rates. 

Inclement weather

To use the Inclement weather penalty rate, you need to enable two fields in settings - system fields

  1.  Inclement weather penalty rate and the allowance paid to worker (to be added to the timesheet)

  2. The Inclement weather time filed to set the time for Inclement weather on the job

  3. Optional: you can show a field to set the Inclement weather allowance amount on the job

  • The Inclement weather penalty will be applied to the time period selected on the job, in the example below, Inclement weather will be applied for 4 hours. 

  • Inclement weather is added as and item to invoice and to the technicians timesheet

  • This penalty rate is not applied if overtime or no lunch is applied for the same time period.

  • The inventory item for this rate is Inclement weather


Meal and Crib allowance

Check these allowances to add meal and crib allowances to timesheets and invoice items. You can select after how many hours work to add these allowances. 

  • Both meal and crib allowance are independent of the other penalty rates and will be added after the selected hours on site.

  • The inventory item for these allowances are Meal and Crib allowance

 

Site allowance

There are two settings to check for the site allowance, the penalty rate and the Site allowance rate field on the job. You can select to make the site allowance rate field visible for schedulers and/or on Mobile. 

  • The site allowance will be applied for the total time on the job

  • This penalty rate is independent of the other penalty rates

  • The site allowance will be added both to the timesheet as an amount and to the job items ready to invoice.


Labour rate

Check this to set your normal labour rate. This will be added to the job items ready to invoice when you click confirm docket for the total time on the job. 

  • The inventory item for this rate is Additional labour

  • It will not be added for the Operator or line hand, only for technicians in other roles. 

Initial Setup

1. In settings - system fields, enable the penalty rates and settings that you want to use

The penalty rates will be calculated and applied when the confirm docket button is clicked. The applicable penalty rates will be applied to the technicians timesheets and the job items ready to invoice. 

Only one penalty rates will be applied at any one time in the hierarchy listed below.

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