Set up positions and rates

A position is a worker role: Candlemaker, Joiner, Finisher. Each carries one hourly rate. That rate is what a specification costs its labor at, not the rate of whoever holds the job today.

Add a position

1. Open Settings → Positions (under Operations).
2. Click Add position.
3. Enter the Name and the Hourly rate.
4. Click Create.

The staff count beside each position is information only. It never changes the rate.

Why there are two rates

The position’s rate answers “what does this job cost?”. It prices every bill of materials, every price built on cost and the estimate for a production order with nobody assigned. Your product cost does not move every time you hire someone.

The employee’s rate answers “what did this actually cost?”. When you assign a person to a step on a production order, their rate is copied onto that line and frozen there. That frozen rate is what the finished batch is costed at, and what the person is paid for it.

If a position shows No rate on a specification line, nobody has said what that job costs. Set it here.

Change or retire a position

Changing a position’s rate changes the planned cost of every specification that uses it. Operations already costed on production orders keep their stored cost. Archive a position to hide it from the operation pickers; Show archived and Restore bring it back.

Who sees the rate depends on the permission to see costs, not on the permission to see pay: a position rate is a cost input, not somebody’s salary. A user who cannot see costs sees the position name with no rate.

Related

• Cost the work with positions, works and rates
• Add an employee