The Enter Employee screen (also known as the Enter Technicians screen) is packed full of awesome features and fields that can make managing your employees and costs super easy. But because there are so many features packed into such a small space, it can also get confusing and maybe a bit intimidating. So let's break down those fields for you and show you what features they belong to.
To get to the Enter Employee screen, go to Dispatch → Enter Technicians.
You may either click the Add New button on the toolbar to add a new employee or double-click on an existing employee to edit their record.
In the Edit Employee screen that appears, you'll see several tabs that help to break down the various features and capabilities that working with employees in ESC can provide.
Employee Name Fields
Use these fields to enter the technician's name. Enter what you commonly call the tech in the Dispatch Name field (now be nice). This will be used on the Electronic Dispatch Board. This can be helpful if you have two technicians with similar names. For example, if a company had two technicians, Michael Johnson & Michael Dix, they could be given dispatch names of MJ & Dix, or Michael & Mike.
Once an employee has been created, we recommend against changing the record to represent a different employee. This could skew records previously created for that employee and also cause problems if you are integrated with an accounting system.
Active
Next to the Dispatch Name field, you'll find an Active check box. Once an employee has been used anywhere in ESC, you won't be able to delete them. Making them inactive will hide them from common screens so they can no longer be used, but will not affect any records linked to that employee.
The General tab
Employee Number
Technicians are entering into the system by using a 4-digit number. When entering a new employee, you can manually assign them an Employee Number (also known as a Technician ID) or you can let ESC generate one for you by leaving this field blank and then saving the new employee.
Tech Pager Number
This is a reference field that can be used to record and display the employee's phone number, but can be handy information if you are using a paging system.
Email Address
Enter the email address for this technician here. When you email a dispatch from ESC, rather than ask for an email address, ESC will automatically pull the email address from the technician that is assigned to the dispatch.
Skill Level
This is a 3-character alphanumeric field that can be used to compare a technician's skill level with the Skill level required for particular tasks on your dispatches.
Default Department
Select the primary Department this technician works in. When an invoice is created for the dispatches they completed, this Department will be used. If multiple technicians worked on the same dispatch - the invoice will inherit the Department of the last technician that was modified on the dispatch or the default sales Department if that is blank. If a technician does work under multiple Departments, you'll want to leave this field blank.
Member of Crew
This field allows you to create or select a Crew to assign this technician to. When a Crew is selected instead of a technician on the Dispatch screen's Schedule tab, all technicians assigned to that crew will be scheduled.
How Can I Dispatch a Crew?
Route Optimize Source
This selection determines the technician's starting point for the day. It can be set to the technician's address(from the Personnel tab of the Enter Technicians screen) or the company's physical address (from the Company Information tab of the System Setup screen). This information is used when the Optimize Routes or Optimize Dispatch into Route functions are used in conjunction with the Mapping feature of ESC.
Commission Code
Use this field to select the commission code that will be used for this employee. You can enter these on the Enter Commission Codes screen.
QuickBooks Sales Rep
If you are integrating with QuickBooks, use this field to associate the employee with a Sales Rep in QuickBooks. You can get a full list of these codes from within QuickBooks by going to Lists → Customer & Vendor Profile Lists → Sales Rep List.
If this employee is then entered into the Salesperson field on an ESC invoice, the associated sales rep will appear on the invoice in QuickBooks after it has been posted.
Pay Rate
The pay rate should be entered as the number of dollars the technician earns per hour. In order for Labor Cost to be properly displayed on the Sales Invoicing screen and Sales Reports, a pay rate must be entered here.
Overhead Value
An overhead field is provided so that accurate labor costing can be tracked. Overhead is entered as either a fixed dollar amount per hour or a percentage of the technician’s pay rate per hour. These figures are used to calculate the Labor Cost field on the Sales Invoicing screen. The Labor Cost is also printed on Sales Reports.
