Job Codes
Within SupportAbility, Job Codes are automatically populated in the relevant Invoice and/or Time Sheet exports, based on your organisation's chosen Job Code structure. For standard (non-custom) finance integrations, SupportAbility supports a single Job Code field and uses concatenated composite (multi-dimensional) Job Codes when two or more dimensions are required.
For example, if your organisation decides upon a Job Code structure for Invoices that includes Site and Service e.g. MEL (for the Melbourne Site) and DS (for Day Services), SupportAbility will generate the relevant Job Code i.e. MELDS, for the relevant Invoice Items, as it understands the Site and Service that the Activity was delivered by.
This article provides detailed information relating to Job Codes in SupportAbility, the process for enabling this functionality, choosing a Job Code structure, the available Job Code Component options and how to configure Job Codes once this has been enabled for your organisation.
Audience: Finance Team
Summary
- General Ledger Codes vs Job Codes
- Enabling Job Codes - completed by SupportAbility
- Choosing a Job Code Structure
- Configuring Job Codes - completed by your organisation
- Once configured, where do Job Codes populate?
General Ledger Codes vs Job Codes
General Ledger (GL) Codes and Job Codes, whilst similar, have distinctly different purposes.
- General Ledger Codes - configuring GL Codes in SupportAbility ensures that revenue (Invoice) and expense (Time Sheet) transactions are attributed to the correct general ledger accounts when exported to finance and payroll systems. This is important to ensure that this data is summarised accurately in Profit and Loss Statements.
- Job Codes - configuring Job Codes is an optional feature and can be utilised to classify revenue (Invoice) and expense (Time Sheet) transactions with additional attributes in order to enhance the analytical value of your financial data. Job Coding can be enabled in your SupportAbility installation to categorise revenue (invoice) and/or expense (timesheet) transactions when exported to finance and payroll systems.
Enabling Job Codes - completed by SupportAbility
Before Job Codes can be enabled for your organisation by the Customer Success team at SupportAbility, your organisation will need to decide on the Job Code structure that you wish to use, based on the available Job Code Component options as outlined further below.
We recommend reviewing the next three sections of this article to assist your organisation to choose a Job Code structure that best suits your organisation based on the available Job Code Component options.
From here, your organisation's Authorised Representatives can make contact with the Customer Success team at SupportAbility via support@supportability.com.au to inform us of your organisation's preferred Job Code structure so that we can enable this for you. We will inform your organisation once Job Codes have been enabled.
It is important that the Jobs are set up in your finance and/or payroll system to cover all possible variations if they have not yet been created already.
Once we have enabled this for your organisation, your organisation will then need to configure each Job Code Component within SupportAbility, as outlined below.
It is important when choosing a Job Code structure that:
- This is consistently structured e.g. the first three characters indicate the Site and the fourth & fifth characters indicate the Service
- The Job Code structure can be replicated and constructed in SupportAbility from the available Job Code Components as outlined below e.g. Sites, Services, Programs, etc.
- Jobs have been set up in your finance and/or payroll system to cover all possible variations and combinations that SupportAbility might export based on the Activities your organisation generates Invoices/Time Sheets for
One example Job Code structure for revenue data could be, Site-Service e.g. MEL-DS
- [3 digit Site Code]: represents a three-letter code to indicate the Site of the Activity e.g. MEL
- [2 digit Service Code]: represents a two-letter code to indicate the Service of the Activity e.g. DS
Please note that the hyphens are not necessary but often make it easier to read the concatenated Job Code that populates in Direct Invoice Batch/Time Sheet Batch exports and to understand and identify the individual components of this. It is important that your organisation advises us if you would like each Job Code Component separated by a hyphen e.g. [Site]-[Service].
CAUTION: It is important not to use too many Job Code Components when deciding on a Job Coding structure, as creating unique Job Codes for every possible combination of these e.g. Site, Service, Day of the week, Program and Payment Method, would generally be too difficult to manage in most finance systems. The overhead costs would quickly outweigh any benefit that the detailed information would provide.
Finance system considerations
MYOB
When designing your Job Code structure, it is important to keep in mind that MYOB has a maximum Job code length of 15 characters. See MYOB Jobs setup documentation for more details.
