Short answer: Job costing bookkeeping in the Inland Empire records every cost against the job it belongs to, so each job has its own profit and loss. Labor from payroll, materials, sub bills, equipment rentals, permits and change orders are tracked by job. Each month you get profit by job, open retention and a WIP schedule if you need one.
The problem with company-wide profit
A contractor can have a profitable year and still lose money on a third of its jobs. Company-wide profit hides that. The good jobs carry the bad ones, and you keep bidding the bad ones the same way.
Job costing records every cost against the job it belongs to, so each job has its own profit and loss.
What gets tracked by job
- Labor: crew hours from payroll, with burden if you want true cost
- Materials: supply house purchases coded to the job they went to
- Subcontractors: every sub bill tied to a job
- Equipment rentals, dump fees, permits and inspections
- Change orders as their own line, so you can see if they paid
- Billings and payments received, including retention held back
WIP and retention
On jobs that run longer than a month, what you have billed and what you have earned are rarely the same. A work in progress schedule compares percent complete against billings, so you can see if you are overbilled or underbilled. Lenders and bonding companies often ask for it.
Retention is the money a general contractor or owner holds back until the job closes. It is still yours, but it is not cash yet. We track it as retention receivable so it does not vanish from your balance sheet or get counted twice when it finally arrives.
How we set it up
- Map your jobs Each job becomes a project in QuickBooks Online or a tracking category in Xero.
- Fix the coding habit Supply house receipts and sub bills need a job name. We set up a simple way to capture it.
- Connect payroll Crew time comes in from payroll by job, so labor lands on the right project.
- Report every month You get profit by job, open retention, and a WIP schedule if you need one.
Reading a job report
A good job report answers three questions. Did this job make money? Where did it go over? Did the change orders pay for themselves? If the estimate called for a set number of crew days and the job took more, the labor line shows it. If materials ran over, you can see whether it was price or waste.
Over a few months, the pattern shows up. Maybe small residential jobs always run over on labor. Maybe one superintendent's jobs come in under. That is the information you bid with.
Trades we see in the Inland Empire
Framers, concrete and flatwork, roofers, HVAC, plumbing and electrical, solar installers, landscapers, painters and tenant improvement contractors working the warehouses along the 10, the 15 and the 215. The setup changes a little for each, but the idea is the same: every cost has a job.
Where we work
We keep books for businesses across Riverside County and San Bernardino County.
- Chino
- Corona
- Fontana
- Moreno Valley
- Murrieta
- Ontario
- Rancho Cucamonga
- Redlands
- Riverside
- San Bernardino
- Temecula
- Upland
Questions
Can QuickBooks Online do job costing?
Yes. Projects in QuickBooks Online can track income, labor and costs by job. It only works if costs are coded to the project every time.
Do I need a WIP schedule?
If you have jobs that run longer than a month, a bonding company, or a line of credit with financial reporting, probably yes.
What about jobs that are already done?
During a cleanup or catch-up, past jobs can be costed from bills and payroll records, as far as the records allow.
Can you job cost if my crews do not track time by job?
Not accurately. We help you set up a simple way to capture hours by job, often inside the payroll or time app you already use.