Get the best job costing software for your business. Compare product reviews, pricing below. Read our buyer’s guide for more help.
Job costing software is an essential tool for any construction outfit to track, assess, and carry out work with an understanding of its true and ongoing costs.
Any type of construction project requires detailed accuracy. No matter what’s being built or repaired, precise measurements are essential to getting work done safely, satisfactorily, and on time. Job costing software can help make this work easier.
Understanding how labor and resources are being spent is crucial to ensuring jobs are completed profitably, without cutting corners or wasting precious time.
This guide will provide you with information on the following topics:
Job cost software facilitates the assignment of costs to individual cost categories in order to enable improved cost control and job profitability. Job cost software can be offered as a stand-alone product, or as part of a construction management software.
For construction companies, job costing software can accurately report real-time costs of any particular job to manage cash flow, invoicing, and expenses. Many job costing software solutions also integrate with inventory management and accounting platforms to create comprehensive solutions for construction companies to carry out their work as efficiently as possible.
Below you will find a list of job cost software features include labor costing, equipment costing, material costing, and subcontractor costing.
Functionality | Definition |
---|---|
Labor costing | Labor costing features allow for the collection of costs associated with the time spent working on a job and can include time and attendance tracking and hourly labor rate assignments |
Equipment costing | Equipment costing capabilities allow for the assignment of equipment rental or acquisition costs to specific jobs and include management for complex situations such as split job cost or direct/indirect cost divisions |
Material costing | Material costing allows for tracking expenditures on supplies and other materials used in the execution of job work |
Subcontractor costing | Subcontractor costing allows for the management of costs incurred through hiring subcontracted service providers |
Customizable cost categories | Customizable cost categories allow for more granular specification of cost types than what can be provided through predefined cost categories |
Job phase tracking | The ability to divide jobs into different phases enables another reporting dimension useful to improving visibility of where money was spent in the execution of more complex jobs |
PO and customer payment tracking | The ability to reconcile customer purchase orders and payments to individual jobs enables better visibility for ensuring complete cost capture for incurred job costs |
Inter-job profitability/expense reports | The ability to compare profitability between jobs can reveal important business insights about causes of cost over-runs or reveal info about the most profitable type of jobs to pursue |
The key benefits of job costing software will let construction companies accurately and completely track the progress of any job. Here are some of the key benefits job costing software provides:
It’s important for construction companies to choose job costing software that meets their particular needs. The work completed by a plumbing company, for example, is very different from that of an HVAC contractor. Accurate estimates and job costing may be accounted for in very different ways, and choosing the right job costing software for your business may come down to its size and scope:
Several different job costing solutions exist to meet the varying needs of construction companies. Be sure to choose a solution that can integrate with your existing workflow or offers industry-specific functionality that’s right for your business.
Custom Homebuilders’ Solutions is an example of an integrated construction option that has job costing as an included capability. The software suite designed for home builders to streamline their business operations.
Features include accounts payable and accounts receivable, cash control, payroll, and scheduling functionality. Custom Homebuilder’s Solutions makes it possible to assign cost codes and items to cost centers, track all cost types, manage job stages and scheduling, and accurately estimate job budgets. It’s an ideal fit for home builders looking for a comprehensive, all-in-one solution.
This is a stand-alone project costing software. Job Manager provides an easy way to manage resources; track the status of production jobs; monitor dates, activity cost and material requirements; and subcontractor activities within a single integrated system.
Additional features include estimating and quoting, procurement, billing, and work in process (WIP).
A common pain point buyers encounter when choosing job costing software is the challenge of seamlessly migrating from legacy technology to a modern software solution. Many older systems use obsolete programming languages or databases, making it difficult export data or integrate with modern solutions. For businesses that need access to historical data, its important to find a solution that will make upgrading as painless as possible.
Another common pain point is the difficulty determining whether an all-in-one ERP or construction management software solution is a better fit than a standalone job costing software tool. While many vendors offer full suites of comprehensive project management capabilities, your organization may only need a best-in-class job costing feature thats available on its own. Whether youre upgrading an older system or starting from scratch, be sure to accurately determine your needs before deciding on a solution.
Here are some market trends job costing software developers are currently taking advantage of: