Every once in a while we catch our customers complaining, and sometimes it triggers little alarm bells that say "Hey! We can help with that!". This is one of those times.
Prevailing wage (check out this article for a great overview of prevailing wage legislation) can be a major issue for contractors, for two reasons.
- It's paperwork, and we believe paperwork is pure evil.
- It's expensive.
Not just because it may be higher than your standard rate, but there's also this: When an employee is doing several different jobs in a day, and you don't know how much time is spent on each job (i.e. "when in doubt"), you are required to pay the highest rate to that employee for the entire day's work.
OUCH!
Labor costs are difficult enough to control, but now you're overpaying because you don't know what happened on the jobsite. Depending on the work, that could be as much as a $12/hour difference in wages, from one job to the next. And when the paperwork is recreated in the office the next morning, you have to play it safe.
The answer? Mobile time tracking. It's a key part to paperless field service software, and it allows the company to automate the tracking of each employee's time by job/service/category/etc. And because it captures exact time records, it's a fully valid form of reporting when you have to submit the timesheets. Further, you should be able to have a custom report created so you literally don't have to do any paperwork, or even double-entry.
That sound? That's the sigh of relief your office manager is making right now. A big problem, and easy fix. And if you'd like to learn how to get started, just get in touch.