General Ledger Labour Calculation

We have a table in the database where we are pulling data for the number of hours for labour for different types of jobs.

What we are looking at is that when one selects an automotive part for repair as a stock item that also there can be an option on the GL part to also select the number of hours of labur for that part and do an automated calculation based on the part number.

The challenge is that from Service Manager we cannot add another column first. We had thought that it would be possible to add a way to select the part after selecting labour and it pulls the hours and does the calculation. Currently this has to be done manually by checking the specifications for the part and then doing a calcution and inputing the price.

This should not be the case as the workshop staff can charge based on the hours they used but we would like that there is consistency so that if a client comes again to get the same part fixed the charge for labour is consistent as per the service manual regulations.

What would be the best way to tackle this. 

  1. Data for each part i.e. part number and hours is already in the database and when a new part is added to stock the data for it is also updated.
  2. The GL for labour to be able to have a variable so as to select the part number and thus update the field for quantity thus calculate the total labour cost automatically.