One of our project team is looking at labour cost capture and has noticed that when they enter labour times, it is duplicated in Burden. Is there a setting for this, i have looked but cannot see anything that jumps out?
There is a setting on the Resource Group and Resource
OK so if i dont want burden in this instance, do you know it should be setup?
Just an FYI/clarification, they did not change the labels in Kinetic, it looks like that has been customized, Kinetic still refers to burden the same way classic did.
@Daniel_White Have you checked the Resource AND Resource Group, you can set it at both and at the Resource level you can either default it to the group values or assign specific values for the resource.
I wonder if the UK CSF Language Pack changes it. Interesting.
No customisation unliess like @hkeric.wci says it is the UK CSF. Our Resources are marked to use the Resource Groups. Group is set as follows
So currently there are no costs, its just been noted that the Burden Hours are equalling the Labour hours for the time bookings they have entered.
This is the help for Split O/Head
Indicates if burden hours are split out among employees when multiple employees work simultaneously on the same job operation within this Resource Group. This feature is only applicable to Data Collection. Manual Labor Entry does not split the burden hours. The opposite is that each employee should have their burden hours = labor hours. This situation would occur in Resource Groups that actually have “people” as machines, such as an assembly or welding center where multiple people work on the same job.
Which hasnt helped me understand it to be honest
Burden = Labor
Select this check box to indicate that you want the number of burden hours to be the same as the number of labor hours entered. Like Split Burden, this option applies only to entered in the Data Collection module.
Direct Labor Time that is spent working on a job. Operating a drill press and doing assembly work are examples of direct labor. Direct labor can be further identified as setup or production.
Example: An employee clocks in to two different jobs. Later, the employee clocks out of both jobs. The results are: Job 1 had 4 hours of labor and 8 hours of burden, and Job 2 also had 4 hours of labor and 8 hours of burden. With Burden = Labor the check box selected, the total burden in this example would be 8, not 16.
Split Burden
This check box controls the distribution of labor and burden hours during entry in the Data Collection module. Use this option only if you use Data Collection. If multiple employees work on the same job operation at the same time, and you normally want to split the burden (machine) hours among those labor entries to more accurately reflect the actual machine usage, select this check box.
Direct Labor Time that is spent working on a job. Operating a drill press and doing assembly work are examples of direct labor. Direct labor can be further identified as setup or production.
On the other hand, if you always want burden hours to equal labor hours (for example, for an assembly resource group where the resources are employees), select the Burden = Labor check box.
Example: One employee reports working on a job operation from 7:00 to 8:00; another reports working on the same operation from 7:30 to 8:30. If you select to split the burden at the resource group where the operation occurred, the system will calculate labor and burden hours by assuming that the resource was only running for 1 ½ hours (7 - 8:30), even though 2 labor hours were reported.
Use Estimates
Select this check box to apportion the actual labor time reported against operations by using the estimated time on each operation. When an employee clocks into multiple operations on the same resource group at the same time, this functionality uses the estimated hours on each operation to calculate how much actual labor time to place against each operation.
If an employee is clocked into multiple operations within different resource groups – and one resource group has its Use Estimates check box selected, the application includes the operation estimates when applying labor against each operation.
This check box is available regardless of whether you calculate burden using either the Split Burden or Burden = Labor options.
P.T. Jones clocks into two operations at the same resource group which has the Use Estimates option selected on its record:
– The first operation has a run quantity of 5 with a production standard of 2 hours per piece for a total of 10 hours of estimated production.
– The second operation has a run quantity of 10 with a production standard of 2 pieces per hour for a total of 5 hours of estimated production.
P.T. Jones works for 9 hours total on both operations. The application apportions the time, assigning 6hours of labor to the first operation and 3 hours of labor to the second operation.
I have always ever used Burden = Labor. Would be nice to hear from others when other options should be used. @timshuwy
Vehicle Company
Construction Company
Paper Company
We don’t use Burden = Labor on machines that can be run autonomously. One operator may run 2 or 3 different machines at the same time, so we want the employee’s labor hours for the day to total 8 (or however long their shift is) while the burden hours total up to 16 or 24 (2 or 3 times the shift length) to reflect how long the person “worked” on each job/machine during the day and to capture how long each machine actually ran for.
We also use Split Burden on assembly tables where multiple employees work on the same job/operation at the same time, like when packing kits or assembling components. That way the total burden hours booked against the resource adds up to the shift time while each employee gets their total shift time as labor hours.
@Daniel_White - The system will always capture Burden Hours on labor entries, regardless of the settings you set on Resource/Resource Group. Those settings will adjust exactly how many labor and burden/OH hours get booked, but something will get booked no matter what. If your company absolutely needs that to be zero, you can create a BPM on Labor.Update or LaborDtl to force it to zero when the record is saved.
Great break down there tyler.
The last two companies the primary setup was Labor = Burden. There were some spots at the previous company we did split but few and far between.
I remember this conversation coming up once before, where someone mentioned that their company had both boxes unchecked. After reading that, I tested the different scenarios in our test environment to see how Epicor reacted, but I can’t remember exactly what I found. It must have been something I didn’t like because I never used it anywhere.
At my current company, during implementation, I created examples showing how the two checkboxes functioned under different scenarios. The basic scenarios were:
Multiple operators / multiple jobs(same jobs)
Multiple operators / multiple jobs(different jobs with one shared job)
Multiple operators / single job
Single operator / single job
Single operator / multiple jobs
I tested a few additional scenarios as well, but those were the primary ones I used to demonstrate the differences to the Director of Operations and Director of Finance. The goal was to show them exactly how labor and burden were being distributed depending on which boxes were selected. As Tyler pointed out the decision is very resource/group specific and business operations specific.
So, this “labor = burden” concept is something that is easily tripped over… you might think it is working the way you want it, and then find out that it works differently.. i HIGHLY Suggest that you test it with it on/off under real world scenarios…
Basically is is there for when you have ONE PERSON (a People Resource), clocking into multiple jobs at once… “What do you do with the burden?”… for example, burden MIGHT represent the SUPERVISOR time… in that case, you dont have more supervisors just because they clocked in on two jobs. BUT, if when they clock in on two jobs, on two different machines, and if your burden represents the machine and electricity to run them, then you DO need to account for that burden.
It gets rather complex, and you need to read the manual multiple times on product costing, and experiment with the values that make the mose sense for you.