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Job Costs |
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JOB COST BASICS JOB COSTS COMMAND RELATED TOPICS What are Job Costs?Job Costs are a way to track expenses by assigning them to specific income-producing parts of your business (jobs). They allow you to see more directly how your expenses relate to the income they produce.For many businesses, entering job cost information is the best way to track your expenses. They give you a snapshot of the income and expenses
for a specific portion of your business, so it's easier to make decisions. What are Jobs?Goldenseal allows you to assign every expense to a job account. A job is any part of your business that consumes expenses and creates income (either directly or indirectly).You'll get direct income from the following account classes: Assign indirect costs to one of the following account classes: Basic Cost AreasGoldenseal divides job costs and Cost Items into 5 basic cost areas:Equipment-- expenses from Equipment Hours Labor-- expenses from Labor Hours Materials-- expenses that come from a Material Purchase or Inventory Used Subcontractors-- expenses from Subcontractor Costs Other Costs-- expenses from Other Costs When you enter unit costs there is one more choice: In a Sale or Material Purchase breakdown table you can enter some additional cost areas: Cost CategoriesYou can allocate each expense transaction to cost categories and optional subcategories. Using a category system makes it much easier for you to track how your money is being spent.To allocate an expense to categories and subcategories, follow these steps:
Cost LocationsYou can allocate each expense transaction to cost locations. Locations give you a second way to identify costs-- you can choose a room, building, company division or some other location.To allocate an expense to a location, follow these steps:
Entering Job CostsYou'll enter most job costs via expense transactions-- Equipment Hours, Labor Hours, Material Purchases, Other Costs, Subcontractor Costs and Inventory Used. You can enter one expense per record, or you can use Category or Item breakdowns to combine many expenses into one record.HINT-- If you are only entering an expense for the sake of job costing and don't want to track payments for it, enter Job Cost Only into the Status field. This feature is especially useful if you are entering old invoices when you first set up Goldenseal. You can also enter purchases directly into a bank transaction via a direct purchase. Job costs also come from bank transactions for bank fees and other charges. Job cost income comes from Sales and Billing Records if you use accrual accounting, or from Bank Deposits if you use cash accounting. You can also make adjustments to job costs with a Cost Transfer. Job Costs WindowThe Job Cost command shows you a Øquick report" of costs and income for each of your projects, customers, and other jobs.Looking at job costs is a valuable way to manage your business. It shows the profitability of each part of your business, and helps you to increase the accuracy of your cost estimates. To see a summary of job costs, follow these steps:
The first five columns for each job show the five basic expense classes, with the amount that has been posted to each project. The next column shows the amount of overhead allocated to the job. The final three columns show the total costs for each job (from expense transactions), the original budget amount (from the project estimate), and the amount of income received for the job. NOTE-- The initial Job Costs window shows simple job cost totals which are "posted" to each account and stored there. If you change the calculation method for job costs in Expense Preferences, in some cases the detailed breakdowns may show different totals Viewing Job TypesTo view job costs for different types of accounts, click on the Job Types popup at the upper right corner of the Job Costs window.You can view any of the following items: Active Projects-- All Project accounts that currently have Active status. Active Customers-- Totals for job costs assigned directly to all Customer accounts that currently have Active status. Equipment-- Expenses used to maintain equipment, and income that results from equipment use. Category BreakdownsTo see a detailed breakdown of costs by cost category, double-click anywhere in the row of the job you'd like to see. You'll see a list of cost categories, along with the expense amounts posted to each category. HINT-- The breakdown only shows the categories that have a contract amount or an expense amount. If you'd like to include all cost categories in the display, hold down the Shift key when you double-click on the row. If you double-click in the Equipment, Labor, Material, Subs or Other column, you'll only see costs of that type. If you click in the Income column, you'll only see income transactions for the job. If you click in any other column you'll see all costs. To see further details for costs within a category, double-click in its row. If the selected category has subcategories, you'll see a list of its subcategories,
with a breakdown for each. If the selected category does not have subcategories, you'll see a breakdown of individual expense transactions. When you are finished viewing the category breakdown, click the Close button, and you will return to the list of jobs. Item BreakdownsTo see a breakdown of specific cost items for a job, follow these steps:
HINT-- Material cost and other cost amounts are the original expense amount, or the adjusted amounts, depending on the settings in Expense Preferences. Equipment, labor and subcontractor costs are based on the Job Cost Amount in the expense transaction. Location BreakdownsTo see a breakdown of job costs by location, follow these steps:
Setting Job ProgressYou can use the Job Costs command to track project completion, and get a prediction of the final project cost.HINT-- The completion percentages are also used for progress payment billing. To track progress by cost category, follow these steps:
To track progress by location within a project, follow these steps:
Job Cost IncomeGoldenseal gives you several options for the display of income in the Job Costs windows. You can show any of the following items:
Labor BurdenBesides the direct cost of employee labor, there are additional labor costs due to employer taxes, insurance, and employee benefits. Collectively, these costs are often called labor burden.Labor burden costs are added to the labor costs, and distributed along with the direct cost of labor. Labor burden is automatically assigned to different jobs, depending on the hours worked on each. The additional cost of overtime hours can also be allocated between jobs, either across-the-board, or by individual assignment. Main Page | Accounts | Lists | Transactions | Menus | Index | Website | User Page |