Method Community

Hey,

We are sucessfully using Xora and Method, but there are a couple areas of functionality that we are still looking to work out. These relate to Overtime and Lunch.

For Overtime, it's fairly simple: I want all time above 8 hours a day to count as OT. There is an option under the Method Xora Connector Preferences that lets you set some OT settings, but it doesn't appear to function. I've imported time from Xora where there were 9 or 10 hours worked per day, but it all shows up as Hourly Regular Rate in QuickBooks. One explanation may be that Method is looking at Shift Times rather than Job Time. This would make sense, because we've decided not to use Shift Times in Xora (we only have employees start and end jobs, not start and end shifts, to ensure that all time is allocated to a specific job). Any ideas?

The second questions is regarding our lunch policy. Our worker's take a 1 hour lunch every day, but the company only pays for 30 minutes of it. In other words, we need a way to automatically deduct 30 minutes from a worker's time punches every day (or alternatively allocate 30 minutes of paid lunch among the day's jobs). I know that the easy way to do this would be to have the employees track their Lunch hours in Xora, but I'm looking for a workaround, since this would involve them having to make another punch midway through their lunch break to account for the 30 minutes we don't want on our payroll records. I'm wondering if there is a way to program the following into Method:

1. Count all the jobs completed in a given day by an employee (let's call this number A).

2. Divide 30 / A to get the number of Lunch minutes that need to be allocated per job completed that day (let's call this new number B).

3. Add B to every job completed that day. For example, if an employee completed 3 jobs that day, then each job would get 10 additional minutes.

This way, I can have the employees clock out of their jobs during the entire one hour Lunch Break, and Xora will allocate their 30 minutes of paid lunch to whatever jobs they completed.

Is this too complex to implement?

Hi Tal,

It’s kind of funny but what I see happening here is a wish-list for your Method account and with the holidays just around the corner you’re trying make sure you get what you want. Guess this means I’m playing Santa on this one. Let’s go through the list…

Unfortunately, I was not able to replicate the OT scenario you described in my account. I created 1 job time for 10 hours and tried to calculate OT based on the typical 8 hour day. It worked as it should. Method OT calculations work by looking at each row (record) from the Method table where the data is stored. It’s not concerned if the entry is a shift or job but looks at the total time and your preferences.

As you already know the rest of your wish-list can be done by customization. The two options are by consulting time or through our customization packages which is the preferred option. We’d need to clarify at what point in the process you’d like all the magic to happen. Did you want a separate button to make adjust for lunch after you fetch the time from Xora? Or were you looking for something a little more automated?

Val

Method_Valbon:

Unfortunately, I was not able to replicate the OT scenario you described in my account. I created 1 job time for 10 hours and tried to calculate OT based on the typical 8 hour day. It worked as it should. Method OT calculations work by looking at each row (record) from the Method table where the data is stored. It’s not concerned if the entry is a shift or job but looks at the total time and your preferences.

Hm... what if an employee has 3 separate jobs in one day that all add up to 10 hours, but individually only make up 3-4 hours each? Would OT still be calculated? I did notice that there are 'Allocate Overtime by View' and 'Allocate Overtime by Day' buttons on the Send to Quickbooks screen, so maybe I'm missing a step in the process.

Method_Valbon:

As you already know the rest of your wish-list can be done by customization. The two options are by consulting time or through our customization packages which is the preferred option. We’d need to clarify at what point in the process you’d like all the magic to happen. Did you want a separate button to make adjust for lunch after you fetch the time from Xora? Or were you looking for something a little more automated?

I would be very interested in getting the customization done, as this is the only way we can effectively use the system for payroll. Whether it is automated or requires me to press a button doesn't really matter. But I would want to discuss the parameters under which lunch would be deducted (min hours worked, etc.). Please contact me if you have time to work on this.

Tal,

Just an update to this post, I’ve received your customization specs and as you know we’re in the process of getting that started. :)

Here’s the OT explanation from the Method Xora Connector User Guide.

Allocate Overtime per Day if you are tracking overtime on a daily basis. Each user‟s total time per day will be compared to the Maximum Hours per Day found from your preferences.

Allocate Overtime per View if you are tracking overtime on any other basis. This can include weekly, biweekly, monthly or on a user by user basis. Each user‟s total time for the current view will be compared to the Maximum Hours per View found from your preferences

The answer you’re looking for is yes. In the example you provided it will calculate OT.
 
Hope that helps,