Job Costing for Contractors
See true costs by job and phase with margins you can trust. We align your chart of accounts to field reality and produce WIP and margin views that help you price and schedule better.
What This Is
Job costing separates your expenses by project instead of lumping everything into monthly totals. Every labor hour, material purchase, subcontractor invoice, and equipment rental gets coded to a specific job. You see exactly what each project cost and whether it made or lost money.
Standard bookkeeping gives you a monthly profit and loss statement. It tells you whether your business made money overall. It doesn’t tell you that your kitchen remodels are making 22% margin while your commercial fit-outs are barely breaking even. That distinction matters when you’re deciding what work to bid on and which customers to pursue.
Built for the Field
Built for the Field
We set up your chart of accounts to match how work actually happens. Phases that make sense for your projects. Cost categories that align with how you estimate and how your crew tracks time. Not generic accounting buckets that don’t mean anything to someone running jobs.
The Reporting
The Reporting
Job profitability by project showing revenue, actual costs, and margin. Work-in-progress reports tracking costs on open jobs against your estimates. Phase-level rollups so you can see where overruns happen. Change orders tracked separately so you know what was in scope and what wasn’t.
Why This Matters
Your bank account shows $80,000. Business feels good. But $30,000 of that is a deposit on a job you haven’t started. Another $25,000 is draws on two projects that are currently underwater. The remaining $25,000 is actual profit from work that wrapped up clean. Without job costing, all you see is the $80,000 and assume things are fine.
The real damage shows up in your bidding. You keep pricing bathroom remodels the same way because you don’t realize they consistently run over. You avoid commercial work because the upfront numbers look tight, not knowing those jobs always finish under budget for you. Every estimate is based on what you hope things cost, not what they actually cost.
Hidden Losses
Hidden Losses
That addition you thought made $15,000? You forgot the extra week of framing labor when the material delivery was late. And the electrician came back twice for punch list items you didn’t charge for. Actual profit was closer to $6,000, but you bid the next one thinking your margins were solid.
Cash Confusion
Cash Confusion
In construction, cash moves differently than profit. You get deposits before work starts. You collect draws based on completion percentages. You hold retainage that arrives months later. Without job costing, you confuse cash in the bank with money you’ve actually earned on completed work.
What Changes
Bidding becomes historical instead of hopeful. You know what a similar job cost last year. You know which phases tend to run over and by how much. You know which subs stay on budget and which ones always have extras. Your estimates reflect what actually happened on past projects, not what you hoped would happen.
You also see problems while you can still fix them. If a job is trending 15% over estimate halfway through, you know now. You can adjust scheduling, have a conversation with the customer about a change order, or tighten up the remaining phases. That’s very different from discovering the overrun three months later when you’re wondering why cash is tight despite staying busy.
Better Estimates
Better Estimates
Historical job cost data shows what things actually cost, not what you hoped they’d cost. Bidding a master bath? You have numbers from the last five you completed showing real labor hours, material waste, and the extras that came up. Your new estimate accounts for reality.
Smarter Decisions
Smarter Decisions
Which job types consistently make money? Which customers are worth keeping? Where should you focus when work slows down? Job costing answers these questions with numbers instead of gut feelings. You stop chasing work that feels profitable but isn’t, and double down on what actually pays.
Greater Boston's Trusted Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
We'll ask a few questions, figure out what you need, and give you a straightforward quote.