Job Costing Software: Evaluate costs associated with your projects

Job costing is accounting which tracks the costs and revenues by "job" and enables standardized reporting of profitability by job. For an accounting software to support job costing, it must allow job numbers to be assigned to individual items of expenses and revenues. A job can be defined to be a specific project done for one customer, or a single unit of product manufactured, or a batch of units of the same type that are produced together.

Any industry can use job costing to make sure product and service pricing covers the actual costs and overhead and allows a profit to be earned. Long-term accountants generally know how to work out a job cost by hand, but these days there are plenty Job Costing Software options that will make the process easier.

Key Features of Job Costing Software

• Time and Material Billing
• Change order processing
• Profitability Analysis by job, project, and contract
• Automatic updating of job cost from transactions entered throughout the system
• Ability to enter and maintain original and current budget figures for each cost category
• Audit trail of budget changes
• Actual versus estimated cost comparisons
• Functions for calculating and applying cost-of-sales and earned revenue
• Percentage Completion Accounting
• Progress Billings with Retainage and Retention processing

Benefits of Job Costing Software

• Better Cost Control. Using enhanced project tools can give the user the ability to switch between historical and predicted costs and actual current costs, allowing for a better prediction of how much the finished product will cost. Being able to input all of the data surrounding a project reduces the amount of money lost on a project because everything is accounted for, including billing and labour management.
• Accurate estimates and effective project accounting. Real time data and reporting has allowed some companies to start managing their budget weekly rather than per project. Thus every week, a new budget can be allocated and based on adjusted real time data. By coming in under budget week after week, additional funds are available for emergencies such as theft, overtime or material shortages.
• Full Visibility from all Departments. Accurate and sophisticated job accounting software will have a more detailed budgeting functionality and will combine both financial and non-financial data in one place for the user to see, for example all indirect and direct hours worked on a project. It also tracks which materials are used within the detailed project breakdown structure.
• Make Production Leaner. Using job accounting software within manufacturing helps with making production leaner; added logistical benefits and increased visibility help to build a clearer picture of efficiency within the business and project. By ensuring there are less delays and financial obstacles, the manufacturing process can be more efficient than was ever thought possible.
• Increase Business Intelligence. Having access to all of the data and information for a project in one place means that your team can have a better grasp of how the project is progressing and areas that need attention. Being able to see the status of a project alongside all labour and material costs allow your business to see clearly what is happening on a day to day basis within the project.