Wildcards and Labor Codes

When you specify billing, cost, or pay rates using labor codes, you can either associate a rate with a specific labor code, or assign rates based on specific levels of a multi-level labor code, while masking the other levels.

For example, assume you have three levels defined:

Labor Code Level 1 Labor Code Level 2 Labor Code Level 3
A Architectural 00 General 0 General
B Budget-Estimate 01 Pre-Design 1 Principal
C Civil 02 Site Analysis 2 Supervisory
D Design-Plan-Spec 04 Design-Plan-Spec 3 Senior Consultant
E Electrical 0F Field Work A Architect
I Interiors A1 Schematic Design C Consultant
M Mechanical C1 Civil Design D Designer
Z Miscellaneous D1 Design Development E Engineer

To mask a level, use an underscore (_) to represent each character in the level. Here are three examples based on the table above. To assign a billing rate to all:

Labor Code Masks in Labor Code Rate Tables

  • Be consistent with masks — Enter labor code masks and wildcard characters consistently. Define labor code masks for the same labor code level. For example, if you define a labor code mask as A_ _ _ , then you should define all other labor code masks according to level one, as B_ _ _, C_ _ _, D_ _ _, and so on. Vision displays an error message if you enter an inconsistent labor code.

  • Do not mix masks and straight labor codes — Within a labor code cost, billing, or pay rate table, you can either assign rates to specific labor codes, or use masks. You cannot mix these two methods. If you add a rate in a table using a wildcard mask, and then attempt to insert a second rate and assign it to a specific labor code, Vision displays an error message.