How to Track Salaried Employees for Job Costing Using Time Cards and Cost Codes

While tracking salaried employees isn’t a direct feature in some project management or time-tracking software, you can still accurately account for their time and allocate costs using a simple workaround.

Start by calculating the employee’s hourly equivalent rate based on their annual salary. For example, divide the yearly salary by 2080 (standard full-time hours per year) to get their hourly rate. You can then apply this rate as either a burdened rate (including overhead, taxes, etc.) or a straight hourly rate for job costing.

Have your salaried employees clock in and out using time cards and assign their time to specific cost codes or tasks throughout the day. This ensures that every hour worked is documented and allocated properly to jobs, phases, or cost activities.

By doing this, you gain visibility into how much salaried labor is spent on each job or task. This not only improves your job costing accuracy but also helps in analyzing productivity and managing project budgets more effectively.