COMMITTED COSTS VS. ACTUAL COSTS.
Most construction job costing systems show you what you've spent. The good ones show you what you've committed to spend: the purchase orders, subcontracts, and approved change orders that will hit the job cost even though no invoice has come in yet. The difference between committed cost job costing and actual cost job costing is the difference between knowing your job outcome in advance and finding it out at closeout.
A $200K subcontract that's 80% complete has $160K of cost on it whether or not the sub has billed you. If your job cost only reads processed invoices, that job looks better than it is, and it will keep looking better until the invoices come in all at once at the end of a phase. Everything downstream inherits the error. The cost-to-complete is wrong, the percent complete is wrong, the WIP is wrong, and the profit projection you showed the surety is wrong.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A committed cost is a cost your company is already obligated to pay under a signed subcontract, an approved purchase order, an executed rental agreement, or an approved change order, even though no invoice has come in yet.
WHY THE JOB COST IS ALWAYS BEHIND.
Your job cost only shows what's been invoiced
If your job costing only reflects invoices that have already been processed, the cost picture is always behind. A $200K subcontract that's 80% complete has $160K of cost committed, but if the sub hasn't billed yet, your job cost shows nothing against it. Your cost-to-complete, your WIP, and your profit projection are all wrong as a result.
You don't know your exposure on open purchase orders
Material purchase orders, equipment rentals, and subcontract commitments are real financial obligations before any invoice comes in. Without committed cost tracking, those obligations are invisible in job costing until they hit, and they usually hit all at once at the end of a phase. That's why a job can go from looking fine to looking bad in a single close.
Your WIP is inaccurate because committed costs aren't in it
A WIP schedule is only as accurate as the cost data feeding it. If committed costs aren't in job costing, percent complete understates true cost incurred, the overbilled and underbilled positions are wrong, and the financial picture your surety is reading doesn't match the job. You get underwritten off a number that was never right.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
A $200K subcontract that's 80% complete carries $160K of committed cost. On invoice-only job costing that job shows whatever the sub happened to bill, which on a slow-billing sub can be nothing at all. On committed cost job costing it shows $160K, and the cost-to-complete gets built off the full obligation rather than off the paperwork that has come through the door.
HOW BOTH NUMBERS GET TRACKED.
ControlQore tracks committed costs separately from actual costs. Purchase orders, subcontract values, and approved change orders get entered when they're committed rather than when they're invoiced. The job cost then reads both lines at once: total committed cost, meaning what you've obligated, and actual cost, meaning what you've been billed for. The cost-to-complete gets built off the committed total.
We set up a purchase order workflow in ControlQore during onboarding so material orders and subcontract commitments get entered at the moment of commitment. When the invoice comes in, it matches against the existing PO instead of being entered as a new cost. That stops double-coding and gives you a clean committed against invoiced comparison on every job.
With committed costs in ControlQore, the WIP calculation runs on true economic cost and not on what has been invoiced. Percent complete, earned revenue, and the overbilled and underbilled positions all come off the complete cost picture. Executive clients get a monthly WIP that reflects committed cost, which is the schedule a surety and a bank can underwrite off.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing, no payroll, and no add-ons.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the job costing.
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