Example: if a technician’s Pay Rate is $10, and if five (5) hours are entered for that tech on the Sales Invoicing screen, then the Labor Cost will show on the screen and Sales Reports as $50. The chargeable labor to the customer is created by a special Billing Code, such as "LAB". If 50 is entered for the Overhead for Sales reporting as a percentage, then another 50% of the Pay Rate times the hours is added to the Labor Cost – in this case, 50% of $50 would be $25. The $25 overhead is added to the original $50 Labor Cost to display a total Labor Cost of $75.
The Overhead for Sales Reporting can also be entered as dollars per hour. If we enter 10 as the Overhead for Sales Reporting as Dollars, then another $10 per hour will be added to the Labor Cost. In this example, the tech has five (5) hours times $10 which equals $50. Another $10 per hour is added, to that would be another $50 added to the original $50 of Labor Cost, giving us a total of $100 for the Labor Cost of the invoice.
Note: When creating a sales invoice in the Sales Invoicing screen, if a dispatch is referenced in the Dispatch field, and if a technician is displayed with hours but with no Labor Cost in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, then there is no Pay Rate set for this tech on this screen.
Note: It is important to note that the Labor Cost is strictly used on sales reports within the ESC software. This information is not transferred to any accounting software. Please look at your accounting software to get true labor costs.
Schedule
This section is used to set the technician's normal working hours. This information will then appear as a light green shading covering the times specified when viewing the technician using the week or month views on the Electronic Dispatch Board (EDB). This information is what ESC uses on the Month View of the EDB to set the work meters.
The Personnel Tab
Most of the data on this tab is strictly for your information. The following areas, however, should be filled out for the following reasons:
Employee Address
If the Route Optimize Source on the General tab of this screen is set to the Employee Address, this address must be valid to make the mapping functionality work properly.
Social Security Number
If you are using ESC Accounting this information is required for several payroll forms.
The Notes Tab
This screen can be used to enter notes about the employee. This is for informational purposes only. It has no effect on other parts of the software.
The Photo Tab
This screen can be used to enter a picture of the employee. This can be inserted into emails sent to the customer to inform them when the status of their dispatches change.
The Documents Tab
Like many other areas of ESC, the Enter Employees screen will also have a place for you to attach files to an employee's record. This area will have no effect on any other parts of the software.
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The following areas will only be available in the Enter Employees screen if you are using ESC Accounting.
The Payroll tab
The Payroll tab of the Enter Employees screen is where you’ll enter all of the employee’s information that would affect their paycheck. This screen is broken down into four major sections:
Section 1 is the basic information that determines whether the employee is married or not, at what interval they get paid (we currently support weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly monthly and yearly) and the default workman’s comp code. You’ll see the workman’s comp code you select here being defaulted in Time Entry, Timesheet, Write Manual Check and when you’re processing payroll checks for that employee. You’ll also be able to click the “Copy payroll settings from another employee” to use someone else as the template for this new employee you’re entering.
Section 2 allows you to select the wage items (and the default wage item) that will be accessible when creating a payroll check for the employee and putting in time entries. If a wage item is not selected for the employee then it will not be available to use when making out a paycheck or entering time.
Section 3 gives you the ability to set all the default additions\deductions that will appear when processing payroll or writing a manual check. They function similar to the wage items where you will only be able to select additions\deductions that are tied to the employee in this screen. Also, deductions must be entered as a negative value if using a flat dollar amount however you can use a positive amount if they are set up as a percentage.
Section 4 relates to the tax items that apply to this employee. Simply select which taxes apply to this employee, set the allowances, secondary allowances and additional withholding for each tax and when you run payroll these default taxes will be there.
Note: This screen is only available if you have ESC Accounting with Payroll enabled.
The Direct Deposit tab
This screen allows you to set up the employee's direct deposit in ESC. The direct deposit can span multiple bank accounts if desired. Use the Allocate field to determine how much of the paycheck will be going to each account.
Once everything is set up you can click the Create a prenotification button that creates the text file we send. You can send that to your bank so they will know the ESC syntax.
Note: This screen is only available if you have ESC Accounting with Payroll enabled.
The Raises tab
Use this screen to keep track of when the employee received raises, the amount of the raises and the date of their next review. This is used for informational purposes only.
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