Labor Settings is where you configure how labor is tracked, costed, and billed in BuildOps. This page includes six main sections:
General Settings
Time Tracking
Labor Rate Groups & Types
Labor Rate Modifiers
Payroll Hour Rates & Types
Billing Hour Rates & Types.
Before you start
Before setting up Labor Settings, make sure:
You already have an item named Labor in your Item List and that it is used in your workflows.
You know your labor burden rates and billing hour rates before entering payroll and billing information.
Any needed Cost Codes and Cost Types have already been created in Project Settings.
Your role has the permissions needed to view or edit Labor Settings.
How to open Labor Settings
Hover over your company name.
Select Labor Settings.
If you do not see Labor Settings, your role may not have access. Please refer to Roles and Permissions and contact your company admin for help.
Labor Settings in the company menu.
What you can configure
Labor Settings is divided into six sections.
General Settings: controls events, office timezone, invoice display options, and in some accounts, timesheet export preferences.
Time Tracking: controls rounding, mobile timesheet behavior, travel home, and crew time tracking.
Labor Rate Groups & Types: sets up your labor groups, worker types, and cost code or cost type assignments.
Labor Rate Modifiers: adds flat-dollar or percentage adjustments to payroll rates.
Payroll Hour Rates & Types: defines your internal labor cost and payroll hour categories.
Billing Hour Rates & Types: defines how labor is billed to customers and which billing items appear on invoices.
General Settings
This setting controls events, office timezone, invoice display options, and in some accounts, timesheet export preferences.
General Settings tab for events, timezone, and invoice options.
Events
Use Events to control whether your team can log time that does not happen at a customer location or property.
Billable Events are for job-related work completed away from the job site, such as preparing materials at the shop.
Non-Billable Events are for standalone time such as training, meetings, or sick time.
If enabled, technicians can create these events from the mobile app.
Office timezone
Your timezone setting is tied to your account. You can also set your Week Start Day, which controls the payroll week used for exports. For example, if the week starts on Monday, payroll exports run Monday through Sunday.
To change these settings, please contact BuildOps Support.
Invoicing behavior
These settings control which labor details appear on customer invoices:
Include Technician Name on Invoice adds the technician's name next to labor line items.
Include Visit Date on Invoice adds the visit date next to labor line items.
Changes to invoice display settings affect new invoices going forward and do not update older invoices that have already been created.
Timesheet export
Depending on your setup, you may also see Timesheet Export options in General Settings.
These options let you choose the payroll export or dashboard report available in Time Tracking.
Time Tracking
Use this section to control how time is recorded and how mobile time tracking works for your field team.
Time Tracking settings for mobile timesheets, travel home, and crew tracking.
Automatic Time Tracking
Auto-Round Time automatically rounds submitted time to the nearest 1, 5, 15, or 30 minutes.
Mobile Timesheets (View-Only Mode) lets technicians view timesheets on mobile without editing them.
This setting will show only for customers with Auto Time Tracking enabled.
Mobile
Enable Travel Home Action - tracks travel time home after the final visit of the day. When enabled, technicians can log a timestamp when travelling back home
Enable Unpaid Break - when enabled, breaks are logged as unpaid time on Job Visits.
Enable Service Crew Time Tracking allows a foreman to create timesheets for a crew and lets crew members sign off on them.
Bulk Overtime Allocation
This setting lets you apply daily or weekly overtime rules in bulk, saving time and reducing errors when managing timesheets.
Daily Allocation - Enables bulk allocation per day, hours that exceed the threshold will be moved to the selected payroll hour type.
Weekly Allocation - Enables bulk allocation per week, hours that exceed the threshold will be moved to the selected payroll hour type.
📚 To about this feature, please refer to: Bulk Overtime Allocation
Labor Rate Groups & Types
Use this section to set up the labor structure your company uses for payroll and billing.
Labor Rate Groups and Labor Rate Types setup.
Labor Rate Groups
A Labor Rate Group defines a set of pay rules and labor regulations, often by trade or union type. You must have at least one Labor Rate Group before setting up the rest of your labor structure.
Labor Rate Types
A Labor Rate Type defines the worker types inside each Labor Rate Group. You must have at least one Labor Rate Type.
Add, archive, or update groups and types
Use the + icon to add a new Labor Rate Group or Labor Rate Type.
