Work Types

Work types are employment classifications that control how Flowstate calculates the true cost of each employee. They define the overhead percentage applied on top of base salary and determine whether public holidays are excluded from working day calculations.

What a Work Type Is

A work type represents a category of employment arrangement. Every organization has different kinds of workers -- full-time permanent staff, part-time employees, fixed-term contractors on payroll, interns -- and each carries different cost implications. The work type captures those differences in a reusable configuration.

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Display name (e.g., "Full-time Permanent")
description	string	What this classification covers
overheadPercentage	decimal	Additional cost percentage applied on top of base salary
isActive	boolean	Whether this work type is available for assignment
sortOrder	integer	Display ordering in dropdowns and lists
excludeHolidays	boolean	Whether to exclude public holidays from working day counts

Common Work Types

Most organizations configure a set of work types that looks something like this:

Work Type	Overhead %	Exclude Holidays	Notes
Full-time Permanent	30%	Yes	Full benefits, employer taxes, equipment
Part-time	20%	Yes	Reduced benefits, proportional costs
Fixed-term Contract	15%	Yes	Limited benefits, shorter commitment
Intern	8%	Yes	Minimal benefits, equipment only

These are examples -- your organization should configure overhead percentages that reflect your actual cost structure. Finance and People Operations teams typically have this data.

TIP

Work types apply to employees and vacancies only. Contractors have their own rate structure and do not use work types -- their rates are assumed to be fully loaded. See the Cost Attribution guide for more on this distinction.

Overhead Percentage

The overheadPercentage is the single most impactful field on a work type. It represents all the costs an employer bears on top of an employee's base salary:

• Employer-side taxes (Social Security, Medicare, National Insurance, etc.)
• Health insurance and other benefits
• Retirement contributions (401k match, pension contributions)
• Equipment (laptop, monitors, peripherals)
• Office costs (desk space, utilities, facilities)
• Training and development budgets
• Software licenses allocated per employee

When Flowstate calculates an employee's cost, it takes the base salary cost (after currency conversion and working days proration) and multiplies it by (1 + overheadPercentage / 100).

For example, with a 30% overhead:

Base salary cost for the period:  $10,000
Overhead:                         $10,000 x 0.30 = $3,000
Total before bonuses:             $13,000

How Work Types Affect Cost Calculations

Here is the full formula for an employee's cost in a given period:

Daily Rate     = Annual Salary (in reporting currency) / Total Working Days in Year
Base Cost      = Daily Rate x Working Days in Period x FTE Allocation
Overhead       = Base Cost x (Overhead Percentage / 100)
Total Cost     = Base Cost + Overhead + Bonuses

The work type controls two inputs in this chain:

1. Overhead Percentage -- Applied as a multiplier on the base cost
2. Exclude Holidays -- Affects the working day count, which changes the daily rate and period proration

The excludeHolidays Flag

When excludeHolidays is true, public holidays (determined by the employee's geography) are subtracted from the working day count. This reduces the total working days in the year and in each period, which affects cost proration.

Most standard employment types set this to true because employees do not work on public holidays. Some arrangements (such as certain on-call or shift-based roles) may set it to false to use all business days.

WARNING

Changing the overhead percentage on a work type affects the calculated cost of every employee assigned to that work type. Review the impact before making changes, especially mid-period, as it will alter forecast numbers retroactively for any recalculated periods.

Assigning Work Types

Work types are assigned to both employees and vacancies:

• Employees: The workTypeId field on an employee record determines which overhead percentage and holiday rules apply to their cost calculations.
• Vacancies: The workTypeId on a vacancy determines the projected cost of that open position, using the vacancy's target salary and the work type's overhead percentage.

This means vacancies inherit the same costing logic as employees. When you model a new hire at a specific salary and work type, the projected cost includes overhead -- giving you an accurate picture of the true cost of filling that position.

Default Behavior

If an employee has no work type assigned (workTypeId is null), Flowstate uses default working day calculations with zero overhead. This means the employee's cost will be understated because it does not include the employer's additional costs.

WARNING

Employees without a work type assigned will show lower costs than their true cost to the organization. Assign work types to all employees for accurate financial forecasting.

Example: Full-time vs Contractor

To illustrate why the work type distinction matters, consider two resources working on the same project:

Resource	Type	Annual Cost	Overhead	Total Cost
Jane (Employee)	Full-time	$120,000	30%	$156,000
Acme Consulting	Contractor	$150,000	0%	$150,000

Jane's salary is lower, but her fully loaded cost (with overhead) is $156,000 -- higher than the contractor. This is a common real-world finding and one of the reasons workforce planning tools need to account for overhead.

Without work types, Flowstate would report Jane's cost as $120,000, making the contractor appear more expensive when the opposite is true.

Next Steps

• API Reference: Work Types -- Create, read, update, and delete work types via the REST API
• Work Types configuration -- Configure work types in the Flowstate UI
• Cost Attribution -- See how overhead fits into the full cost calculation chain
• Employees -- Understand employee records and work type assignment
• Exchange Rates -- Multi-currency support for global teams