Recording the labor and materials required to complete work orders is central to the maintenance management process. By posting the costs incurred from each work order, you can identify assets with unusually high maintenance costs. This can influence decisions about whether to replace assets.
You can record three types of maintenance cost:
Labor entries are made for work performed by your company's maintenance personnel. Use maintenance trade codes to indicate the different types of labor required for maintenance. A standard hourly cost is typically defined for each maintenance trade. See Fill in and post labor journals for information on how to post these entries.
Material entries are made for the items used in maintenance activities. Materials can be classified as either stock or nonstock items. For more information on these material types, see Asset spare parts. See Fill in and post material journals for information on how to post these entries.
Contract entries are made for work performed by an outside vendor. Use maintenance trade codes to indicate the different types of labor that can be contracted for maintenance work. A standard hourly cost is typically defined for each maintenance trade. You can also enter hourly costs for specific vendors. See Fill in and post contract journals for information on how to post these entries.
Maintenance journals
Use maintenance journals to enter different types of maintenance costs, link these costs to a current work order, and then post the costs to that work order. Three separate journals exist for labor, material, and contract costs. A fourth journal combines the functions of the other three. Costs posted from a maintenance journal appear on the corresponding FastTab of the associated work order.
Maintenance journal lines post to the maintenance ledger. Every asset has its own maintenance ledger, which you can use to view the recorded cost of Anywhere Mobility Solutions work orders for that asset.
Posting from a maintenance journal does not typically affect the general ledger. This is useful if you want to use the Maintenance Management application area solely as an analytical tool for recognizing trends in your company's maintenance activities and would prefer to keep Anywhere Mobility Solutions accounting aspects separate.
The one instance in which posting from a maintenance journal does affect the general ledger is when you record the use of stock materials. Materials you keep stocked in your inventory are set up as item records in the program. When you indicate that a quantity of a stock material is used in a maintenance journal, a negative adjustment is made to the item's on-hand quantity. Because each unit of an item carries value, this negative adjustment affects the associated general ledger accounts.
Internal labor costs can only be posted through a journal. Recording labor entries is done purely for analytical purposes, because the financial impact of an employee is handled separately through payroll entries.
Purchase documents
You can use purchase documents instead of maintenance journals to post material and contract costs. If you purchase items or hire an outside vendor to perform maintenance activities, you receive invoices for these goods and services. Associate a purchase line with a particular work order, then indicate whether the line is for stock material, nonstock material, or contract labor. When you post the purchase line, an entry is made to the maintenance ledger for the relevant asset.
Posting maintenance costs through purchase documents always results in entries to the general ledger. If the purchase line is for a stock item, enter the item and quantity on the line. The posting groups assigned to the item determine which accounts are affected. Because the item was used in a work order, the program automatically adjusts the item out of inventory immediately after it is received.
Nonstock material and contract labor is posted directly to a general ledger account you specify on the purchase line. If a work order has a default material or contract account, the program assigns the account number to the purchase line when you enter the work order number. If a work order does not have a default material or contract account, enter a G/L account on the purchase line manually. See Post maintenance costs from a purchase document for more information.
Posting grace period
You may not always know the actual amount of a maintenance cost when a work order is completed. For example, if you hire a vendor to service a piece of equipment, you may not know the cost until the invoice arrives a week later.
You can post maintenance costs to completed work orders using the posting grace period feature. After entering a date formula in the Posting Grace Period field on the maintenance setup card, you can assign a completed work order to a maintenance journal or purchase line if it falls within the grace period. For example, if you define a posting grace period of one month and then enter a new maintenance journal line, you can assign Anywhere Mobility Solutions work orders completed within the past month to that line.
The posting grace period is used solely to determine available work orders for which maintenance costs can be assigned. The posting date for the maintenance cost must still fall before the assigned work order's completion date. For example, if the work date is September 15 and you have a posting grace period of one month, you can enter maintenance costs for a work order completed on September 1. However, the posting date for these costs must be no later than September 1.
Viewing posted costs
You can view posted costs and other information through the Maintenance Ledger Entries page. See View maintenance ledger entries from an asset card.