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Creating Employees/Contractors

Employees and contractors are the basic personnel units in e-automate. You identify each individual as an employee or a contractor, and then you designate what they do for the company. Both employees and contractors are created in the same screen. You can only create technicians as employees, not contractors.

The employee record is used by e-automate to track who performs certain transactions in e-automate. For example, you can define the functions of a purchaser, sale rep, manager, and technician. When setting up a technician, you can configure the technician warehouse and bin. You can identify which technician serves as a backup to another technician. In addition to the practical settings associated with a technician, you use the employee record to identify the burden rate associated with technician. This rate is used in the calculation of contract profitability or model profitability. If you intend to require or allow your technicians to use the time card functionality available in MobileTech and RemoteTech, then each technician's employee record must associate the technician with a payroll group.

Out cost codes are also identified on the employee record. You use an out cost code to override the rate identified on an individual out cost group for a specific period of time, or indefinitely. To explain how the out cost code works, we will describe a simple example. Each of the items on the list of inventory that you sell can have an out cost group associated with it. The out cost group allows you to add an additional burden on the inventory item to protect the dealer margin. For example, you could create an out cost group called Parts and add a 10% burden to inventory items associated with this out cost group. Any time you sell an item with an actual cost of $100, the system will automatically calculate an out cost for that item of $110. The cost used for commission calculation would be $110. You can override this rate for the Parts out cost group using an out cost code. This override can be either temporary or permanent, and can be assigned only to a single employee, or to multiple employees. You can either lower the rate to encourage sales or raise the rate to discourage sales.

Getting to the TransactionGetting to the Transaction

On the People menu, select Employees/Contractors to open the Employees/Contractors window.

Click [New] to open the New Employee window.

Basic InformationBasic Information

In the upper section of the New Employee window, verify the appropriate information. Complete the following fields as appropriate:

Number: Number assigned to this employee.

Note: This number is automatically generated as you enter the first and last names of the employee. To edit this field, wait until you have tabbed past the Last name field and then edit the number field as necessary.

Note: This field is required to use Remote Tech, either the Sync or the Live version.

Employee or Contractor: Select the appropriate radio button.

Note: Only employees can be technicians.

Address TabAddress Tab

Complete the following fields as appropriate.

First name: First name of the employee you are creating.

Middle name: Middle name of the employee you are creating.

Last name: Last name of the employee you are creating.

Full name: Name by which this employee likes to be addressed.

Note: When you are entering the First name, Middle name and Last name fields, e-automate automatically fills in the Full Name, Preferred first name, and Number fields. These fields can be edited, but should only be edited after you have tabbed past the Last name field.

Preferred first name: First name by which this employee likes to be addressed.

Note: When you are filling in the First name field, the system automatically fills in this field for you. This field can be edited, but should not be edited until after you have tabbed past the Last name field.

Address: Street address of the employee you are creating.

City: City where the employee lives.

State: State or province where the employee lives.

Zip: Employee’s zip or postal code.

Country: Country where the employee lives.

Home phone: Home phone number of the employee.

Work phone: Work phone number of the employee.

E-mail: E-mail address of the employee.

SSN: Social security number of the employee you are creating.

Tip: Best practice recommends that you do not store social security numbers in e-automate’s database due to identify theft and security concerns.

Positions TabPositions Tab

Click the Positions tab to bring it forward.

Complete the following fields as appropriate.

Sales Rep: When checked, the employee will be included on the sales rep list.

Purchaser: When checked, the employee will be included on the purchasers list.

Technician: When checked, the employee will be included on the technicians list.

Note: Checking Technician also enables other fields required for technicians.

Manager: When checked, this employee can be identified as other employees’ manager. Technician managers can reassign calls in Remote Tech Live.

Branch: Branch to which this employee is assigned.

Note: The Branch field is only displayed when branching is enabled. For more information, see the Enabling Branching topic.

Show in all branches: When checked, the employee will be included in lists for all branches.

Note: The Show in all branches field is only displayed when branching is enabled. Additionally, the Show in all branches field is only enabled when the Show data from only user assigned branches box is checked in Tools > Options > Company > Departments and branches. For more information, see the Enabling Branching topic.

Department: Department to which this employee is assigned.

Manager: The manager of this employee.

Note: Only other employees with the Manager checkbox checked are displayed in the Manager Lookup.

Salary: Informational field about this employee. Is the employee salaried or hourly? This field is used for reporting purposes in e-automate.

Full time: Informational field about this employee. Does this employee work full time or part time? This field is used for reporting purposes in e-automate.

Time Card Export: When checked, the employee’s time card can be included in the export of payroll information. This export can be used in QuickBooks Pro or other payroll software.

Pay rate: Hourly wage you are paying this employee.

Burden rate: How much this employee costs you per hour, including pay rate, insurance, vehicle allowance, 401(k), etc.

Note: The burden rate is used by e-automate in all labor cost calculations in the Service and Production modules.

Billable percentage: The estimated billable percent for this employee. This amount is a field for tracking purposes; e-automate does not calculate or use this field.

Payroll group: The payroll group associated with this employee.

Note: In order for your technicians to record payroll time in Remote Tech, you must have a payroll group.

