How to Configure Your Jobber Labor Budgets in Protiv

Line items are the individual services or tasks included in a job, such as preparation, installation, painting, or cleanup. In Protiv, they are used to determine which parts of the job count toward the labor budget and how much budget should be assigned to each one. These rules help Protiv calculate job performance and employee bonuses accurately.

1. Set Your Global Hourly Rate

a. What is the Global Hourly Rate?

• Your company’s average hourly labor cost.
• It should include wages and labor burden, such as taxes and insurance.
• It is not your customer billing rate or estimating rate.

b. Why is it important?

• Protiv uses this rate to convert hours into dollars.
• Example: 10 hours at a $25 Global Hourly Rate equals a $250 labor budget.

c. Important for Jobber Accounts

• This rate does not automatically sync from Jobber.
• It must be entered manually in Protiv.
• Update it when your average labor cost changes.

2. Open the Job Budgets Page

You may see a message showing how many line items still need a rule.

Use:

• Needs a rule to see unconfigured items.
• All to review every item.

3. Choose a Rule for Each Line Item

a. Hours

• Uses the budgeted hours received from your job system.
• Converts the hours into dollars using the Global Hourly Rate.
• You can use the full amount or adjust it by a percentage.

Best for: Companies that estimate labor using hours.

b. Labor Cost

• Uses the labor dollar amount received from your job system.
• You can use the full amount or adjust it by a percentage.

Best for: Line items that already include an accurate labor cost.

c. Contract Price

• Uses a percentage of the line item’s sale or contract price.
• Enter 100% to use the full amount or a lower percentage for the labor portion.

Example:

• Line item price: $1,000
• Labor percentage: 32%
• Labor budget: $320

Best for: Companies that calculate labor as a percentage of the sale price.

d. Manual Amount

• Enter a fixed dollar budget.
• Protiv ignores the amount received from your job system.

Best for: Line items that should always use the same dollar budget.

e. Manual Hours

• Enter a fixed number of hours.
• Protiv converts the hours into dollars using the Global Hourly Rate.

Best for: Line items that should always use the same number of hours.

f. Exclude

• Removes the line item from the labor budget.
• Its hours, cost, and price will not affect the bonus calculation.

Use Exclude for:

• Discounts
• Trip fees
• Delivery fees
• Administrative charges
• Other non-labor items

Products and materials are normally excluded automatically.

4. Apply Rules to Multiple Line Items

• Select the line items that should use the same rule.
• Choose the budget type.
• Enter the percentage, amount, or hours.
• Click Apply.
• Use Exclude to remove multiple items from the budget.

A simple approach is to:

• Select all line items.
• Apply the rule that works for most items.
• Adjust the exceptions individually.

5. What Happens After Setup?

a. Job Budget Calculation

• Protiv adds together the budget from every included line item.
• This becomes the total labor budget for the job.

b. Bonus Calculation

• Protiv compares the labor budget against the actual labor cost.
• Any eligible savings may be used to calculate employee bonuses.

c. Future Jobs

• Your line item rules continue to apply to future jobs.
• Excluded items remain excluded until you change the rule.
• Manual values continue to override synced information.