How do I access the labor costing software?

Labor costing software can be accessed using this link: https://laborcosting.apps.govinvest.com where you can enter your username (email) and password to log in.

How do I reset my password for the labor costing software?

There’s link on https://laborcosting.apps.govinvest.com page to reset your password. After clicking that link, you’ll be asked to enter your email where a password reset code will be sent. Please make sure to check the spam folder if you’re not able to find it in your inbox.

How do I access the help guide for the labor costing software?

After you sign in, there’s a small question mark  icon on the top right corner of the screen. Clicking this will open a menu that contains the labor costing user’s guide, software release notes, and a separate help article to learn about the multiple eligibility formula feature.

The user’s guide is searchable .pdf file, and you can press CTRL + F to look for topics and details you’re looking for.

What is a Project in the labor costing software? How does it function and is there any limit to how many projects I can create?

A Project is a dedicated space to hold all labor costs for your agency with data files such as salary schedules, grade files, employee census, as well as budget allocations. A completed project will contain all cost structures, linked to data files that will generate the baseline labor costs for the number of years set in the Project Setup, starting from the ‘Projection Start Date’ set by the user. There is no limit to the number of projects you can create and use, and we encourage creating a copy for new users who wish to learn more about the software.

What is the Projection Start Date, and what date should I use for my project?

The labor costing software is a point-in-time, forward looking program that takes costs associated to employees and generates a forecast or projection for future years. The projection start date is your way of controlling ‘when’ the software will start calculating labor costs. In most cases, projection start date is set to the start of your fiscal year, e.g., July 1^st.

What does the Workspace section contain, and how is it different than the project setup?

The ‘Workspace’ section contains all graphs, visualizations, and reports to view your labor costs. Workspace also allows you to group and filter results, create, and compare scenarios and view or download reports. Workspace produces results that are configured in the project setup, connecting all cost structures to data files uploaded there.

How does the software calculate salary and other labor costs?

The labor costing software requires cost structure to be created in the ‘Project Setup’ section, along with importing data files that contain salary schedules, pay grades, budget, and allocation data as well as employee census. The census file contains all data down to the employee level and essentially functions as a ‘who gets what’, feeding salary and benefit data to generate a projection. The census file uses the ‘Employee_ID’ column to identify unique employee records, and every row in the census has to have a unique Employee_ID. Other system defined census columns include ‘Hours’, ‘Schedul_Position’, and ‘Schedule_Step’. The census file can be accessed by navigating to:

Project Setup -> Census Files -> Download Census Template.

How does the labor costing software calculate employee salary based on a rate table that provides merit increases every 12 months?

The labor costing software has a Salary Type configuration called ‘Salary Schedule’. This option allows the user to import the salary schedule data file, where all job codes or classifications that follow a rate table can be added. The Step_1, Step_2, Step_3… columns should be used to enter hourly rates for said classifications so merit increases can be captured accurately. The salary schedule data template can be downloaded by navigating to:

Project Setup -> Salary -> Salary Schedule -> Download Template.

How does the labor costing software know ‘when’ to give an employee merit increase, if the merit increases are due upon anniversary date or an employee’s hire date?

The census file contains a column labeled ‘Salary_Step_Date’ where anniversary dates can be entered. The labor costing software uses the ‘month’ and ‘day’ part of this date to accurate switch steps, or in other words, give merit increases to employees. For example, if the anniversary data for an employee is October 1^st, 2024, and as of July 1^st, 2024, that employee is at Step 3 (say $20/hour), the software will calculate salary at Step 3 for the 3-month window (07-01-2024 and 09-30-2024). October 1^st, 2024, onward, the software will calculate salary for the same employee at Step 4 (say $22/hour). On the workspace graphs and in reports, the total salary for said fiscal year for this employee will be a blend of Step 3 and Step 4 rates.

Our employees work different number of hours every year, some work 2080, others like Fire group are working a 2184 schedule. Where do I enter the total yearly budgeted hours per employee?

In the census file, there’s a column called ‘Hours’ where you can define total number of hours per employee. This serves as a multiplier, and takes the amount entered x the hourly rate coming from the Step an employee is working on during the year. The software can accurately switch steps (in other words, provide merit increases) based on the ‘Salary_Step_Date’ values and accurately calculate total yearly salary for employees.

Employees at my agency get paid a flat salary that falls between a min/max range. How do I program these employees with their grades and ranges?

On the Project Setup -> Salary -> Salary Setup screen, the option ‘Upload a pay grades file’ allows the user to upload a Pay Grades file that contains all grade codes and min/max ranges. To download a template for grades, please navigate to Project Setup -> Salary -> Pay Grades and click download template under the ‘Download Pay Grades Template’ heading and add grade data.

Please note the software will require current hourly rate in the Census file under ‘Current_Salary’ column and based on the ‘Hours’ column value for employees, calculate total yearly salary. It will also enforce capping of total yearly salary based on grade maximum and prompt the user if someone’s salary is under the min hourly rate.

We have a lot of budgeted vacancies that need to be included in the model, does the labor costing software calculate cost for vacancies?

Labor costing software uses the ‘Census’ file to calculate and generate costs for all employees and vacancies. For the census file, a vacancy is no different than an actual employee working on a specific job, with the only different being Vacancies won’t have an Employee_ID. However, for vacancies, you can come up with any unique identifier like ‘Vacant – Police Officer 1’ or ‘Vacant – Accountant – Dept A’. All other columns on the census should be filled out the same way for vacancies as they would be for actual employees.

How do I filter my agency’s labor costs and where do I add these filters?

The labor costing software has a feature called ‘Demographics’ where you can add filters like Job Class, Department, Employee Name, Grade Code etc. You can add up to 10 demographic filters to the model by navigating to Project Setup -> Demographics, and these can be used to slice and dice the results on the Workspace. Its important to note that underlying data for these demographic filters needs to be added to the ‘Census’ file.

On the workspace, these filters work as a ‘multi-select’ like Excel filters where more than one option can be selected.

How often should I update the labor costing software cost structures and data files?

The labor costing software is a point-in-time snapshot of all active employees and vacancies, and our recommended approach is to align it with your budget year. Changes to personnel status, like employees leaving the agency and new hires are all plausible situations but if the census and other underlying data files are aligned with your budget year, you would only need to update them once a year.

Can the labor costing software produce report(s) that break down costs by Employee?

The labor costing software is configured to be granular, and projections are based on employees and vacancy records on the census file. There are various downloadable reports in the Workspace section that can give an employee-by-employee breakdown of costs, split by years. You can also group these costs up to their respective departments or Bargaining Unions provided these filters are added as demographics.

Still Have Questions?

Contact support: Support@govinvest.com

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