Workwear is the clothes worn for work. While some businesses as those in gas and oil industry provide their employees with workwear for safety reasons, other businesses such as retail, banks, hotels, post offices, airlines may require that their employees wear workwear (uniforms) for maintaining standard corporate image.
Workwear as well as uniform may also include headwear and footwear. Some companies also provide their employees with personal protective equipment and other tools for individual use. The items included in workwear and tools in the same company may vary depending on the position of the employee, and all the various workwear items may vary in sizes to better fit particular individuals. Some workwear items are generally worn out quickly and should be replaced frequently, while other items may serve much longer. The useful life of personal equipment and tools may vary in wide ranges too.
If tracking of workwear and tools usage by employees is a significant part of your business, you can enable the functionality specially developed for accounting for workwear and tools.
Setting up the Functionality
To be able to use the functionality, select the Enable Workwear and Tools Accounting option on the Administration > Settings > Asset Management form.
Adding Item Categories for Types of Workwear and Tools
After that, you need to create item categories for workwear and tools. An item category groups similar items of workwear or tools with the same set of characteristics.
For example, you can create a Headwear category for any items of headwear with the same list of sizes, then, when you will be creating a particular item of headwear within this category, you will not need to provide a list of the sizes.
To create an item category, go to Asset Management > Master Data > Item Categories.
Create categories for different types of workwear and tools that are used in your company. For each category of workwear such as headwear, shoes, or jackets, create a set of appropriate sizes as category's characteristics. You will possibly need characteristics for some tools categories too. For details, refer to Item Categories.
Adding Items of Workwear and Tools
After that, you can create master records for particular items within each category. To create a new item of workwear, open the Asset Management > Master Data > Items form.
Make sure that the required category is selected in the Category field. This will provide a set of characteristics for the item. For more details, refer to Adding an Item.
Defining Workwear and Tools Usage Rates by Position
Different items of workwear and tools have different useful lives. Besides, employees in different positions use some items differently with different frequency.
You can enter this information by on per department basis, using the Asset Management > Workwear and Tools Documents > Workwear and Tools Usage Rates documents.
For each item of workwear and tools, you need to specify the following two usage parameters:
- Useful Life (Months): The number of months during which the specified quantity of workwear or tool of this type is usable, that is, can be used for work by employee.
- Usage Rate: The quantity of items of this type which are issued simultaneously and supposed to be used up during the specified useful life.
Notice that the Useful Life (Months) time interval is valid for the item's quantity specified in the Usage Rate column, not for each unit of the item. Generally, Usage Rate is greater than 1 for items with shorter useful life. However, any item with usage rate greater than 1 can be issued or written off only in the quantity specified by usage rate. For example, for Working Gloves with usage rate 4 and useful life 3 months, an employee receives 4 pairs once in 3 months and can write off 4 pairs at once when 3 months has passed.
Collecting Information on the Clothing Sizes of Employees
Also, you need to collect information about the clothing sizes of current employees (or individuals) to be able to provide them with workwear (including headwear, footwear) that fits best for comfort and better protection.
You can enter this information for each employee separately or for any groups of employees by creating the Asset Management > Workwear and Tools Documents > Workwear Sizes of Individuals documents.
If for some employee, incorrect sizes were specified, you can edit the sizes directly in the document and post it. Alternatively, you can create a new document with correct sizes – in this case, sizes from the latest document (in which the individual is listed) will be used.
Providing Employees with Workwear and Tools
Your company need to provide the employees with the workwear and tools so that at any moment they have all the items required by their position. Generally, the items remain in service during their useful life, and on expiration date they will be written off. However, if some items become worn out or damaged before their useful life ends, they must be written off and replaced.
FirstBit facilitates creating requests for workwear and tools and tracking the expiration dates while they are in usage. The following documents are used to support this functionality.
Workwear and Tools Requests
To create a new request for workwear and tools that are intended for employees of specific department, go to Asset Management > Workwear and Tools Documents > Workwear and Tools Requests.
