Job costing lets you measure the profitability of each work order by comparing revenue against labor costs, material costs, and expenses. Use the job costing data on individual work orders and in reports to identify your most profitable job types, track cost overruns, and make informed pricing decisions.
Before you start:
- Set up products and services with accurate pricing in your catalog.
- Enable timekeeping so labor costs are tracked automatically from timecards.
- Ensure your administrator account has the Allow User to View Job Costing permission enabled.
How Job Costing Works
FieldPromax calculates job costing by pulling data from three sources within each work order:
- Labor Costs — Calculated from timecard entries linked to the work order. When a service provider clocks in and out on a job, the system multiplies their hours worked by their hourly rate to determine the labor cost. Accurate labor costs require that timekeeping is enabled and service providers have their hourly rates set in their user profile.
- Material Costs — Calculated from the products and services added to the work order. The cost is based on the purchase cost (cost of goods) of each product, not the selling price. Ensure your products have the Purchase Cost field filled in for accurate material cost tracking.
- Expense Costs — Calculated from any expenses logged against the work order through the Expense & Mileage feature. This includes reimbursable and non-reimbursable expenses such as materials purchased on-site, equipment rentals, and mileage costs.
Viewing Job Costing on a Work Order
- Navigate to Work Orders and open the work order you want to review.
- On the work order detail page, look for the job costing summary. This displays the total revenue (invoiced amount), total costs (labor + materials + expenses), and the resulting profit or loss.
- Review the breakdown of each cost category to identify where money was spent.
Result: You see a clear profit/loss calculation for that specific work order, helping you understand whether the job was profitable.
Job Costing Reports
Beyond individual work orders, you can run job costing reports to analyze profitability across your business:
- Navigate to Reports from the main menu.
- Select the Job Costing report.
- Set your date range and any filters (by job type, service provider, or customer).
- Click Run Report.
Result: The report displays profitability data across multiple work orders, showing revenue, costs, and profit margins. You can export this data for further analysis.
Tip: For the most accurate job costing data, make sure your service providers consistently clock in and out on each work order, all materials used are added to the work order, and any additional expenses are logged promptly. Missing data leads to understated costs and overstated profitability.
Ensuring Accurate Job Costing
Follow these practices to keep your job costing data reliable:
- Set accurate hourly rates for each service provider in their user profile.
- Enter the purchase cost for all products in your catalog, not just the selling price.
- Require service providers to log expenses and mileage for every job.
- Use timekeeping consistently so labor hours are captured automatically.
- Review job costing reports monthly to spot trends and address cost overruns early.
Next Steps
- Expense & Mileage — track expenses that feed into job costing
- Timekeeping Setup — enable labor cost tracking
- Running Reports — generate job costing and profitability reports
- Products & Services — set up purchase costs for accurate material tracking