#job-costing
Job Costing
Track costs per project or job for accurate profitability analysis
Pool Cleaning Route Bookkeeping: Chemical Costs, Revenue Per Stop, and Seasonal Cash Flow
A bookkeeping guide for pool cleaning route businesses covering how to separate chemical costs from labor, calculate revenue per stop, segment revenue by service line, and forecast cash flow through algae season and the winter slowdown.
Boat Detailing Business Bookkeeping: Per-Foot Pricing, Seasonal Cash Flow, and Marina Contracts
How to set up the books for a boat detailing business — separate income accounts for each service tier (wash, polish, ceramic coating, oxidation restoration priced $10–$200 per foot), a 12-month cash flow forecast for a season that concentrates 80% of revenue into six months, and distinct tracking for recurring marina and yacht club contracts.
Cotton Gin Bookkeeping: Costing the Per-Bale Ginning Fee, Cottonseed Byproduct Revenue, and Module Truck Hauling
USDA's latest survey put average ginning cost at $49.31 per bale in 2022, up 106% in three years. This guide shows how a cotton gin should structure its books — unbundling the per-bale ginning fee into receiving, drying, pressing, and bagging cost centers, booking cottonseed (15–20% of per-bale gross revenue) as a separate product line, and breaking module truck hauling out as its own transportation charge.
Junk Removal Bookkeeping: Why Per-Job Costing Beats Gross Margin Guesswork
A $350 junk removal job with a 60% gross margin often nets just $50–$100 after acquisition cost, truck payments, and overhead. Here's how per-job costing — tracking labor, fuel, and dump fees against each individual job — closes the gap between gross and net margin for hauling businesses.
Spec Home Builder Bookkeeping: WIP Schedules, Percentage of Completion, and Why Profitable Builders Run Out of Cash
A monthly work-in-progress (WIP) schedule turns four numbers per job — contract price, estimated cost, costs to date, and billings to date — into an early warning for overbilling and underbilling, the cash-flow gaps that sink profitable builders. Spec builders also differ from contract builders on revenue recognition, since homes held as inventory typically use the completed contract method under the IRC Section 460 home construction exemption.
Georgia's Dignity and Pay Act: What the End of Subminimum Wage Means for Employers of Disabled Workers
Georgia's Dignity and Pay Act requires Section 14(c) certificate holders to pay workers with disabilities at least half the federal minimum wage ($3.63/hour) starting July 1, 2026, and bans subminimum wages entirely after June 30, 2027. What certificate holders — sheltered workshops, community rehabilitation programs, and nonprofits — need to model in payroll budgets, grant contracts, and job costing before both wage steps hit.
Charter Fishing Boat Bookkeeping: Per-Trip Costing, Crew Pay, and Surviving the Off-Season
A charter fishing operation grossing $126,000 a year can still not know what a single trip costs to run. This guide covers per-trip costing for fuel, bait, and mate pay ($100–$150 day rates plus 15–20% tips), 1099 vs. W-2 crew classification, vessel depreciation with Section 179's more-than-50% business-use test, why booking deposits are liabilities until the trip runs, off-season cash reserves, and the IRS's three-of-five-years profit test for hobby-loss scrutiny.
Custom Sign Shop Bookkeeping: A Job Costing Guide for Pricing Profitable Signs
How sign shops use job costing to price channel letters, vinyl, and wraps profitably — tracking direct materials, direct labor, labor burden (roughly 15%+ over base pay), and an hourly overhead rate, with a pricing formula and common profit leaks like unbilled design revisions and install overruns.
Environmental Remediation Contractor Bookkeeping: Job Costing When a State Cleanup Fund Pays the Bill
How environmental remediation contractors should structure job costing when a state UST cleanup fund — not the property owner — is the real payer. Covers the five remediation phases as cost codes, ASC 606 collectibility with fund caps and deductibles, tracking 6-to-8-week reimbursement aging separately from ordinary AR, and the documentation that survives a fund audit.
Drone Light Show Bookkeeping: Depreciating a Fleet and Pricing Against Fireworks
A drone light show fleet is a depreciable capital asset, not a consumable, so operators need per-unit asset registers, Section 179 or MACRS five-year schedules, a budgeted attrition reserve, and job-costed FAA waiver and insurance fees to price a show correctly against fireworks.
Jobber vs. Housecall Pro vs. ServiceTitan: Which Field Service Software Fits Your Business Size?
Jobber ($25–$249/month) fits growing teams of 5–20 technicians, Housecall Pro ($49–$300+/month) suits solo operators under $500K revenue, and ServiceTitan's 5–10× higher cost only pays off past $2M or multiple locations. Here's how to match the platform to your current size — and the per-job fees, data lock-in, and paywalled support to check before signing.
Wildlife & Nuisance Animal Control Bookkeeping: Trip Fees, Trapping Revenue, and Warranty Reserves
How wildlife and nuisance animal control operators should structure their books: separate revenue codes for trip fees ($75–$200), per-animal trapping charges ($100–$250), and exclusion jobs; amortize NWCO licenses on each state's actual term; and accrue a warranty reserve from real callback rates instead of expensing redo visits as they land.