Glossary · Profit and analysis
Job costing
Job costing is tracking the income and costs of each job or project separately, so you can see what each one actually earned. Materials, subcontractors, labour and other direct costs are tagged to the job, and the job's invoices are its income. The difference is the job's profit.
Glossary / Job costing · Also called Job cost accounting, Project costing
How it works
A business can be profitable overall while some of its jobs lose money. Job costing finds them. It is standard in construction and the trades, and useful for agencies, event companies, IT projects and anyone who quotes a price for a piece of work.
The habit that makes it work is tagging every cost to a job as it is entered: each bill, cheque and card charge, and each hour of labour. Comparing the result with the original estimate shows where quotes are too low and which kinds of work pay best.
Labour is usually the largest and hardest cost to track. Hours logged against each job show where the time went, even when the payroll cost itself sits in a general wages account. Review the figures while the job is still running, not only after it closes.
Worked example: Two jobs, one month
A remodeling company finished two bathrooms this month.
| Job A | Job B | |
|---|---|---|
| Invoiced | $18,000 | $16,000 |
| Materials | −$5,200 | −$6,900 |
| Subcontractors | −$3,000 | −$4,500 |
| Labour | −$4,800 | −$5,600 |
| Job profit | $5,000 | −$1,000 |
In AcboBooks
In AcboBooks, each job is a customer or a sub-customer (Customer:Job). Bills, cheques and card charges carry a Customer:Job box, invoices count as the job's income, and the Job Profitability report shows income, cost and net profit per job. Time can be logged by job for hours and billing. AcboBooks has no estimate-versus-actual report, and paycheques are not split across jobs.
Related terms
Related on this site
- Job costing in AcboBooks
- Job costing for contractors
- Time tracking in AcboBooks
- Employee cost calculator
Updated October 25, 2026. General information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rules and rates change; check with the IRS, the CRA, your state or province, or your accountant.
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