How to Calculate Man Hours

There are different reasons why someone would want to calculate man hours. With labor costs arguably one of the biggest expense in any job, savvy employers have to calculate man hours needed for every part of every job down to the minute. Man hours are the total amount of hours needed to complete an entire job. Even a slight miscalculation of man hours could send a project into vast cost overruns. In addition, local or federal governments sometimes require strict accounting of man hours worked on certain job, typically those that are funded, in part or in whole, by government funds. Those figures must be further broken down into various categories such as job description, sex, ethnicity and pay rate. Failure to turn in accurate and timely reports can incur heavy fines and penalties. Here is a guide to estimating man hours both for project bids and to fulfill federal mandates.

Steps

Calculating Man Hours for Project Bids

1. Divide the project into job classifications. Some job classifications on a building construction site are carpenters, laborers, truck drivers, brick masons, glass workers and so on.
2. Calculate how many hours it would take 1 man to complete each individual job from start to finish.
3. Add each job classification's man hour totals together to get a final estimate of man hours required to complete the entire project.

1. Require all employees to log in and out of work using a time card. If the company does not compensate for meal time, ensure that employees log out during this time.
   
   • The best way to track work hours is to use a time clock that automatically punches in the time when a card is inserted. This time card should become part of permanent employee work files.
2. Maintain precise day-to-day work-logs that report on all aspects of the government requirements. If you failed to meet any requirement because of circumstances beyond your control, explain it fully in the daily work-log. Do not rely on your memory.
3. Transfer the information from the work-logs and employee's time cards into the government documents. Double check your figures and send in the forms.

Tips

• Any document pertaining to an employee's compensation, such as time cards or job logs, are legal documents and must be included in employee records.

Things You'll Need

• Work logs
• Time cards
• Calculator
• Required government paperwork

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Calculate Man Hours. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.