What job reporting shows
A job report compares the revenue on each job with its direct costs: labor, materials, subcontractors, equipment and permits. The result is the job’s gross margin. Lined up side by side, those margins show which kinds of work, crews or customers tend to perform well and which tend to slip.
Job gross margin is measured before company overhead such as office staff, insurance, vehicles and rent. A job can show a positive gross margin and still not cover its share of overhead. Our guide to gross margin vs. net profit explains the difference.
What it depends on
Job reports are only as good as the data behind them. They depend on costs being coded to the right job consistently, on time being tracked by job, and on timely data from your team and field software. If those habits aren’t in place yet, initial job-costing setup is scoped separately as an implementation project.
Where it fits
Job-profitability reporting for an agreed scope of projects is included in Profit & Cash Flow and Strategic CFO Partnership. Advanced construction reporting, including WIP and retainage, is scoped separately.
Common questions
Can you job cost every project we run?
Job reporting covers an agreed scope of projects in your proposal. The right scope depends on how many jobs you run and how consistently costs are coded.
Do I need field software for job costing?
Not always, but it helps. What matters most is that labor and materials are tied to jobs consistently.