Construction Labor Costing

Construction labor costing is a crucial part of the resource tracking process for self perform construction companies.  While completing payroll on time is vital, it is equally important to ensure that employee time is charged to the correct job and cost code.  The ability to generate accurate Job Cost Reports, WIP Reports, Project Final Cost Reports and many others depend on the labor costing process.  Precision during labor costing also allows construction companies to accurately estimate and bid competitively on future projects. 

The process on most jobs begins with a construction time sheet for each employee.  Alternately, some companies use a crew time sheet to track time for multiple employees.  Timesheet formats vary, and are most often paper or spreadsheets.  Cost codes must be carefully entered to avoid mistakes, which can not only cause inaccuracies, but delays in processing.  Once completed, often by a foreman or superintendent, the timesheets must be approved.  In some cases, a project manager may be required approve the costing separately. 

Once approved, timesheets are typically delivered for payroll entry in person or using some combination of fax and email.  Most construction accounting systems allow costing information to be specified during payroll entry.  A payroll clerk often keys timesheets by hand, one employee at a time.  For employees working at multiple jobsites, separate timesheets often must be entered.  Back in the field, labor time may be entered into a construction project management system as well.  The resulting process not only requires redundant entry of all employee time, but is very labor intensive and time consuming. 

The widespread inefficiencies in construction labor costing have led to the the development of more sophisticated construction time and attendance systems, such as Resource Commander.  By integrating directly with a construction accounting system, companies can be sure that jobs and cost codes are validated at the time of entry.  While some systems are allow a cumbersome spreadsheet import/export, Resource Commander offers seamless, real time integration.  Furthermore, time can be uploaded directly to a payroll system without any duplicate effort. 

Resource Commander ensures that by capturing, costing and validating time in the field, labor costs are accurate and immediately available for reporting.  In addition to providing labor tracking, the Resource Commander product also provides the ability to track non-labor resources such as equipment, giving the project managers a more complete view of the overall project status.

Learn more about construction time and attendance with Resource Commander.

For more than 20 years, ACS Connect has provided Construction Software and Consulting Services, helping specialty contractors, general contractors and construction managers to become more efficient and profitable.