Job Costing Reports

Job costing reports are instrumental in evaluating estimators, project managers and a contractor’s overall process with managing projects. Job costing reports typically compare a standard against actual with various components of the process. Components consist of either materials and labor or as phases of construction.

Key Performance Indicators With Construction – Production Reports (Part 1 of 3)

Construction Industry Standards / By / 02/19/2021
Key Performance Indicator

The primary key performance indicator with construction is the annual financial income statement (profit and loss statement). For most traditional contractors, the bottom line, net profit after taxes should be no less than 7% with an average of 9.4%. If the contractor desires to be in the upper 10% of the industry, net profit must be greater than 12%. For those involved in the trades, minimum net profit should be greater than 10%, with the average being 14% and the upper tenth percentile bracket having greater than 18% net profit. Again, after income taxes are paid. However, a year is a long time to wait to review performance. In the interim there are other key performance indicators to identify trends and provide feedback to the management team. They consist of three distinct groups of indicators: 1) Production Reports, 2) Backlog/Pipeline Information, and 3) Interim Financial Outcomes.

Estimating in Construction – Part III (Job Costs by Phase Evaluation Process)

Construction Industry Standards / By / 02/05/2021

Estimates in construction are prepared in a similar timeline fashion as project milestones with an overall section to cover those costs that are ongoing throughout the project’s entire time frame. For the purposes of this lesson, the term ‘Phase’ is used to indicate these respective steps of physical construction. In Parts I and II of this series, estimates are created using hard costs of construction; those costs that are directly assignable to the respective project. Throughout this project’s timeline, all assignable costs are keyed to the project and ultimately aggregated by cost type (materials, labor, subcontractor, equipment, other) in the direct costs of construction section of the income statement (P&L statement). To break these costs down into phases, the estimator needs to understand how data in entered into the accounting software. Once entered, the costs can then be accumulated by phase using a customized report from the accounting software. Most accounting software allow an estimate to be entered thus the customized report can compare actual hard costs by phase against the estimated costs by phase. With this report, the construction management team can now hone in on any cost overruns by phase or cost savings. 

Job Costing Reports – Introduction (Part 1)

Report Analysis - How to Read the Statements / By / 02/23/2021
Job Costing Reports

Job costing reports are management tools used to evaluate project or production performance against a known or estimated standard. They are used in many business sectors and their respective industries. The primary purpose of job costing reports is to identify discrepancies or beneficial results, usually in the form of financial values. They can be used to report both financial and numerical production outcomes.