We were asked: Why isn't an actual Labor cost auto created when someone is assigned to the WO

When a WO is assigned to someone, it automatically goes on their device.

Here is an example with a 'real life' (though trivial) example.

I have an EMERGENCY fix that needs to be done ASAP.

(We had a toilet that had blocked up, the toilet was the only one available to a group of people)

I therefore assign the fix to several people hoping that ONE person will do it ASAP.

(The WO was assigned to Fred, Zander and Shawn to the fix toilet work order)

One of the assignees comes

(Zander came to fix it)

The other 2 assignees are removed from the WO

(The service requester, a manager, removed Shawn and Fred from the WO)

The WO comes off the device of those 2 people

(Shawn hadn't turned his device on so he never even saw it. Fred saw it but then it disappeared from my device when I connected again after finishing my last task)

The person who did the work goes to a completely different part of the WO known as 'labor costs' and puts his time in.

(Zander entered 15 minutes work as a labor cost)

The WO is closed.

The WO is removed from Zander's device.

SO ... there is no relationship (other than what is called a CASUAL relationship) between WO Assign and WO Labor Cost.

(A Casual relationship is also called an 'incidental' relationship)

Further. Some WO's have NO costs associated with them. A company may want to collect costs related to a WO only if they are going to bill them. If that is the case, then being assigned to a WO has nothing to do with ANY costs.

Further, WO's may have costs associated with them even if the person was NOT assigned to the WO. For example, in a union environment especially, one person may be assigned to it, but then they need to cross an Electrical cord on the floor, but the rules require that for someone to walk over a cord they need an electrician present watching, so there will be a labor cost added to the WO for the time the electrician spent coming to watch the assignee walk over the cord.

Further. While I might be assigned 1 day to work on it, if my corporate policies are that I finish the job even if I don't get it done in the assigned time, I may put in a labor cost for 'today' (the day I was assigned to it) then I might be 'assigned' to work on it a second day, or I might just come back and do it tomorrow, and then, regardless of whether a second assignment was made, I do the work and enter a labor cost.

What are the differences between MC Estimates costs and Actual costs?

Very little. If you look 'behind the scenes', you will see that MC creates an Actual cost as soon as they create an estimate. But this is primarily because of how their UI works, not because there is any real need for it to happen. MCe/MCxLE creates the actual cost when you go to enter in actual costs. They can be created from an estimate or created blank.