Xero
In Xero, Job Codes are called Tracking Category Variations. Providers who use Xero and wish to populate Job Codes will need to set up a tracking category called 'SupportAbility' in Xero and must create every possible job code as a tracking variation. Please see the Xero video tutorial on setting up tracking categories and variations for details.
Quickbooks or Reckon
Please note that in the finance systems QuickBooks and Reckon, Classes are used to categorise revenue data outside of the General Ledger accounts. SupportAbility can accommodate for Class categorisation, however, this is done in Job Codes, which are then exported to the Class field in the Zed Axis Finance Integration for Quickbooks and Reckon. Please review the linked article for more information.
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Once the desired Job Code structure has been determined, you will need to ensure that Jobs (header and/or detail for MYOB) are created in your finance system to cover each possible job code variation before activating Job Codes within SupportAbility, otherwise, your finance/payroll system will not understand the Job Codes that SupportAbility includes in the Direct Invoice Batch and/or Time Sheet Batch exports.
Job Code Component options
Each Job Code Component represents a finance analytics opportunity as it allows your organisation to categorise financial data in a manner that provides meaningful insight into business operations. SupportAbility supports the following Job Code Components:
| Job Code Component |
Description | Example | Supported in Client Invoices |
Supported in Staff Time Sheets |
Empty Value Code available |
| Site | A fixed-length alpha-numeric code to indicate the Site of the related Activity | MEL for Melbourne, SYD for Sydney | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Service | A fixed-length alpha-numeric code to indicate the Service of the related Activity | DS for Day Service, AC for Accommodation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Program | A fixed-length alpha-numeric code to indicate the Program of the related Activity | SW for Swimming, AR for Art Group | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Payment Method | A fixed-length alpha-numeric code to indicate the Funding Type or Payment Method that the client used to pay for the related Activity | ND for NDIS, FFS for Fee for Service | Yes | No | Yes |
| Day of Week | A fixed-length alpha-numeric code to indicate if the Activity occurred on a weekday, Saturday or Sunday | Weekday = WE, Saturday = SA, Sunday = SU | Yes | Yes | No |
| Day of Week Detailed |
A fixed-length alpha-numeric code to indicate the Day of the Week that the related Activity took place on | Monday = MO, Tuesday = TU, Wednesday = WE, Thursday = TH, Friday = FR, Saturday = SA, Sunday = SU | Yes | Yes | No |
| SupportAbility Client ID | The unique number that SupportAbility uses to identify the Client. The number is usually left-padded with zeroes to make the number fixed in length |
A Client with a SupportAbility record ID of 435 would have the Client ID Job Code Component of 000435 | Yes | Yes N.B. Please review the Client ID options for Time Sheets section below |
No |
| Client Debtor ID | The data is entered into the Debtor ID field on the Client Details tab of the Client record. The number is usually left-padded with zeroes to make the number fixed in length |
A Client with a Debtor ID of 6254 would have the Debtor ID Job Code Component of 006254 | Yes | Yes N.B. Please review the Client ID options for Time Sheets section below |
No |
| SupportAbility Staff ID | The unique number that SupportAbility uses to identify the Staff Member. The number is usually left-padded with zeroes to make the number fixed in length |
A Staff Member with an ID of 846 would have the Staff ID Job Code Component of 000846 | No | Yes | No |
| Staff Payroll ID |
The data is entered into the Payroll System Identifier field on the Human Resources tab of the individual's Staff Account. The number is usually left-padded with zeroes to make the number fixed in length |
A Staff Member with a Payroll ID of 8546 would have the Staff Payroll ID Job Code Component of 008546 | No | Yes |
No |
Empty Value Codes
An Empty Value Code can be configured for your organisation for many of the Job Code Components e.g. Site, Service, Payment Method, Program etc. This serves to address two issues:
1. This ensures that the chosen Empty Value Code for this Job Code Component is utilised in Invoice/Time Sheet exports in cases where a Job Code Component has not been configured.
For example, if Job Codes for Client Invoices have been enabled for your organisation by [Site]-[Service] e.g. MEL-DS, and the Job Code Component for the new Brisbane Site has not been configured by your organisation yet, then the Empty Value Code e.g. XXX will populate in its place and can be useful to identify what is missing e.g. XXX-DS.
