#job-costing
Track costs per project or job for accurate profitability analysis
Customer-pay appliance repair calls earn roughly $200 in profit versus about $75 for warranty calls, and parts carry 30-100% markup — books that track parts cost per job, truck stock as real inventory, and the warranty-retail mix reveal which calls actually make money.
A framework for elevator and escalator maintenance contractors to recognize FMA and O&G contract revenue ratably under ASC 606, track lumpy repair costs by job, and separate capitalizable modernization work from routine service revenue.
Land surveying firms typically run overhead rates of 100-150% of direct labor and need a break-even multiplier of 2.75-3.25x to stay profitable, but most price off gut feel and burdened-labor guesses instead of job-level cost tracking.
Sail lofts price a mainsail from cloth yardage, construction method, and hand labor, then collect a deposit months before delivery — treating that deposit as revenue instead of a liability is the most common bookkeeping mistake in the trade.
A work-in-progress (WIP) schedule ties revenue to actual completion using the cost-to-cost percentage-of-completion method, exposing overbilling and underbilling before hidden losses reach year-end financials. Includes worked examples, a four-project sample schedule, and the signals bonding companies underwrite.
Gutter cleaners charge $0.75–$2.50 per linear foot, but healthy 35–50% residential margins depend on height-tier pricing, route-level job costing, and an off-season cash reserve. A practical bookkeeping guide covering second-story multipliers, revenue per route-hour, insurance costs, and Section 179 equipment deductions.
How mobile pet groomers should book a $35,000–$80,000 grooming van — splitting chassis from buildout for depreciation and Section 179, building a five-component per-appointment cost model, and budgeting fuel and maintenance against the 76-cent 2026 IRS mileage rate.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
