October was a busy month. Almost everything below came from a working fabrication office telling us what their week needed, and every one of them is live now for every firm on Costworks. Nothing needs installing: the next time anybody opens the app, it is there.
Stay-away nights, counted into gross pay
Installs away from home usually earn a set amount a night. Costworks now records that properly.
- The crew tick it on the day. “Stayed away overnight” sits on the day sheet. It is one tick per day, however many shifts there were, and it locks with the week once the week is sent.
- The office can tick it too, for anybody, in any week, from that person’s week on the Timesheets board. Every change is recorded with who made it.
- The amount is yours, and dated. Set it in Pay rules. A change starts from a date you choose, the way a pay rise does, so nights already worked keep the amount that applied on the night.
- It is in gross pay. The Timesheets board has a Nights column, and the nights’ pay is counted into the gross figure on the board and on the monthly report alike, so the two always agree. The CSV keeps the split: stay-away nights, stay-away pay, and any nights with no amount set.
A salaried person’s nights are shown and paid on their own, and never turned into a gross figure that a salary does not have.
Holiday is asked for, and approved
Holiday used to go straight onto the timesheet. Now it is a request, and nothing is booked until somebody says yes.
- The crew ask from a first day to a last, in whole or half days. Weekends and bank holidays are skipped for them.
- They see who else is off on those days before they send it — names and dates, nothing more. It is a warning, not a refusal.
- You choose who approves. An owner ticks which office sign-ins may decide holiday. Nobody can approve their own.
- Approving books the days onto the timesheet, and warns you first if anybody else is already off. Declining needs a reason, which the person sees.
- The office has a Holiday screen with the requests waiting, a count on the dashboard, and a holiday report for any range of dates, by person or by date, as a PDF and a CSV.
Balances are still counted from what is actually booked on the timesheets, so they cannot drift.
Materials on the crew’s day sheet
The day sheet now lists that day’s materials alongside its shifts. While the week is still theirs, the crew can take one off again; once the week is sent, materials lock along with the hours.
In the office, every job’s materials can be opened entry by entry, and any one of them removed — for the quantity that went in twice. The office can also add a material for somebody, in any week, and it is marked as added by the office wherever it appears.
Subcontractors, on the job and off the payroll
Subcontractors invoice for their time and fill in no timesheet. The office now enters their days from each invoice — the day, the hours, the job, fabrication or installation, and the invoice number — on the person’s Hours tab.
Those hours count on the job, in the Jobs list and in its audit report. They never appear on the Timesheets board, the monthly report or the payroll CSV. There is more on why in a post of its own.
A whole week’s job reports, in one download
Once a week is approved, Job reports on the Timesheets board downloads the audit report for every job worked that week, as one zip, each file named for the job pack. Each report lists who worked on the job and when, the EN1090 records and who checked them, and the materials used — with no pay in it.
A Timesheets board that adds up
The board now shows a Saturday column in any week with Saturday hours, and every band is shown, so each row visibly adds up to its total. A banner points out any earlier weeks still waiting to be approved.
And the smaller things
- Unpriced hours in the CSV. Hours worked on a day with no rate set are counted in their own column, rather than quietly priced at nothing.
- A Subcontractors filter on the Employees screen.
- EN1090 Records is what the weld records are now called on every screen, to match the standard.
- Back to the office. Office staff who also record their own hours have a single tap from their timesheet back to the office screens.
- A week paid in the neighbouring month. Over Christmas, say, a firm may want a week paid in the month before or after the one it falls in. We can now set that up on request.
Something your week needs? Most of this list started as a sentence from an office. Tell us yours.
