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Job costing software that shows what each job kept

What every job kept after labour, chemicals, materials and callbacks, per job, service and truck.

Live today · Updated

  • Labour at real pay

    Each person's clocked minutes on the job, valued by their own pay rule, hourly, per job or crew split.

  • Chemicals from the log

    Gallons of each chemical times that day's cost per gallon, straight from the crew's mix log.

  • Callbacks on the right job

    A callback's time and materials are charged against the original job, so its margin tells the truth.

  • "How we got this"

    Every margin opens a list of every dollar behind it: each person's time and rate, each mix, each material.

  • Margins by truck-day

    "Trucks kept $740 a day": the number that tells you whether a truck is worth running.

  • Kept from reps and crews

    Only the owner sees margins, plus the office if you allow it. Sales and crews never do.

Birdy's job costing works out the margin on every job from what it actually cost: each person's time at their real pay, the chemicals in the mix log, the materials you add, and any callback to redo it. Then Reports → Margins adds it up by service, truck, truck-day and home or commercial, so you know which work to sell more of.

How is the profit margin on a job worked out?

Revenue is the invoice total without tax (or the job total before it is invoiced). Costs are labour, chemicals, materials and callbacks. Margin is what's left, in dollars and as a percent.

Margin = revenue minus (labour + chemicals + materials + callbacks)
Margin % = margin ÷ revenue × 100
Revenue is before tax. Fuel and time between jobs are not job costs here.

An example job (made-up numbers)

Revenue

How
Invoice INV-1004, before tax
Amount
$890

Labour

How
3.5 h · 2 people, at their pay rules
Amount
$238

Chemicals

How
40 gal of mix from the log
Amount
$31

Materials

How
Rust remover, typed on the job
Amount
$24

Callbacks

How
None
Amount
$0

Margin

How
Revenue minus the costs above
Amount
$597 · 67%

Someone with no pay rule is costed at the company crew-hour rate ($45 an hour by default). A job nobody tapped through is costed from its scheduled length and marked Estimated. Below your low-margin line (25% by default) a job is marked Low. Try your own numbers in the job profit calculator.

Which services and trucks make the most money?

Reports → Margins answers it in one sentence, such as "Last 30 days: $48,210 of work kept $21,700, a 45% margin. Trucks kept $740 a day." Below it are tabs for Jobs, Services, Trucks, Truck days and Home or Commercial, and a "Where the money goes" split across labour, chemicals, materials and callbacks.

Every row opens the jobs behind it, and every job opens its own "How we got this". A service that looks busy but keeps 18% shows up here, and so does a truck-day that pays for the truck.

How do callbacks affect job costing?

A callback is a free return visit by default. Its labour, chemicals and materials go against the original job, not into thin air. The office gives each callback a cause (Workmanship, Customer expectation, Weather or re-soil, Not our scope), and only workmanship counts against the crew.

Reports → Work → Callbacks shows each crew's callback rate and what redoing work cost over the last 90 days. It is the cleanest way to see quality and cost in the same place.

Coming soon

  • A cost and markup on each price-list item, with an expected margin while you build the quote
  • Fuel cost per truck-day

Not available today. We will say so here when it is.

Questions

Where does labour cost come from?

From each person's clocked minutes on the job, valued by their own pay rule. Without a pay rule, the company crew-hour rate is used ($45 an hour unless you change it).

Does job costing include materials?

Yes. Chemicals come from the crew's mix log, and other materials (up to 30 lines) can be typed on the job with a quantity and unit cost.

Can sales reps see margins?

No. Sales reps and crews never see costs or margins. The owner does, and can let the office see them.

Is fuel counted?

No. Fuel and time between jobs are not job costs. Time between jobs shows up as idle time in the labour report.

See it on your own customers

Create your account. We set it up with you, with your customers and your price list, before your team starts.