Clock-in by labor type is the recommended option for tracking time. With this method, the crew will be required to select the labor type that they are going to work on whenever they perform a clock-in.
For example, let’s say I have a maintenance visit called Weekly Mowing that consists of Travel Time and Mowing Labor. When the crew clocks into the visit, they will be prompted to specify whether they are working on Travel Time or Mowing Labor. Let’s say the crew first clocks into Travel Time starting at 7am. The time they spend against Travel Time will increase as they are clocked in. The crew then arrives at the jobsite at 7:15am and is ready to unload and mow. They should now clock into Mowing Labor (or if you want to be more detailed, separate unload and mow as separate labor types). By starting on Mowing Labor, they will automatically be taken off of Travel Time, their time against travel will be confirmed and their time against Mowing will begin. After they finish up at the first site, they could move on to the next visit on their list. Their time at this point would look something like this:
•Weekly Mowing Service – Property A
o Crew Member 1 – Travel Time: 7:00am – 7:15am
o Crew Member 2 – Travel Time: 7:00am – 7:15am
o Crew Member 1 – Mowing Labor: 7:15am – 8:00am
o Crew Member 2 – Mowing Labor: 7:15am – 8:00am
•Weekly Mowing Service – Property B
o Crew Member 1 – Travel Time: 8:00am –
o Crew Member 2 – Travel Time: 8:00am –
The workflow above is just an example. You will specify exactly what labor types are available for the crews to track their time against when you create a job, visit, or work order for them to perform. You may choose to do things differently, perhaps by tracking travel time as a separate non-billable work type instead of as part of the mowing visit. It is therefore important to think about how you want your crew to track their time, as it will dictate how you setup your costbook and also how you create estimates.