Accounting for Actual Laser Usage

[Damon Hoxworth]

While I have not purchased a laser system, yet, one thing that I keep coming back to in my planning is accounting for actual laser use.

Neither Epilog nor Universal have a built in system for accounting for the actual laser usage. I have seen the job listing in the ULS driver, but anyone smart enough to use the comp to lase would be able to delete any unauthorized jobs from the list.

While I plan at first on doing all the work at the beginning, I would like to hire someone to run the laser while I am fishing :)

I want to be sure that both my pricing covers actual laser usage, as well as being sure that jobs for "friends" are being accounted and billed for as well.

Anyone have any ideas or solutions for this?

Thanks for the site, and your time,
Damon

[Mike Null]

Trotec automatically records all jobs.

[Mark Winlund]

Actually this is a problem that crops up frequently when you have employees. Quite often, they consider that usage of the machines after hours (or when you are gone to lunch) to be a "fringe benefit", even to the point of siphoning off work that you would normally get. And pocketing the income from it. This is somehing you have to be very clear about in advance. A hidden hour meter can help. Also, a log book that must be filled out when using the laser.

Anyone that has had a sizeable business with a company postage meter can relate some interesting stories as well.

Mark

[Charlie Bice]

If it is a matter of how much time is spent on each job, then just about any of them do that. You just have to record it separately.

A 'wish' item for the Epilog. Since it is hooked up on a network, why not send the info back to the computer for logging? And, could you include laser 'on' time along with job time? :)

So, it is fairly simple to determine time for charging.

But, it is also easy to alter the logs without any traces so it is not an easy way to track employee performance. If you are that concerned, then why not a CCTV system? That was what I used when managing a production plant.

charlie

[Scott Shepherd]

I'd hate to think that the person I have representing my business is someone I'd have to video tape due to concerns of theft of time and product.

If that's the case, you've hired the wrong person, or either you've been totally unclear in your expectations and company policies. Either that, or you have been allowing it to happen, or encouraging it.

[Charlie Bice]

Yes, in the factory it was a matter of hiring the wrong people. Since my supervisors did their own hiring they sometimes made mistakes. When you have over 100 employees there will be some bad ones, no matter what you do. The key part was to get the bad ones out as fast as possible so they didn't affect the good ones.

In our laser business it is just the wife and I. We don't want employees. If we get to that point we'll just turn down work.

charlie

[Stephen Beckham]

I mentioned the tracking ability in another post awhile back. Every since Windows 2000 - MS has put Adminstrative tools that allow only admins to check/modify the logs. The simplest to use is the print log - it shows total number of jobs printed with no way of modifying it.

I'm not really smart about it since I took the 2K classes and it's a bit different on all the newer platforms. You might ask around to some of you A Plus certified friends or MS certified friends to see if someone can help you set up an admin log...

[Charlie Bice]

I just thought of a snag in this if you do production.

The lasers really don't log how many times you cut with a specific file (at least the Epilogs don't). You can load one file and cut from it all day.

charlie