Payroll & Cetec ERP

Does Cetec ERP Support Time Tracking? How Is Payroll Brought Into Cetec ERP Financial Modules?

Cetec ERP includes time tracking, but does not include native support for Payroll/HR functionality. Therefore, a third-party payroll platform must be used.

Below is an outline of options and best practices for how manufacturing companies utilize time tracking tools and payroll in concert with Cetec ERP.

Bringing Payroll Into Cetec ERP Accounting & Financials

There are a profusion of payroll/HR providers well suited for a small/medium sized manufacturing company, e.g. Paycor, Paycom, Gusto, Intuit, ADP, Deel, and more.

At the end of a payroll period, any one of these payroll systems should provide you with a report or export of that period’s payroll expense totals for your company. Take this payroll output and import it as a journal entry (mapped to credit cash and debit a payroll expense account) into the Cetec ERP general ledger. This is probably a 10-15 minute clerical process for your staff accountant to conduct every payroll run.

Additionally, note that an estimated future payroll entry could be set and forward-dated in the Cetec G/L module and set to “reversing”, i.e. to post a reversal on the end-of-pay-period date when the actual payroll G/L entry is posted.

Time Tracking/Scanning Tools For “Swipe In / Swipe Out” (Indirect Labor)

Most small/medium manufacturing companies require employees to swipe in / swipe out in the morning, lunch, breaks, leaving the office end of shift, etc. This type of time tracking is not for tracking direct labor COGS on work orders, but rather into/out of shifts, i.e. for “indirect labor”.

Many HR/Payroll systems have a built-in swipe-in / swipe-out set of tools that come with the purchase of their software (e.g. ADP is known for this). If those tools are not built in to your third-party payroll offering, then you’ll need some kind of tool for generating timesheets to then import into your Gusto (or other) payroll HR application to drive hourly timelogging.

Cetec ERP DOES contain a native, generic clock-in / clock-out tool (i.e. not to a work order, but to clock into/out of shifts). You can have your employees scan their badge into/out of a mobile tablet or laptop kiosk with the “Clock In/Out” screen. This will generate an easily reportable/exportable time sheet, per user/employee, from the Cetec ERP system. You can then import this spreadsheet to your third-party payroll application.

Alternatively, there are numerous other third-party tools your company could use to generate hourly time sheets (e.g. T-Sheets, TimeDock, etc) for you to then import into your third-party payroll application.

Time Tracking/Scanning Of Direct Labor/Overhead Work Order Costs

Note that Cetec ERP already supports time tracking (via barcodes scanning or tap/click entry) on work orders for direct job/manufacturing costing. This functionality is natively built into the Cetec ERP environment at no extra cost.

This time tracking correlates to company-wide, site-specific, work cell/location-specific, and even employee-specific hourly rates, and accomplishes manufacturing cost accounting of direct time logged to work orders.

These direct labor costs can be mapped to post to Labor COGS/expense accounts on your income statement. This means that the impact of direct manufacturing labor costs on work orders can be seen and known on your financials in real time, instead of having to wait and be surprised at the end of the month. This is a huge benefit to having your time scanning/tracking on the shop floor be directly and seamlessly integrated to your accounting and financials.

(Note: your configuration of where direct labor expenses are mapped to post to which Production Labor G/L account will determine which Payroll expense account you map your payroll G/L entry to at the end of a payroll period. See this payroll best practices presentation for a review on how to ensure the payroll account you debit with a payroll entry is the same payroll account you credit via direct manufacturing work order time tracking).