How do I create technicians?

Summary

This article explains how to create technicians in the workshop system and assign them the relevant amount of hours for the workshop diary. Once you have created one technician and the labour rates, you can then use this as a template and create other technicians by copying an existing one.

More Information

Go to " Workshop Maintenance Options Technicians Labour Rates Add or Edit Labour Codes".

• If you don't have any Labour codes set up currently, you will be presented with the "Labour Code Properties" window but otherwise

press <F6> or the [Add] button to open this window.

Technicians

Regardless of the method of recording labour you are using, each technician will need a Labour Code creating to allow you to record their time spent on jobs.

• At "Labour code:", enter a unique code to represent this technician.

You could use the technician's initials as the code.

The Labour code must be unique and cannot match any other Labour code or a Parts Stock Code!

• At "Labour type:", choose 'Technician'.
• At "Labour Name:", type the full name of the technician being created.
• If the Technician is also a user of Platinum, you may enter their user code at "User Code:".
• You should generally leave "Sales Centre:" blank unless advised otherwise by your accounts department. There is a system default that should not need to be overridden.
• Again, generally leave "V.A.T. Rate:" at '0 - No default' and the system default will be used.
• "Category:" is yet another one to leave blank under most circumstances! There is also a system default at work here!
• If you have multiple depots, at "Depot:", enter the code for the depot at which this technician works. Otherwise, leave it as the default.
• The "Primary Skill" field is intended to be used as a way of linking the Technician to a particular Workshop Job upon job creation. Enter the Technicians Initials in the Primary Skill field and press <Shift+F10> to create the "skill" and give it a suitable description.
• At "Start Date:", enter the starting date of the technician.
• Assuming the technician is still part of the workforce, you should leave "Leaving Date:" blank.
• At "Available Hours", enter the specific amount of hours the technician is contracted to work from "Sunday" through to "Saturday". If he is not available on specific days during the week (e.g. Days Off), leave the available hours on that day set to '0'.
• Find out how to assign "Labour Rates" here.
• Once you have filled out all this information, press [Done] and then 'Accept' the changes.

Adding Extra Technicians

Once you have created one technician, you should create any others by copying the details from a suitable existing technician.

Copying technicians

On the " Add or Edit Labour Codes" window:

• Press [List] to list all the available technicians.
• Highlight the technician on the list that you want to copy the details from and press [Copy].
• A new window will popup asking you to enter a new labour code. Enter the code for the new technician here and press [OK].
• You now have the ability to change any information for the new technician.
• Once you have finished, press [Done] and then 'Accept' the changes in the normal way.

Descriptive Lines

If you have chosen to record your technician's time taken against descriptive lines, see this article. You can create Descriptive Labour Codes for each type of work that you want to show to a customer, e.g. Electrical, Bodywork, Service etc. These would be more like Operation Codes that the technicians can carry out.

• At "Labour code:", enter a unique code to represent this type of work e.g. 'LAB ELEC'.

The Labour code must be unique and cannot match any other Labour code or a Parts Stock Code!

• At "Labour type:", choose 'Description'.
• At "Labour Name:", type the full description for this code. This will print on the customer's invoice.
• Leave the "User Code:" blank.
• You should generally leave "Sales Centre:" blank unless advised otherwise by your accounts department. There is a system default that should not need to be overridden.
• Again, generally leave "V.A.T. Rate:" at '0 - No default' and the system default will be used.
• "Category:" is yet another one to leave blank under most circumstances! There is also a system default at work here!
• If you have multiple depots, at "Depot:", enter the code for the depot at which this descriptive line is to be used. Otherwise, leave it as the default.
• Leave "Primary Skill", "Start Date:", "Leaving Date:" and "Available hours" blank.
• Find out how to assign "Labour Rates" here.
• Once you have filled out all this information, press [Done] and then 'Accept' the changes.

See also

• How do I add labour to a workshop job?
• How do I create or edit workshop labour rates?
• Where do the workshop available hours come from?
• What do I do if a technician is not available for work?
• How do I schedule a technician for a workshop job?
• How do I make a technician leave?

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Keywords AND Misspellings

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