Job Costing Software
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 Buyer’s Guide
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:
What Is Job Cost Software?
Job cost software facilitates the assignment of costs to individual cost categories in order to enable improved cost control and job profitability.
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.
Key Features
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 |
Key Benefits
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:
- Improved price setting for future jobs based on historical cost performance: Business intelligence features can analyze the costs of labor, equipment, materials, and subcontractors to determine the best possible prices for jobs, ensuring organizations aren’t leaving money on the table by undercharging for work. Companies can adapt to projection forecasting on the fly to keep jobs on budget and according to plan.
- Inefficiency management: Job costing software can help uncover inefficiencies in the execution of job work, identifying unprofitable jobs or unexpected problems that could contribute to a delay or work stoppage. Tools to help manage and understand these efficiencies can improve each job’s process and increase overall job profitability.
- Lower administrative costs: Rather than relying on manual processes or a patchwork of spreadsheets, job costing software can automatically put costs and estimates into one streamlined interface, reducing the need for additional administrative work. Data can be imported from multiple locations or through software integrations, making it easier to estimate the price of jobs and calculate payroll expenses.
- Improved ability to target profitable job types: While it may be tempting to pursue the largest jobs possible, bigger doesn’t always mean better. Job costing software can help determine the profitability of any job size or type, identifying the most profitable aspects of your business in order to pursue jobs that take advantage of your best capabilities.
- Better estimates: By understanding the true cost of labor, materials, and time, job costing software makes it easy to provide customers with accurate estimates that reflect the true cost of work.
What Does Your Business Need?
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:
- Small businesses may prefer job costing software that allows them to move away from QuickBooks for a more comprehensive job costing solution.
- Medium businesses should consider a comprehensive job costing software package that enables better tracking of complex projects carried out by more staff members.
- Large businesses may be best equipped with job costing software that fully integrates with additional construction-related solutions, such as project management software, inventory management software, and accounting software.
Popular Solutions
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, a software suite designed for home builders to streamline their business operations. Combined with 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.
Common Pain Points
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, it’s 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 that’s available on its own. Whether you’re upgrading an older system or starting from scratch, be sure to accurately determine your needs before deciding on a solution.
Market Trends
Here are some market trends job costing software developers are currently taking advantage of:
- Enhanced business intelligence capabilities: Software that takes full advantage of data analytics has made it possible to create greater insights into job costing with greater accuracy and better forecasting capabilities. As tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning become more prominent in the marketplace, expect these enhanced capabilities to grow even further with time.
- Cloud-based software: Many vendors have begun offering cloud-based versions of their job costing software, making it easier to access information from any web browser.
