Contractor guide
Job costing for contractors: know which jobs make money
Revenue does not equal profit. Contractors need to know which job types, technicians, and price book items create margin after labor, materials, callbacks, and travel time.
Start with labor and materials
The simplest useful job cost includes technician labor time and materials used. This alone can reveal which invoices look good but barely cover the work.
Connect cost to the work order
Costs are easiest to trust when they are captured as part of the field workflow, not rebuilt from memory days later.
Review patterns, not just single jobs
One job can be unusual. A pattern across job types tells you where pricing, dispatch, training, or scope needs to change.
Steps to apply it
- Capture labor time by work order.
- Capture materials used by work order.
- Compare actual job cost against invoice value.
- Review margin by job type every month.
Examples
- A drain job with two trips may be less profitable than the invoice suggests.
- An HVAC repair with repeated callbacks may need a different diagnostic process.
- A replacement estimate may need updated materials pricing.