[SM] Setup an SM Service Technician

Use the SM Technicians form to set up the technicians that will perform service work for your company. Technicians set up here must first be set up in PR Employees; this association ensures that labor hours entered for a technician on a work order are properly updated to Payroll.

You can link a technician to an employee from any Payroll company. However, technician lists are not shared across SM companies. Therefore, if you have a PR employee that performs service work for multiple SM companies, you must set up a technician record in each of the applicable SM companies and associate them with that PR employee.

The Work Schedule tab allows you to set up the technician's work schedule. Dispatchers can use the work schedule to identify the times that a technician is available for scheduling on a work order.

Rate- The rate you assign to each technician represents the anticipated labor cost rate for service work performed by the technician. This rate will generally include the base rate for the employee (as defined in PR Employee) plus burden; in other words, the total expected payroll cost (per hour) incurred each time the technician performs service work. This allows you to estimate the labor costs for work completed on a work order, long before payroll is actually cut. However, the system will only use this rate if the pay type specified when entering work completed labor on a work order uses a Cost Method of 0-Multiplier. The system will multiply the technician's rate by the factor defined for the pay type to derive the Cost Rate for the labor line. For example, if the technician's pay rate is $35.00 and the factor is 1.50, the calculated Cost Rate for the work completed labor line will be $52.50 (35.00 x 1.5). If the pay type uses a Cost Method of 1-Dollar Rate, the system overrides the technician's rate with the rate defined for the pay type (in SM Pay Types).

Default Material Location- The IN Co and IN Location fields allow you to specify the location from which the technician generally pulls materials when performing service work. This might typically be the service truck (if you set up your service trucks as locations in IN Locations), but can also be a service center warehouse or any other location used to provide materials for service work. This information will then default automatically for work completed inventory lines (type 4-Inventory) entered for the technician on a work order.

You will use the SM Technicians form to set up the technicians that will perform service work for your company. Use the following steps to set up a service technician.

1. From the Programs menu of Service Management, launch the SM Technicians form.
2. Enter a technician in the Technician field using one of the following options:
3. Enter a technician name or number.
4. Press F4 to select an employee from PR Employees. Then select the All Employees radio button, choose an employee from the list, and click OK. The Technician field defaults the employee's sort name from PR Employees. In addition, the system defaults the PR Co and Employee from PR Employees.
5. Enter the payroll company to which the technician is associated in the PR Co field. Skip this step if you used Step 4 to enter the technician.
6. In the Employee field, enter or select the employee from the PR Co specified above that identifies the technician you are setting up. Skip this step if you used Step 4 to enter the technician.

Note: If you select an "inactive" employee, the system will allow you to save the record. However, you must activate the employee (in PR) before you can post transactions to the technician.

Note: This rate is only used when the pay type specified for work completed labor lines (entered in SM Work Orders) has a Cost Method of 0-Multiplier. The system multiplies this rate by the factor specified for the pay type (in SM Pay Types) to derive the Cost Rate for the labor line.

    8. If the pay type Cost Method is 1-Dollar Rate, the system overrides the rate defined for the             technician with the rate defined for the pay type (in SM Pay Types).

    9. In the IN Co and IN Location fields, enter the IN company and location from which this                     technician pulls materials when performing service work (e.g. truck, warehouse, etc.). Press F4 for     a list of valid IN companies and/or locations.

    10. Check the Active box to activate the technician. Technician will be available for selection in any     field that prompts for technician.

    11. Leave this box unchecked if technician is not currently active.

    12. Save the record.

    13. Set up the technician's work schedule.