YOU CANNOT MANAGE WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE.
Job costing compares actual cost against estimated cost by individual job, using cost codes that mirror how the bid was assembled. The setup counts as much as the discipline: if the codes don't match the estimate there's no honest comparison to make. It fails for three reasons, and all three are structural rather than a shortage of effort.
The part worth sitting with is the word structural. Cost codes built by an accountant who never read an estimate produce a report comparing two things that were never assembled the same way, and no amount of field discipline rescues that. So the pages in this hub run from setup and code design through committed cost, cost to complete, production tracking, and the project managers who have to live inside the system. Get the structure right and the discipline gets easy, because a report that tells a superintendent something he can act on is a report he will keep feeding.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Job costing is the practice of comparing actual cost against estimated cost for one individual job, using cost codes that mirror the way the estimate was built, so a problem is visible while the job can still be corrected.
WHY IT BREAKS.
Cost Codes Do Not Match the Estimate
When the tracking structure doesn't mirror the bid structure, there's no honest way to compare actual cost against what the job was supposed to cost. The report still produces numbers, and the numbers still add up to the job total, but no line in it answers the question the estimator asked. Most job costing that gets abandoned was never comparable in the first place.
Field Data Comes In Too Late
Coding that posts a month after the work turns job costing into a historical record instead of a management tool. The window for correcting a phase closes while the report is still being assembled. A rate that's 30 percent over on week two is a conversation; the same rate discovered at closeout is a loss you already took.
Project Managers Do Not Trust the Report
A report that's slow, or wrong once, gets abandoned without anybody saying so. The PM goes back to running the job on judgement, which is often good judgement, and the system becomes something the office maintains for its own benefit. Trust is the deliverable, and it's earned by the report being fast and right and not by anybody being told to use it.
EVERYTHING ON THIS SUBJECT.
Every guide below is a full page on one part of this subject. Start at the top if the whole thing is new; jump to the one that describes your week if it's not.
- Cost to Complete, How ToBuild remaining work line by line, match the percent complete method to each cost type, and run it monthly in 20 to 30 minutes a job.
- Job Costing StandardsCost codes mirroring the estimate, burden divided over 1,960 productive hours rather than 2,080, and costs entered inside 48 hours.
- Job Costing Explained for ContractorsSeven cost categories, why labor gets tracked in burdened dollars, and how a single labor code hides a phase running 22 percent over inside the same $187K.
- Job Costing SetupCost codes built from the structure your estimators already use, overhead allocated by a driver, and WIP logic matched to how you bill.
- Committed Costs vs Actual CostsCommitted cost is the full obligation whether the sub has invoiced you yet or not.
- Cost to CompleteThe estimate reflects the estimator's own performance, month three's optimism becomes month four's baseline, and percentage of completion overstates revenue.
- Equipment Cost in Job CostingSplit the machine, the operator, the fuel, and the fees into separate cost codes.
- Job Costing vs Real Job ProfitOverhead allocation, WIP accuracy and billing timing sit between what you spent and what you earned.
- Payroll Job Costing IntegrationLabor is the biggest number on the job and it posts a pay period late.
- PM Job Cost ScorecardA $296,000 job in month four projecting negative $10,200, with three months of schedule left to change it.
- PM Labor Cost AccountabilityThe green, yellow and red thresholds at 105 and 115 percent of earned value, and why 15 percent over on labor means the crew is producing at 87 percent.
- Production Tracking vs AccountingAccounting confirms the overrun six weeks after it became a field fact.
- Production Tracking SystemCost per unit says what cost per hour can't.
- Unit Cost TrackingThat variance is knowable while the phase is open.
- Why PMs Break Job CostingJob costing fails in the field before it fails in the books.
- Davis-Bacon Job CostingBurden comes off the wage determination, not private work history.
- Field Production vs Job CostingA $4K second access point saved a projected $47K labor overrun because the weekly report flagged it in week three.
- Framing Floor-by-Floor Job CostingOne labor code for the building hides it in both directions.
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 and no payroll.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 | $6,000 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 | $7,500 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 | $9,000 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually | Quoted individually |
The onboarding fee covers migrating your books back to the start of your last taxable year and getting you fully operational in 60 days. It's billed once, with your first invoice. It's the same for all three tiers. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
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. The onboarding fee is right here in the table.
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 and never in a report.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Your office stops answering coding questions and stops chasing a reconciliation on the last day of the month.
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 books, the job costing, and the software. No payroll.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
PART 5 OF 6, RECORDING SOON.
Never Miss Payroll Without Taking On Debt is a 6 part series on making payroll out of work already performed, without reaching for a line of credit. One of the sessions is this page:
Losing Money Before You Even Get to Site
If your cost codes weren't built against your estimating assemblies, your job cost report can't tell you whether the bid was right.
Not recorded yet. The sessions that are appear on the series page, and this one joins them the day it's recorded. Nothing to sign up for: the page is the notification.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS.
It's definitely something you have to go all in on and fully adopt but when you do it smooths cash flow out and you can finally know where your money is going on jobs.
