Job costing for a small crew: did that job make money?

To job cost a job, take what you billed and subtract four things: materials and fees (dump fees, permits, parts), labor (each person’s hours times their loaded hourly cost), vehicle cost (the miles at your cost per mile), and a share of overhead (your hourly overhead rate times the job’s hours). What’s left is what the job made. The hard part isn’t the arithmetic; it’s capturing the hours and receipts on the job while they happen, so the numbers are real.

Why bother with a small crew?

Because the busy month can be the losing month. Two jobs with the same invoice can make very different money: one ran an hour over, one needed a second trip to the dump. Costing a few jobs of each kind tells you which ones to raise prices on, which to quote differently, and which to stop chasing.

What are the five numbers?

1. Billed: what you invoiced for the job, before sales tax.
2. Materials and fees: what you bought or paid for this job: parts, product, dump or disposal fees, permits, equipment rental.
3. Labor: hours per person, times their loaded hourly cost (wage plus payroll taxes, workers’ comp, benefits). Include drive time if you pay for it.
4. Vehicle: miles driven for the job at your cost per mile.
5. Overhead share: a year of insurance, phone, software, advertising and the shop, divided by billed hours in a year, times the job’s hours.

Job profit = billed − (materials and fees + labor + vehicle + overhead share).

A worked example

Say a junk removal job is invoiced at $650. Two people spend 3 hours each, including the drive to the transfer station, at a loaded $25 an hour: $150 of labor. The disposal fee is $110. The truck drives 30 miles at 76 cents: about $23. Overhead runs $15 per crew hour, and the job took 6 crew hours: $90.

$650 − ($110 + $150 + $23 + $90) = $277 left. These are example numbers, not a benchmark. Run a few of your own: a window cleaning route, a pressure washing job, a pool opening. The job types that come out thin are where to look first.

How do you capture the numbers as you go?

Costing after the fact means guessing. Capture each number on the job:

• Hours: each person starts a timer on arrival and stops it when done, or types the hours in. In FieldFlow, every entry is per person, per job.
• Receipts and fees: log the expense against the job with a photo of the receipt, while you’re still in the parking lot.
• Miles: log the drive per trip or per job at your per-mile rate.
• Billed: invoice from the job, so the invoice and the costs are on the same record.

In FieldFlow, the job’s money strip shows the estimate, what’s invoiced and paid, the expenses logged against the job, and the crew hours logged (with the time allotted for the next visit). Multiply those hours by your loaded rate and add your overhead share; FieldFlow doesn’t calculate labor cost or a margin per job.

What do you do with the result?

• Re-price the thin job types. If a job type keeps landing below your target, raise the price or change how you quote it, for example by volume instead of a flat rate.
• Fix the estimate, not just the price. If jobs keep running over their allotted time, the estimate’s hours are wrong.
• Watch the month. FieldFlow’s profit and loss report shows revenue, expenses and mileage for the period, so you can see whether the month as a whole is working.

The short version

Billed minus materials, labor at a loaded rate, miles and an overhead share is the job’s real profit. Log hours, receipts and miles on the job as they happen. FieldFlow keeps them on each job at $19/month for the whole crew, with a 90-day free trial. See the junk removal page or time tracking for your team.

Questions owners ask

What is job costing?

Working out what one job cost you and comparing it with what you billed for it: materials and fees, labor, vehicle costs and a share of overhead. The difference is what the job actually made.

What should be included in labor cost?

The hours each person spent on the job, including drive time if you pay for it, times their loaded hourly cost: the wage plus payroll taxes, workers' comp and any benefits. For yourself, use what you'd pay someone to do your part.

How do I add overhead to a job?

Add up a year of overhead (insurance, phone, software, advertising, the shop) and divide it by the hours you bill in a year. Multiply that rate by the job's hours.

Does FieldFlow do job costing?

It collects the numbers on each job: the estimate, what's invoiced and paid, the expenses logged against the job, and the hours your crew logged. Labor cost and overhead you work out from those hours with your own rates; FieldFlow doesn't show a margin per job.