Job Costing & Project Accounting
Track what each job or project actually costs so you can see which work makes money and price future jobs based on real data instead of guesswork.
What This Is
Job costing means tracking your costs by project instead of just by category. Every expense gets assigned to a specific job or client engagement. Labor hours, materials, subcontractor fees, equipment costs. When the project ends, you know exactly what it cost you and whether the revenue covered those costs with margin to spare.
Standard bookkeeping tells you whether your business made money last month. Job costing tells you which projects contributed to that profit and which ones ate into it. That distinction matters when you are deciding what work to pursue, how to price your services, and which clients are worth keeping.
The Tracking
The Tracking
Every billable hour, every material purchase, every subcontractor invoice gets coded to a specific job number. We set up the tracking system, train your team on proper coding, and reconcile the data monthly so nothing slips through the cracks or gets assigned to the wrong project.
The Reporting
The Reporting
Job profitability reports show revenue minus all costs for each project. Work-in-progress reports track costs on open jobs against expected revenue. Historical summaries let you compare estimates to actual results so you can spot patterns in where you consistently run over or under.
Why This Matters
A consulting firm we spoke with had three major clients. All three paid well. Revenue was strong. But two of those clients required twice the hours to service compared to the third. When you factored in actual labor costs, one of those big clients was barely breaking even. Without job-level tracking, everything looked fine on the surface.
This problem gets worse over time. You keep accepting similar work at similar prices because you assume it is profitable. You might even chase more of that work because the revenue numbers look good. Meanwhile, your margins keep shrinking and you cannot figure out why cash feels tighter than your income statement suggests it should.
Blind Pricing
Blind Pricing
Without data from past projects, every quote is a guess. You estimate labor hours based on memory. You estimate materials based on what seems right. Sometimes you are close. Sometimes you lose money and do not realize it until much later when you are wondering why the bank account is lower than expected.
Hidden Drag
Hidden Drag
The jobs that seem easy often have hidden costs. The callbacks. The scope creep that never gets billed. The extra trips. The time spent chasing payments. Those costs are real but they rarely get captured anywhere. They just quietly erode your margins while you keep pricing the next job the same way.
What Changes
You stop guessing. When a new project comes in, you can look at similar past jobs and see what they actually cost. You know your real labor rates, your typical material variance, your average overrun on certain types of work. Your estimates start reflecting reality instead of optimism.
Strategic decisions get easier too. You can see which service lines consistently perform well and which ones drain resources for thin returns. You can identify clients worth investing in and clients worth letting go. The data takes the emotion out of these choices and gives you something concrete to act on.
Better Pricing
Better Pricing
Historical job cost data shows what things actually cost. Not what you hoped they would cost. When you price the next similar project, you build in the buffer for the overruns that always seem to happen. Your proposals reflect real costs plus real margin instead of wishful math.
Smarter Decisions
Smarter Decisions
Which client segments are most profitable? Which project types consistently deliver margin and which ones barely break even? Job costing gives you answers based on numbers instead of impressions. You can stop chasing work that feels busy but does not actually pay well.
The Merrimack Valley's Trusted Accounting Partner
The Next Step:
A 15-Minute Call
Tell us about your business and what you're dealing with. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a straightforward quote.