Use the three-dot menu to archive old groups or types when you no longer want them available for active setup.
Payroll Cost Codes and Cost Types
Labor Types can be assigned Cost Codes and/or Cost Types for Service Agreements and budgeting.
To assign them:
Expand the Labor group to see each Labor Type.
Select the edit pencil.
Choose a Cost Code and/or Cost Type.
Click Save.
Labor Rate Modifiers
Labor Rate Modifiers let you adjust a payroll rate without changing the base payroll rate itself.
Labor Rate Modifiers for payroll adjustments.
Modifiers can be used for things like overscale pay or other payroll adjustments. You can add a modifier as either:
A flat dollar amount
A percentage multiplier
Modifiers can be applied to:
A Job
Payroll Hour Type
A Department
All Employees
A Specific Employee
Archived labor rate modifiers will be unavailable to add to any jobs, projects, or personnel, except for those that already use it.
Existing jobs, projects, and personnel that use archived modifiers will continue including it in labor cost calculations.
If you want new timesheets for existing jobs, projects, and personnel that use archived modifiers to ignore it in labor cost calculations, set it to 0.
Payroll Hour Rates & Types
Payroll Hour Rates
This settings represents a labor group, and each column represents a payroll hour type.
This is where you enter the hourly payroll cost for each available hour type, such as RT for regular time, OT for overtime, DT for double time, PTO for paid time off, and TT for travel time, depending on your company’s setup.
For example, if your team uses different labor groups like Standard, Construction, or Office, you can set different payroll rates for each group across the hour types shown in the table.
Payroll Hour Types
In the Payroll Hour Types section, you can control how payroll hours map to billing hours. When Map Payroll Hours to Billing Hours is enabled, BuildOps automatically fills in the matching billing hour type when labor line items are generated on job reports.
You can:
Map a Payroll Hour Type to a Billing Hour Type.
Create new Payroll Hour Types with + Payroll Hour Type.
Archive or unarchive Payroll Hour Types from the three-dot menu.
Use Autofill Time for PTO-related types such as holiday, sick, or vacation to automatically create timesheets when leave is taken.
Setting up Payroll Hour Rates & Types correctly helps keep labor costing and billing aligned. It supports accurate payroll rate setup, clearer labor mapping, and more consistent labor line items on job
Billing Hour Rates & Types
Use this section to define how labor is billed to customers.
Billing Hour Rates
Billing Hour Rates assign a Billing Item from your Item List to each Labor Type and Billing Hour Type combination. Those billing items appear as labor charges on invoices.
If you need a custom labor charge, create a new item in your Item List first, then assign it here.
Billing Hour Types
Billing Hour Types define how labor is categorized and charged on invoices. PTO does not need a Billing Hour Type because PTO is not billed to customers.
Permissions
Access to Labor Settings depends on your role permissions. If you can open the page but cannot make changes, contact your company admin to confirm whether your role includes view and edit access for Labor Settings, payroll rates, and billing rates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I need more than one Labor Rate Group?
Only if your company uses different labor structures. For example, you may need separate groups for different trades or union types.
Q: What is the difference between Payroll Hour Types and Billing Hour Types?
Payroll Hour Types define how time is categorized for internal payroll costs, while Billing Hour Types define how labor is billed to customers.
Why can technicians see their timesheets but not edit them on mobile?
That usually means Mobile Timesheets (View-Only Mode) is enabled in Time Tracking.
Q: Why is technician name or visit date not showing on invoices?
Check General Settings and make sure Include Technician Name on Invoice and/or Include Visit Date on Invoice is enabled.
Q: When should I use Service Crew Time Tracking?
Use it when one person, such as a foreman, manages time entry for a crew and crew members need to review or sign off on their timesheets.
Q: Where can Labor Rate Modifiers be applied?
Modifiers can be applied to a specific Job, a Payroll Hour Type, a Department, All Employees, or a Specific Employee. They can be set as a flat dollar amount or a percentage. Note: if you archive a modifier, it will no longer be available for new assignments, but existing jobs, projects, and personnel that already use it will continue to have it applied. To stop a modifier from affecting new timesheets on existing records, set its value to 0.
Q: How do I track time for unpaid breaks?
Enable the Enable Unpaid Break setting under the Mobile section of Time Tracking. When enabled, breaks are logged as unpaid time on Job Visits.