Q- "I need to have the job cost show up in the labor and/or job cost journal at the agreed upon rate."

A - This depends on what you really mean.  Do you want the Cost of the Allocation to show up as a separate job cost in the job cost record or as the "Cost" Cell of the Job Cost Record?  Also, the Rate will not be apparent as the Allocation is rolled up in the Cost on top of the Wages and Taxes;  In the Job Costs Records the Allocation is HIDDEN, in the General Ledger it shows up wherever you assign the Payroll Calcs to Credit.

Q- "Does anyone out there use standard labor burden rates?  If so, how did you get the payroll calculation give you the desired result."

A- I can help you with this.  "Standard Labor Burden" =(Indirect Costs)/ (#Units of Cost Driver) taken from historical data. "Standard" means not actual, but estimated cost for the purposes of consistent allocation to jobs based on the most realistic cost driver for the Cost being allocated. This is imperfect because to choose only one cost driver, you will inevitably have to use it for Indirect Costs that are actually driven by more complex calculations that the Allocation Rate will allow.  The good news is that you can use multiple Allocation Rates with Multiple Payroll Calcs- as you mentioned in your Background.

We use Sage Payroll Calculator to allocate Standard Indirect Overhead Costs per Direct Labor Hour for each job using Employer-Cost Payroll Calculations.   The Benefit is that the Standard Rate(s) are applied to every Job as type-2 "Labor" Job Cost on every Payroll Posting at the agreed upon Allocation Rate.  The accounting for the Standard vs Actual costs (variance) is handled in Control accounts on either the Balance Sheet or P&L; and requires one or more Adjusting Entries to complete, but its easy nonetheless.

There is one little detail about using this Job-Costing Method that may help address the imperfections you are talking about.  Hint:  Payroll Calculations are applied to ALL Regular Hours, billable & non-billable.  If your Standard Cost allocations are calculated based on Direct Labor Hours (as they should be in my opinion), then the Payroll Calc creates an "unintended" Cost for the Standard Allocation applied on non-billable hours - Due to the "Calc Type" limitations [Sage would do good to add a payroll calc type: Employer Cost on Job Labor Hours ONLY]

There is a lot to discuss with this because it all ties in with your Estimating, Ordering and Scheduling system, not to mention how your GL is configured and how the Owners/ Clients want to see the Reports.

However, In spite of the underlying complexity, I assure you it does work, its a fantastic idea because it is conceptually simple, and scales effortlessly no matter how many Jobs you have going at a time.  Cheers to you for thinking about it because it eliminates the manual periodic "peanut-butter" standard cost allocations that are typically based on % of $/Revenue.

Call me with questions.

S100 Construction + Estimating

Residential Construction

Sage Construction Anywhere

Q- "I need to have the job cost show up in the labor and/or job cost journal at the agreed upon rate."

A - This depends on what you really mean.  Do you want the Cost of the Allocation to show up as a separate job cost in the job cost record or as the "Cost" Cell of the Job Cost Record?  Also, the Rate will not be apparent as the Allocation is rolled up in the Cost on top of the Wages and Taxes;  In the Job Costs Records the Allocation is HIDDEN, in the General Ledger it shows up wherever you assign the Payroll Calcs to Credit.

Q- "Does anyone out there use standard labor burden rates?  If so, how did you get the payroll calculation give you the desired result."

A- I can help you with this.  "Standard Labor Burden" =(Indirect Costs)/ (#Units of Cost Driver) taken from historical data. "Standard" means not actual, but estimated cost for the purposes of consistent allocation to jobs based on the most realistic cost driver for the Cost being allocated. This is imperfect because to choose only one cost driver, you will inevitably have to use it for Indirect Costs that are actually driven by more complex calculations that the Allocation Rate will allow.  The good news is that you can use multiple Allocation Rates with Multiple Payroll Calcs- as you mentioned in your Background.

We use Sage Payroll Calculator to allocate Standard Indirect Overhead Costs per Direct Labor Hour for each job using Employer-Cost Payroll Calculations.   The Benefit is that the Standard Rate(s) are applied to every Job as type-2 "Labor" Job Cost on every Payroll Posting at the agreed upon Allocation Rate.  The accounting for the Standard vs Actual costs (variance) is handled in Control accounts on either the Balance Sheet or P&L; and requires one or more Adjusting Entries to complete, but its easy nonetheless.

There is one little detail about using this Job-Costing Method that may help address the imperfections you are talking about.  Hint:  Payroll Calculations are applied to ALL Regular Hours, billable & non-billable.  If your Standard Cost allocations are calculated based on Direct Labor Hours (as they should be in my opinion), then the Payroll Calc creates an "unintended" Cost for the Standard Allocation applied on non-billable hours - Due to the "Calc Type" limitations [Sage would do good to add a payroll calc type: Employer Cost on Job Labor Hours ONLY]

There is a lot to discuss with this because it all ties in with your Estimating, Ordering and Scheduling system, not to mention how your GL is configured and how the Owners/ Clients want to see the Reports.

However, In spite of the underlying complexity, I assure you it does work, its a fantastic idea because it is conceptually simple, and scales effortlessly no matter how many Jobs you have going at a time.  Cheers to you for thinking about it because it eliminates the manual periodic "peanut-butter" standard cost allocations that are typically based on % of $/Revenue.

Call me with questions.

S100 Construction + Estimating

Residential Construction

Sage Construction Anywhere