Activity Codes and Groups

Activity Codes are user defined cost codes used for recording and reporting job cost transactional data and are intended to describe the specific type of cost to facilitate effective job management and reporting.
Activity Codes are required for all the different types of cost transaction used by Workbench such as: Time, Purchases, Subcontracts, Retentions, Disbursements, Stock, Plant, Internals and Overheads.
In order to export Workbench cost data to your Accounts Payable and General Ledger systems it is necessary to assign the appropriate GL code to each Activity. The standard rules for applying GL codes are determined by the transaction type and are detailed in the Integration to Financial Software section of the Getting Started Manual. Generally the Activity Code specifies the debit GL Account. In summary these rules are as follows:
Time DR GL Account (Expense)
Purchases (Jobs) DR GL Account (Expense)
Purchases (Stock) DR GL Account (specified on Stock Control Job)
Subcontracts DR GL Account (Expense)
Retentions DR GL Account (Clearing)
Disbursements DR GL Account (Expense) CR GL Account (Expense Recovery)
Stock Issues DR GL Account (Expense) CR (DR GL Account specified on Stock Control Job)
Plant DR GL Account (Expense)
Internals DR GL Account (Internal Expense)
Overheads DR GL Account (Expense)
Type
These predetermined types are used to group like activity codes in reports and invoices.

Sub Type
All Time based Activities must be setup with a Sub Type to facilitate Employee Productivity Reporting in Timesheet Reports.
Default Work Centre
Work Centres are user defined codes used to group Activity Codes into meaningful cost management and reporting groups.
All cost transactions require a valid Activity and Work Centre. To assist with data entry default Work Centre codes must be setup but alternative codes can be selected during data entry.
See Work Centre Maintenance for discussion.
Activity Groups
Activity Groups are used to restrict the use of Activity Codes on specified jobs and to provide a filtered list of Activities on Timesheets
Activity Groups will enable you to define different groups of activities that you wish to make available to corresponding job types. For example, you may wish to limit jobs you regard as "Chargeable" to those Activities that are of a chargeable nature and thus avoid erroneous use of "Admin" type Activities. All data entry programs validate the Activity Codes used against the Activity Group defined on the Job Masterfile.
To facilitate use of the Personal Timesheet individual employees can be linked to a default Activity Group which will display only those Activities they use. Depending on the security setup, the employee may have the opportunity to override this and view all Activity Codes. This option is purely to aid Activity Code selection and does not override the control exercised by the Job Activity Group.
Code
Enter a meaningful Code.
Activity Type
This can be used to filter Activity Codes when selecting Activities to add to this Group. All Activity Codes are linked to a predetermined Activity Type..
To make Activity Groups mandatory set the Job Costing Control Parameter