Feedback request: Project–Branch entry for Time Cards and Payroll scenarios

Hi ​@SvetlanaEremushkina83,

This is very relevant to us, as we are currently restructuring our Acumatica environment from using subaccount as our “branch” to an actual Company/Branch structure.

One of the major roadblocks we have encountered is exactly the Employee Time Card / Employee Time Activity scenario described above. To answer your feedback questions:

1. Do you have cases where employees enter time for projects that belong to a different branch than the employee has, and this creates issues after time is released or payroll is processed? Our employees have a home location/branch, but our labor resources are shared across the company. It is very common for an employee assigned to our Florida branch, for example, to work on a project owned by our South Carolina branch. It appears that the Branch associated to the resulting project labor transaction is being derived from the employee's branch rather than the project's branch. This creates a significant issue because the labor cost is then attributed to the employee's home branch instead of the branch responsible for the project.
   1. What is the semantic of the branches of such clients? Our branches represent operating locations. The employee branch represents the employee’s home base/location, while the project branch represents the operating location responsible for the project, including its revenue, costs, and profitability.
   2. Which payroll (built-in or external) is used? We do not use Acumatica Payroll. Time cards are processed in Acumatica, then released time cards are pulled into ADP Workforce Now via an integration and payroll is processed from ADP.
   3. What branch do your customers expect to see in the project expense and employee liability and why? We would expect the project branch to account for the project expense and employee liability. The project branch is responsible for all project activities.
   4. Which workarounds are currently used? We have not found a workaround and are currently looking for alternative solutions. This particular issue is a roadblock from moving to a true company/branch structure.
   5. Other additional information that can be useful in that case. Cross-branch labor is normal for us, not an exception. A technician or supervisor may work on projects belonging to several different branches during the same week. Because of that, using the employee's branch as the default source for all resulting project labor transactions does not accurately represent where the work was performed from an operational/accounting perspective. Ideally, the branch determination would recognize that the employee's home branch and the project branch serve different purposes and allow the project-side transaction to follow the project.
2. Are there cases where posting of project labor costs to the employee’s branch is required or preferred, even when a project belongs to a different branch? Describe them in the same structure as 1st question please. We do not have a scenario where we would prefer the project labor cost to remain with the employee's home branch when the employee is working on a project belonging to another branch. We still need the employee's branch retained for HR and employee management purposes, but we would expect the actual project cost to follow the project branch.

Hi ​@kevinpopeck ,

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

Starting with 26R2, the Branch in Project Documents preference on the Projects Preferences (PM101000) form will also apply to Employee Time Activities and Employee Time Cards. When the preference is configured to use the project branch, and the project and employee branches have the same base currency, the resulting project transaction and the expense-side GL transaction will be posted to the project branch. The liability-side GL transaction will remain in the employee branch, because the liability represents an obligation to the employee rather than to the project.

Could you please explain why, in your scenario, the liability should also be posted to the project branch? Also, after payroll is processed in ADP, what entry clears this liability or clearing account in Acumatica, and to which branch is that clearing entry posted?