Job Costing Follow

The Job Costing module allows organizations to track labor and production time against jobs, operations, machines, and resources. Time can be entered against a specific task on a job or more generally against an operation code, providing valuable cost and production data for analysis and reporting.

By capturing employee time and production activity throughout the workflow, Midnight helps organizations better understand job profitability, labor utilization, production efficiency, and actual costs incurred during the manufacturing process.

The Job Costing module consists of five primary screens:

The search filters can be used individually or in combination to locate specific job cost records.

• Customer - The customer associated with the job.
• Job # - The Midnight job number used to identify the job.
• Project Name - The name of the project associated with the job.
• Version Name - The version name associated with the project.
• Employee - The employee who performed the work.
• Service - The service performed on the job.
• Machine - The machine used to perform the work.
• Operation - The operation or department where the work was performed.
• Shift - The employee shift during which the work was completed.
• Date - The date the work was performed.

Selecting a Job Number link opens the Job Cost Details tab, where users can review, edit, or delete job cost records.

The Job Cost Details screen displays information including:

• Customer information
• Job information
• Employee information
• Shift information
• Labor hours recorded
• Production activity
• Machine and operation details

This view provides a detailed breakdown of the time and production activity recorded against a job.

In some cases, multiple employees may be working on the same task simultaneously. As a result, employee run counts may differ from the overall task run count. This allows Midnight to accurately track individual employee activity while maintaining separate production totals for the task itself.

Many job cost records are generated through Shop Floor Data Collection. Time entries, production activity, machine usage, and employee labor information captured through Shop Floor Data Collection are displayed within the Job Cost Records and Job Cost Details screens.

For additional information about how job cost records are created and maintained through Shop Floor Data Collection, refer to the Shop Floor Data Collection articles.

The Enter Service Time screen allows users to manually enter labor time against a job. This screen is designed for employees who may not be working on a machine or production task but still need their time tracked for accurate job costing and reporting purposes.

Service time entries can be recorded against a specific job and operation, allowing administrative, design, customer service, estimating, and other non-production activities to be included in the overall job cost.

The following fields are required to save a production time entry:

• Employee - The name of the employee performing the work.
• Job # - The Midnight job number the time will be charged against.
• Service - The service or operation being performed.
• Machine - The machine used by the employee to perform the work.
• # of Temp Helpers - Enter the number of temporary helpers who assisted with the work being performed. 
• Start Time - The time the employee began working on the task.
• Stop Time - The time the employee finished working on the task.
• Tot Mins (Total Minutes): Automatically calculated use the Start and Stop Time values.
• Start Cnt (Start Count) - The quantity count when the employee started the task.
• Stop Cnt (Stop Count) - The quantity count when the employee completed the task.
• Tot Cnt (Total Count) - Automatically calculated use the Start and Stop Count values.
• Rework - Indicates whether the work being performed was rework.
• Notes - Additional comments or details about the work performed.

Once entered and saved, the record will be available from the Job Cost Records search screen. Job costing data can also be used when generating job detail and job costing reports for orders that have labor or production time logged against them.

• Date - The date of the employee's time entry. 
• Employee - The employee's name. Clicking the employee name allows you to open and edit the time record. Time In - The time the employee clocked in. 
• Time Out - The time the employee clocked out. 
• Shift - Indicates whether the time was recorded on First Shift or Overnight Shift. 
• Holiday - Identifies Regular (Reg) time or a holiday assigned to the time entry. Available values are defined in Global Settings → Holidays and can be used to track employee time associated with company-recognized holidays, PTO, Sundays, or other configured holiday types. For more information see the Knowledge Base article: Kiosk Time Clock & Time Off Management.
• Total Time - The total amount of time worked by the employee. 
• Total Break Min - The total number of break minutes taken by the employee. 
• Actual Time In - The actual clock-in time recorded for the employee. 
• Actual Time Out - The actual clock-out time recorded for the employee.

Editing Time Records

Selecting the New Time Record button in the upper-right corner of the Time Records screen opens a new entry window where users can manually create a time record.

The fields available on this screen are the same as those described in the Time Records.

The Time Cards screen provides a consolidated view of employee time activity by combining information from Job Costing and Payroll records. This screen allows managers and supervisors to review employee shift records, including clock-in and clock-out times, break activity, total hours worked, and job activity recorded throughout the day.

Managers can review and validate employee shift records directly from the Time Cards screen. After reviewing a time card for accuracy, select the checkbox next to the desired record and click Approve Now to mark the time card as approved.

Once approved, the approval date will be recorded and displayed in the Approved column. Approved records can be viewed by selecting the Include Approved checkbox and applying the desired filters.

Example

In the screenshot above:

1. Select the employee time card(s) to approve.
2. Click Approve Now.
3. Check Include Approved to display previously approved time cards.
4. The date displayed in the Approved column indicates when the time card was approved.

This approval process provides supervisors and managers with a simple way to verify employee time records before they are used for payroll processing, labor reporting, and job costing.

To review the details of a time card, select the Time Card record number from the Time Cards screen. To view the details of each entry within the time card, select the + icon at the beginning of the row.

The Time Card Entry screen provides a detailed timeline of the employee's workday, including clock-in activity, job activity, breaks, and when the employee returned to work after a break.

Use the screenshot above as a guide to understand the information displayed within a Time Card Entry.

• A – Expand Entry – Select the + icon to expand a Time Card Entry and view the detailed activity associated with that record.
• B – Add New Time Record – Creates a new Time Card Entry within the employee's time card.
• C – Date In – The date the employee clocked in or the activity began.
• D – Time In – The time the employee clocked in or the activity began.
• E – Date Out – The date the employee clocked out or the activity ended.
• F – Time Out – The time the employee clocked out, started a break, or completed the activity.
• G – Time Type – Identifies the type of activity being recorded, such as Time Record, Paid Break, or Unpaid Break.
• H – Delete Time Card Record – Deletes the selected Time Card Entry.
• I – Work Activity – Displays the job activity recorded during this portion of the shift. This section shows the jobs the employee logged into, including the job number, service, operation, start time, stop time, and total minutes worked. If a break is taken, the time recorded against these jobs stops at the beginning of the break.
• J – Break Activity – Displays a Paid Break or Unpaid Break taken during the employee's shift. The entry shows when the break began and when the employee returned from the break.
• K – Work Activity After Break – Displays the job activity recorded after the break. This section shows the jobs the employee logged into after returning from break, along with the start time, stop time, and total minutes worked for each job.

In this example, the employee:

1. Clocked in and began working (A–G).
2. Logged time against Job 149245 (I).
3. Took a paid break (J).
4. Returned from the break and logged time against Job 149244 (K).

Together, these entries provide a complete timeline of the employee's workday, including job activity, break activity, and total labor hours recorded.