Shop Supplies and Overhead Charges
Shop supplies (also called overhead) are shop costs that cannot be tied to one specific job, such as grease, lubricants, nuts, bolts, shop rags, and disposal or environmental fees. Instead of posting them line by line, Fleet360 adds them as a calculated charge on the work order or estimate work order.
Choosing where the rate comes from
The Overhead/Shop Supplies system switch controls which record supplies the rate. It is found under Admin ➝ System Switches ➝ Work Orders ➝ Use Overhead/Shop Supply.
Setting | What Fleet360 uses |
|---|---|
Customer | The Shop Supply Rate on the customer file. Use this when the charge should follow the customer being billed. |
Facility | The Overhead percentages on the facility file. Use this when the charge should follow the shop doing the work. |
The switch selects the source. The customer record or the facility record supplies the actual rate. If the switch points at the customer file but the customer has no Shop Supply Rate, no shop supplies are calculated, and the same is true in reverse for the facility file.
See Work Order System Switches for the switch itself.
Setting the rate on the customer file
With the switch set to Customer, open Organization ➝ Customers, select the customer, and go to the Markups tab.
Shop Supply Rate. The percentage applied to the total inside labor cost posted on the record.
Tax Shop Supplies. Select this to include the shop supply amount in the base amount when tax or GST tax is calculated.
See Customer Files for the full Markups tab.
Setting the rate on the facility file
With the switch set to Facility, open Organization ➝ Facilities, select the facility, and go to the Settings tab. The Overhead panel holds the Part Overhead, Labor Overhead, Tire Overhead, and Misc Overhead percentages, plus Admin Fees and a Tax Rate. These overhead rates are applied to shop supplies.
See Facility Settings Tab for the full panel.
Where the charge appears
Where you are looking | Shop supplies |
|---|---|
Work order screen, cost cards (Parts, Labor, Warranty, Tires, Other) | Not shown. There is no shop supplies cost card. |
Upgraded work order, Info tab | Shown in the Shop column as Shop Supplies. |
Work Order Invoice (Standard PDF) | Shown in the totals section on the Shop line. |
Estimate work order, screen and Standard PDF | No shop supplies are calculated. See the section below. |
On a work order, the charge is calculated from the inside labor cost posted to the work order. If no inside labor has been posted, there is nothing for the rate to multiply and the Shop line is zero.
Estimate work orders
Shop supplies are not applied to estimate work orders. Labor on an estimate job line is an estimated cost, calculated as Estimated Hours multiplied by the Labor Rate, and it is not a posted labor transaction. Because the shop supply calculation uses posted inside labor, an estimate produces no shop supply amount, and the Shop line on the Estimate Work Order Invoice stays at zero even when the switch is on and the customer has a Shop Supply Rate.
This is expected behavior, not a configuration problem. If you enable shop supplies and then check an estimate, you will not see the charge there. Shop supplies are applied on the work order, once labor is posted to it.
To see the charge for work that started as an estimate, convert the approved estimate to a work order and post the labor there. See Work Order Creation From Approved Estimate.
If you need the estimate the customer sees to include a shop supply amount, add it to the estimate yourself, for example as a miscellaneous charge. See Posting Estimate Miscellaneous Charges.
Troubleshooting: shop supplies are not appearing
Work through these checks in order.
Check | What to confirm |
|---|---|
Record type | Shop supplies are applied to work orders, not to estimate work orders. A zero Shop line on an estimate is expected. |
Where you are looking | On a work order, the amount is on the Standard PDF totals under Shop and on the Info tab of the upgraded work order. The cost cards do not include it. |
Switch state and source | Admin ➝ System Switches ➝ Work Orders ➝ Use Overhead/Shop Supply is on, and set to the source you expect (Customer or Facility). |
Rate on the source record | If the source is Customer, the customer file Markups tab has a Shop Supply Rate. If the source is Facility, the facility Settings tab Overhead panel has percentages. |
Customer on the record | If the source is Customer, the work order must be assigned to the customer that carries the rate. |
Posted inside labor | The rate is applied to posted inside labor cost. A work order with only parts, or with no labor posted yet, produces no shop supplies. |
Records created before the change | After changing the switch or a rate, check a newly created work order to confirm the setting works. Do not assume an existing record reflects the new configuration. |
If the switch and the rate are both set, the work order has posted inside labor, and the Shop line is still zero, contact support@rtafleet.com with the work order number, the facility, the customer, and the switch setting.