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Labor Planning & Cost Rates

Labor budget tracking in AceCBM is split into two parts: Hour Estimates (how many hours you need) and Hourly Rates (how much each hour costs). Comparing these parameters against employee timesheets allows the system to calculate budget burn rates in real time.

Hour Estimates​

To plan estimated hours for your project tasks, click the General Labor button in the top action toolbar to slide out the Project & Task Labor Estimates drawer.

Planning Scopes​

  • Project-Level Labor (task_id = 0): General management hours (e.g., PM oversight) not tied to a single task. These sum into the overall Cost Summary but do not appear on individual Gantt task rows.
  • Task-Level Labor (task_id > 0): Assigned to a specific task. These display as "Task Hrs" and "Task Est Cost" directly on the corresponding Gantt task line.

Planning Methods​

Choose a period type that matches your planning granularity:

  • Total: Estimate a single, bulk hours pool for the full task or project scope.
  • Monthly: Estimate hours for individual calendar months.
  • Weekly: Estimate hours for individual weeks.
  • Daily: Estimate hours for individual calendar days.

Recurrence Logic​

If estimates repeat across periods, use the recurrence settings:

  • Non-Recurring (recurring_flg = 'N'): Occurrences = 1. The Repeats Until column displays as —.
  • Recurring (recurring_flg = 'Y'): The estimate automatically repeats across matching periods until the specified Recurrence End Date (recurrence_end_dt).

Defining Role Cost Rates​

To convert estimated hours into financial currency budgets, you must define the hourly cost rate for each role in the Labor Rates drawer:

  1. Click Labor Rates in the toolbar.
  2. Click Add Rate.
  3. Choose the role (e.g., PM, PE, TSTR), enter the hourly rate (e.g., $85.00), and specify the Effective Start Date and optional Effective End Date.
  4. Click Save.

Key Rules​

  • Overlapping Rates Blocked: The database strictly prevents saving overlapping effective date ranges for the same role to maintain rate lookup consistency.
  • Rate Resolution Rule: The system resolves the hourly rate based on the role and the applicable date. For monthly estimates, if the project starts after the first day of the month, the rate lookup uses the project/task start date:
    • Example: If project start date is 2026-08-05 and the monthly estimate period starts 2026-08-01, the rate lookup is executed for 2026-08-05.
  • Missing Rate Warning: If no rate is defined for a role assigned to an estimate, the system highlights the missing rate in the side drawer.

[!TIP] Dynamic Labor Budget Calculation The system automatically multiplies the estimated hours for a role by the rate that is effective during that period.

Analyzing Labor Hours: Planned vs. Actual​

To prevent cost overruns, open the Cost Summary drawer from the top action toolbar and scroll to the Planned vs. Actual Role Hours section.

1. Compact Preview Card (Drawer)​

Provides a high-level overview of labor health:

  • Overall Burn Rate Progress Bar: Shows the percentage of planned hours used (Actual Hours / Planned Hours). The bar color changes based on usage:
    • Green: Up to 75% usage (On Track).
    • Orange: Over 75% usage (Watch).
    • Red: Over 90% usage (Over Plan).
  • Remaining Hours: Calculated as Planned Hours - Actual Hours. Negative values represent overruns and are highlighted in Red.
  • Overrun Insights: A preview list highlighting up to three specific roles that have exceeded their planned budgets.

2. Fullscreen Role Hours Analytics Dialog​

Click Open Analytics on the preview card to open a detailed dialog. This dialog provides:

  • Filters: Filter the chart by specific Role (e.g., Project Manager, Product Engineer) or Status (On Track, Watch, Over Plan, No Actuals).

  • Status Rules: Each role-period record is categorized into one of five states:

    StatusRule
    Over PlanActual > Planned
    WatchActual >= 80% of Planned
    On TrackActual < 80% of Planned
    No ActualsActual = 0
    No PlanPlanned = 0 and Actual > 0

  • Bar Chart Comparison: A horizontal bar chart compares planned hours (green bar) and actual hours (blue bar) side-by-side for each role and planning period.

  • Body Scrolling: If the chart has many roles and periods, the modal expands and lets you scroll vertically, ensuring large charts remain fully visible.

  • Employee Drilldown: Clicking a role-period row opens a timesheet drilldown overlay showing individual employee names, tasks, worked dates, and hours logged.

Testing Checklist​

Verify the following behaviors when testing labor planning and actual analysis:

  1. Estimate Configurations: Add Total, Monthly, and Weekly estimates and verify they store correctly.
  2. Recurrence Expansion: Verify that setting recurring_flg = 'Y' expands the estimates correctly in lists, while 'N' displays — for the end date.
  3. Scope Partitioning: Verify that task-level estimates (task_id > 0) render hours on their specific Gantt task row, whereas project-level estimates (task_id = 0) are excluded from task rows and only appear in the general cost calculations.
  4. Overlapping Rate Guard: Try to insert two rates for the same role with overlapping effective date ranges and ensure the system blocks the transaction.
  5. Lookup Resolution: Verify the first monthly period resolves the rate using the project start date if it falls in the middle of a month.
  6. Analytics Classification: Mock timesheet hours and verify the compact card progress bar color matches the burn thresholds, and the fullscreen grid correctly flags roles as Over Plan, Watch, On Track, No Actuals, or No Plan.
  7. Drilldown Navigation: Confirm that selecting a role-period row in the analytics grid displays the correct list of timesheet logs, grouping employee details, dates, and task associations.