When it comes to working in construction, one needs to realize that there are different tiers of work that need to come into place in order to complete a job successfully. At the root level, you have the hard-working crews that make sure structures are put together properly and safety. However, their efforts need to be guided in the right direction. This is where job costing comes in. In terms of labor costs as well and materials, someone needs to anticipate how much the job will take. Failing to do this properly leads to inaccurate quotes and unhappy clients.
Job Costing vs. Process Costing, What is the difference?
Job costing is the more extensive alternative when it comes to appraising a job as opposed to process costing. With process costing, you break a job down step-by-step then assign an average cost to each component. This can be based on your past experience or industry averages, if you have access to just data. However, in construction, jobs are generally much more complex. This leads to job costing, where you look at specific requirements of each job to create an estimated cost. Each of these smaller areas is broken down with a number called a cost code. For example, CIP walls or the slabs on the ground may each be their own cost code.
Software for Job Costing
Much like construction itself, job costing has a lot of different working parts, meaning that it’s easy for something to go wrong. As a result, you want to use every means in your power to job cost properly. A good way to do this is to start with data. But how exactly do you get the data that you need? It’s actually a lot more simple than you think.
Knowing how to manage construction job costing with cost codes is a major part of being effective and efficient when it comes to collecting accurate jobsite data. However, it’s hard not to do this without collecting essential data from the field, something for which busybusy has proven to be a valuable asset. The busybusy app can collect data from the jobsite and from equipment in real time, and instantly send it to managers, supervisors, and others. This gives you the numbers you need in order to understand what your actual costs are in terms of time as well as money.
Get Real-Time Data with Accurate Job Costing
Is it really worth the investment? Very much so. Construction is inherently risky when it comes to profit margins, so the last thing you want to think about is taking a loss when it comes to a job. Using busybusy and other software means that you are constantly getting data that’s not only accurate, but customized to how your business runs. This comes up in many different ways. Not only do you avoid losses, but you can put in future bids with more confidence for certain jobs. In addition, that same data can help you manage your work better. Do you see an area where you are overspending? The data will make that clear.
