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 codes with Architectural as the first level, use this mask: A_ _ _
• Consultant labor codes, use this mask: _ _ _C
• Design labor codes, use this mask: _ _ 1_

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.