You can select a department and automatically populate the list or workwear and tool required for employees of this department - for this, click the Fill button on the Workwear and Tools tab and select one of the following options:
- By Usage Rates: To populate the list with the employees of the specified department, required workwear and tools in accordance with positions and usage rates defined for positions. This option is helpful if you need to provide all the involved employees with workwear and tools for the first time or if you are in the process of replacing all the workwear (for instance, changing a supplier or a brand).
- By Demand: To populate the list with the employees of the specified department, with the quantities of the workwear and tools in accordance with positions, usage rates defined for positions, and the quantities that are currently in use.
- Selectively by Employee: To select the particular employees and then fill in the quantities of workwear and tools by demand or by usage rates.
Once the request is saved, posted, and, if approvals are configured in your system, approved, you can generate for the request the following documents:
- Workwear and Tools Issue: If the requested items are available at the specified warehouse, you can register issuing of the items to the employees.
- Requisition: If the requested items are not currently available at the specified warehouse, you first need to purchase them or transfer them another warehouse.
Workwear and Tools Issues
To register issuing of workwear and tools to employees of specific departments, you need to use Asset Management > Workwear and Tools Documents > Workwear and Tools Issues.
If you generated a document as based on a Workwear and Tools Request, the document contains all the data, and you can edit it if needed.
If you create an issue document independently of requests, you can use the following options to automatically populate the lists of items:
- By Usage Rates: To populate the list with the employees of the specified department and with quantities of workwear and tools that are required according to the employee's position and usage rates defined for this position.
- By Demand: To populate the list with the employees of the specified department, with the quantities of the workwear and tools in accordance with positions, usage rates defined for positions, and the quantities that are currently in use.
- Selectively by Employee: To select the particular employees and then fill in the quantities of workwear and tools by demand or by usage rates.
Alternatively, you can manually create a list of tools and workwear items to be issued to specific employees. For details, refer to Creating a Workwear and Tools Issue.
Note. On posting of the document, the system generates a batch number that is assigned to all the items listed in the document.
If you need to issue the items from the source warehouse for which the Separate Inventory and Financial Documents option is selected on the Administration > Settings > Purchasing and Warehouses form, you also need to create a Goods Dispatch Note. For more information, refer to Goods Dispatch Notes.
Workwear and Tools Returns
Documents of this type are used to register returns to warehouse of workwear and tools that were issued to employees of specific department. Returns can be made for example in a case of incorrect sizes, defects in the items, terminations, and so forth.
To create a new return document or to edit an existing document, go to Asset Management > Workwear and Tools Documents > Workwear and Tools Returns.
To populate the list with the items that are currently in use of the employees specified on the Main tab, click the Fill by Items in Use button on the Workwear and Tools tab. Then, you can edit the list of the items.
Alternatively, you can manually add the tools and workwear items to be returned to the warehouse.
Workwear and Tools Transfers
When the employees need to exchange the items received by mistake or in other cases, you can register the items transferred from one employee to another by creating Asset Management > Workwear and Tools Documents > Workwear and Tools Transfers.
Writing off Workwear and Tools
Once the items of workwear or tools have been used by employees beyond the item useful lives, you can write off these items by using the following documents: Asset Management > Workwear and Tools Documents > Workwear and Tools Write Offs.
To create a list of items for writeoff, click the Fill button on the Workwear and Tools tab and select one of the following options:
- By Items in Use: To populate the list with items that are in use by employees and further edit this list manually.
- By Expired Useful Life: To populate the list with items for which their useful life is over.
Alternatively, you can manually add the particular tools and workwear items to be written off in specific cases.
Viewing Information on Workwear and Tools
Information about the items of workwear and tools that are in use by employees or that are subject to writing off is available via reports in the Asset Management module.
You can use the Workwear and Tools in Use report to view how many and which items the employees have in their use on the specific date.
The Workwear and Tools in Use report
To facilitate planning of workwear and tools purchasing, you can use the Planned Issues of Workwear and Tools report that shows the quantities of items that should be issued to employees and the quantities of items whose useful life will expire in each month of the specified period of the nearest future.
The Planned Issues of Workwear and Tools report
For more information on reports, refer to Asset Management: Reports.