What Is Labor Reporting?
Also known as: labor tracking, time and attendance vs job labor, job labor reporting, labor transactions
Definition
Labor reporting is the recording of the hours each employee spends on specific jobs, operations or indirect activities, so that the ERP can calculate actual job cost, labor efficiency and payroll distribution.
Labor Reporting Explained
Direct labor is time spent working on a job operation, such as setup or run. Indirect labor is time on activities that support production but are not attributable to one job, such as cleaning, training or waiting for material. Both are reported, because efficiency and absorption depend on the full picture.
Reporting can be job-based (start and stop on each operation), batch-based (hours entered at end of shift) or machine-based (hours inferred from machine run time). The more detailed the capture, the more accurate the costing, but the more effort at the floor. The compromise is often a badge scan at start and stop, with exceptions managed by supervisors.
In Infor SyteLine, labor is posted through Job Order Transactions or Shop Floor Data Collection with labor rates from the employee and work center. Infor LN reports hours through shop floor control and hours accounting sessions. Labor reporting is separate from time and attendance, which tracks paid hours; reconciling the two is a common control to catch missing or double-reported time.
Why It Matters
- Actual labor drives job cost and variance analysis against standard.
- Accurate hours support quoting: you quote from real history, not guessed routing times.
- Reconciling job hours to paid hours exposes unreported time and inflated entries.
- Contracts like cost-plus government work require labor to be charged accurately to the correct job.
In Practice
An operator is paid 8 hours but job labor shows 6.2 hours across three jobs, 0.8 hours indirect and 1.0 hour unreported. A daily reconciliation report flags the gap for the supervisor. Over a month, the shop finds one cell consistently under-reports, which explains why its jobs always look more profitable than the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between direct and indirect labor?
Direct labor is attributable to a specific job or product, such as machining. Indirect labor supports the operation generally, such as cleaning or supervision.
How is labor efficiency calculated?
Earned hours (standard hours for the quantity produced) divided by actual hours reported, usually shown as a percentage.
Is labor reporting the same as time and attendance?
No. Time and attendance records paid presence; labor reporting allocates working time to jobs. They should be reconciled.
Related Terms
Shop Floor Data Collection (SFDC)
Shop floor data collection (SFDC) is the capture of actual production data, such as operator labor time, quantities completed, scrap, machine run time and material usage, directly from the factory floor into the ERP or MES, ideally at the moment work happens.
Standard Cost
Standard cost is a predetermined per-unit cost for material, labor, and overhead, set in advance and used to value inventory and transactions. Differences between standard and actual are captured as variances that isolate where cost deviated.
Actual Cost
Actual cost is the real cost incurred to produce or acquire an item, accumulated from the specific material prices paid, labor hours reported, and overhead applied, rather than from a predetermined standard.
Work Order
A work order is the ERP document that authorizes production of a defined quantity of an item by a due date. It snapshots the bill of materials and routing, drives material issues and labor reporting, and collects actual cost for the job.
Cycle Time
Cycle time is the actual elapsed time a process takes to complete one unit, measured from the start of work on that unit to the start of work on the next. It describes what the process does, not what the customer requires.
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Direct Labor Rate and Efficiency Variance Calculator
Break the difference between actual and standard direct labor cost into a rate variance and an efficiency variance.
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Free tools
- Direct Labor Rate and Efficiency Variance CalculatorBreak the difference between actual and standard direct labor cost into a rate variance and an efficiency variance.
- Labor Efficiency and Rate Variance CalculatorCompare earned hours with booked and paid hours to get labor efficiency, utilization, and the efficiency and rate variances in currency.
- NetSuite Work Order Labor Variance CalculatorBreak labor variance on completed work orders into a rate variance and an efficiency variance and read labor efficiency.
ERP fixes and how-tos
- JobBOSS2 Data Collection: How Shop Floor Labor and Job Tracking WorkHow JobBOSS2 data collection works: clock in and out of jobs and operations, terminals vs mobile, approving labor, and fixing labor that will not post.
- How to Send Production and Labor Reporting from MES to ERPHow to design MES to ERP production and labor reporting: operation confirmations, good and scrap quantities, labor clock times, idempotent posting and error handling.
Runs with your ERP
- SAP SuccessFactors Time Tracking with S/4HANA: labor time for payroll and costingHow SAP SuccessFactors Time Tracking feeds time data to S/4HANA payroll and costing for manufacturers: data flows, setup, pitfalls, alternatives and private AI.
- VISUAL Time & Attendance and Infor VISUAL: labor, job costing and payrollHow VISUAL Time & Attendance captures clock-ins and job labor, feeds VISUAL job costing and exports earnings to payroll, with setup, pitfalls and AI ideas.
- Infor Factory Track Shop Floor with SyteLine: paperless labor, job and WIP reportingHow Factory Track Shop Floor kiosks record labor, job operations and WIP in SyteLine, with setup steps, common pitfalls and where a private AI layer helps.
Guides
- SyteLine Labor Tracking and Reporting ConfigurationConfigure SyteLine labor tracking. Employee time reporting, labor rate setup, attendance integration, and efficiency analysis for manufacturing operations.
- How to Configure Labor Tracking in Infor SyteLineStep-by-step guide to configuring labor tracking in Infor SyteLine, including employee setup, time entry methods, labor rate configuration, and efficiency reporting.
- Setting Up Cost Variance Analysis in SyteLineConfigure cost variance analysis in Infor SyteLine for material, labor, and overhead variances. Set up variance reporting for standard cost manufacturing environments.
AI on your ERP
- AI for Cost Accounting and Variance Analysis: Explain Why Standard and Actual Cost DivergedAI that explains purchase price, usage, efficiency and rate variances from ERP cost data, flags rollup problems and drafts variance commentary. Private and on-prem.
- AI for SYSPRO production and job costingHow AI reads SYSPRO WIP jobs, labor and material postings to explain job cost variances and late work orders, with read-only access and on-prem hosting.