Pager number: Technician's pager number.

Note: This field and the fields listed below only display if you checked the Technicians checkbox.

Territory: Assigned territory for this technician.

Note: This technician can work outside the assigned territory as needed.

Backup: The default technician who performs backup for this technician. If you have to reschedule a call for a reason, e-automate suggests the technician identified in this field.

Delivery method: The default method the technician uses to obtain parts.

Warehouse: Warehouse from which this technician primarily draws his parts and supplies.

Bin: Bin in specified warehouse from which the technician draws his supplies.

Bin default settings: Select one of the following three bin default settings for this technician:

Always use specified warehouse and bin: If you select this option, e-automate will fulfill all service items from the technician’s warehouse and bin set above.

Note: You can force the system to pull from another warehouse and bin.

Use bin settings of specified warehouse: If you select this option and have bin defaults set for the warehouse identified, e-automate will use the bin defaults for the specified warehouse.

Note: This option is typically used when you do not intend to transfer inventory to a technician’s warehouse, but rather to fulfill items used during service calls from your main warehouse and associated bin defaults.

Use bin settings of company/branch warehouse: e-automate will fulfill items on service calls as if they are being fulfilled from the company/branch specified warehouse. If the client has an override for their client workstation, e-automate follows the client’s warehouse configuration rules.

Hide technician in e -info: When checked, the technician information will be hidden in e-info.

Text Messaging TabText Messaging Tab

Click the Text Messaging tab to bring it forward.

Complete the following fields as appropriate:

Description: Description of the type of text messaging device.

Identification: Number for contacting this text messaging device.

Note: For example, a telephone number - area code and number. Be sure to enter only digits in this field. If it is an email address, only enter the portion of the address prior to the @ symbol.

Device Type: Device type or carrier for text messaging service.

Note: Popular text messaging services are already in the list; however, the domains change periodically. You should always verify the correct domain for your technicians. If in doubt, contact your carrier for the correct domain and make the necessary changes. If your carrier is not present, use the drop-down menu to select New to add your carrier.

Click [ QuickAdd] to set the device as the default.

Note: You can add multiple devices; however, only one can be the default device. You can also remove a device by selecting the device and clicking [ Remove].

Qualifications TabQualifications Tab

Click the Qualifications tab to bring it forward.

Note: The Qualifications tab is only displayed when the employee record is flagged as a technician.

In the Qualification Code field, use the lookup to select the qualification code that represents this technician’s qualifications.

Click [ QuickAdd].

Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you have accurately identified all qualification codes appropriate for this technician.

Note: Qualification codes are cumulative not individual. The technician is qualified based on all the qualification codes associated with the employee record. For more information on qualification codes, see the topic, Creating Qualification Codes.

Service Hours TabService Hours Tab

Click the Service Hours tab to bring it forward. Use the Service Hours tab to identify when technicians will not be available for service calls, as well as their schedule hours.

To identify hours different for this technician different from the company hours, use the Service hours code field. In the Service hours code field, use the lookup to select the hours for this technician. If this technician’s hours are not listed, create a new hours code. See the topic, Creating Company Hours for more information.

To identify hours within company hours when this technician is not available to work, do the following:

Click [ Add] to open the New Technician Unavailability window.

In the Unavailable From field, enter the start date and time of technician unavailability.

In the Unavailable To field, enter the date and time when the technician will return to availability.

In the Activity code field, use the lookup to select an appropriate reason for the unavailability.

Note: e-automate only displays activity codes that have a category or Holiday, Vacation, or Sick. You create and classify your own activity codes.

In the Description field, enter an optional description as to why the technician is unavailable.

If you want to automatically re-assign calls to another technician for the identified unavailable time, select the Auto assign calls scheduled during unavailable time checkbox and identify the technician to whom you want to reassign this technician’s calls.

Note: If you identified a backup technician on the employee record, the system automatically populates this field with that technician. The technician’s calls that are due during the unavailable time are assigned by e-automate to the specified technician. You can also identify unavailable time from the Dispatch Console by right-clicking on a technician.

Click [ OK] to save your unavailable settings.

Repeat Steps a through g to add more unavailable times.

Out Cost Codes TabOut Cost Codes Tab

Click the Out Cost Codes tab to bring it forward.

Note: The Out Cost Codes tab is only displayed when the employee record is flagged as a sales rep.

To view expired out cost codes, check the Show expired codes checkbox.

In the Out cost code field, use the lookup to select an out cost code to associate with this employee.

In the Start date field, enter the date on which you want this out cost code used.

In the End date field, enter the date on which you want this out cost code to stop being used, if any.

Note: You do not have to identify an end date for an out cost code.

Click [ Quick Add] to add the out cost code to the list. To modify an existing out cost code, do the following:

From the Out Cost Codes list, select the code you want to modify. e-automate lists the selected out cost code settings in the Out cost code field, Start date field, and End date field.

Make the changes as necessary.

Click [ Update].

Repeat for other out cost codes you want to modify.

To remove an out cost code from the list, select the code from the list and click [ Remove].

Completing the TransactionCompleting the Transaction

Click [ OK] to save the employee record.