If an Empty Value Code is not configured for the chosen Job Code Components, this will be blank upon export which may result in errors with finance/payroll integration e.g. -DS
2. When an organisation chooses a Job Code Structure that includes Payment Method and is using SupportAbility to generate Billable Client Invoices, we recommend the relevant Job Code Component for Billable is configured here e.g. BILL. This will ensure that a Job Code Component is populated for Billable Client Invoices correctly.
If your organisation would like an Empty Value Code configured for any of the chosen Job Code Components, please let us know your preference for each and we will set this up for you when enabling Job Codes for your organisation.
Mask option available for IDs to ensure a fixed-length
Each of the record identifier options available i.e. SupportAbility Client ID, Client Debtor ID, SupportAbility Staff ID and Staff Payroll ID, can be configured to ensure a fixed-length number for these Job Code Component is populated.
For example, when a mask is configured i.e. 000000 and an organisation has chosen a Job Code structure utilising SupportAbility Client ID, regardless of the length of the Client ID e.g. 13 and 246, the Job Code Component will always populate with a fixed length i.e. 000013 and 000246.
It is important if using Client or Staff ID's in your chosen Job Code structure to advise your organisation's preferred fixed-length.
Client ID options for Time Sheets
The Job Code Component options of Client ID or Client Debtor ID are available for Job Codes that are populated for Staff Time Sheets. However, this is only suitable for 1:1 Activities that include one Staff Member and one Client.
If your organisation wishes to utilise this configuration but also delivers Group Services, a placeholder Job Code Component can be configured by SupportAbility for your organisation e.g. GROUP, that would be used in lieu of Client ID or Client Debtor ID for these Time Sheets
Similarly, if your organisation wishes to utilise this configuration but also utilised Staff only Activities, a placeholder Job Code Component can be configured by SupportAbility for your organisation e.g. STAFF, that would be used in lieu of a Client ID or Client Debtor ID for these Time Sheets.
Configuring Job Codes - completed by your organisation
Once we have enabled Job Codes in your SupportAbility installation based on your requested Job Coding structure, you will then be able to configure each Job Code Component within your SupportAbility installation.
For example, if your organisation has decided upon a Job Code Structure of Site and Service, you will now be able to enter the Job Code Component for each Site accessible from the System Preferences::Sites tab e.g. Melbourne HQ:
As configured in your organisation's finance system e.g. MEL:
As well as each Service in the System Preferences::Services tab e.g. Day Service:
As configured in your organisation's finance system e.g. DS:
Job Code Component configuration table
The following table outlines each Job Code Component, including an example of this and where this can be configured in SupportAbility:
| Job Code Component | Example | Where to configure the Job Code Component |
| Site | MEL for Melbourne, SYD for Sydney | System Preferences::Sites tab |
| Service | DS for Day Service, AC for Accommodation | System Preferences::Services tab |
| Program | SW for Swimming, AR for Art Group | System Preferences::List tab Activity: Programs List |
| Payment Method | ND for NDIS, FFS for Fee for Service | System Preferences::Funding tab |
| Day of Week | Weekday = WE, Saturday = SA, Sunday = SU | Automated. No configuration required |
| SupportAbility Client ID | A Client with an ID of 435 would have the Client ID Job Code Component of 000435 | Automated. No configuration required |
| Internal Client ID | A Client with an Internal (SupportAbility) ID of 6254 would have the Client Internal ID Job Code Component of 006254 | Automated. No configuration required |
| SupportAbility Staff ID | A Staff Member with an ID of 846 would have the Staff ID Job Code Component of 000846 | Automated. No configuration required |
| Staff Payroll ID | A Staff Member with a Payroll ID of 8546 would have the Staff Payroll ID Job Code Component of 008546 | Automated. No configuration required |
Once configured, where do Job Codes populate?
If Job Codes have been configured for Client Invoices when Direct Invoice Batch exports are generated, the relevant data will populate in the corresponding field for each Invoice Item e.g. MENDIS ([Site] e.g ME and [Payment Method] e.g. NDIS) in the respective Direct Invoice Batch export your organisation uses:
Please note that this data will populate retrospectively in previous Invoice Batches also without needing to regenerate the batch.
If Job Codes have been configured for Staff Time Sheets, this will appear in the Time Sheet export e.g. Detailed Time Sheet Batch as follows:
Please note that this data will populate retrospectively in previous Time Sheet Batches also without needing to regenerate the batch.