View Job Costing Across All Projects
The Job Costing page in the left sidebar compares estimated and actual costs for all of your projects in one table, split into Labor, Material and Trade.
Here are the steps to follow:
Open Job Costing
Click Job Costing in the left sidebar. Each COG has its own set of columns: Estimated, Actual and Over/Under. Scroll right to see Trade and the Totals columns: Estimated, Actual, Remaining, Variance, Projected Overrun and Complete %.
Filter or group the table
Use the same filters as the Budgets page: Select Project, the status filter (starts on Active), Select Contract Type, Select Project Type and Date Range. Under Group by, click Cost Code to see one row per cost group instead of one row per project. Picking a project clears the other filters, so that project always shows. Date Range only limits expenses. Approved estimates and change orders always count in full. Unbillable expenses on Cost Plus projects are never counted on this page.
Read Over/Under
Over/Under is Estimated minus Actual. A red cell means the actual cost is higher than the estimate. As an example, $0.00 estimated and $100.00 actual shows -$100.00 in red.
Check the totals
The bold row at the bottom of the table adds up every row. The summary bar under the table shows Estimated $, Change Order $, Total $, Actual COGS $, Remaining $ and Variance $ for everything in the table. Variance $ is red with an up arrow when you are over budget, and green with a down arrow when a cost group was marked complete under budget. Click a project name to open that project's Job Costing tab.
What the Totals columns show
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Estimated | Approved estimates and change orders, before markup and tax. |
| Actual | Expenses so far, before markup and tax. On Cost Plus projects, unbillable expenses are left out. |
| Remaining | Estimated minus Actual. On Cost Plus projects it never goes below $0.00. It is $0.00 once the cost group is marked complete. |
| Variance | How far over budget a cost group is. While a cost group is open, it stays $0.00 until Actual goes over Estimated. Once the group is marked complete, it shows the final difference, which is negative if you finished under budget. |
| Projected Overrun | See How Projected Overrun works, below. |
| Complete % | Actual divided by Estimated. It can go above 100%. |
How Projected Overrun works
Why it is there: Variance looks at the whole cost group. If Labor is over budget but Material still has money left, the leftover Material money covers the Labor overspend, so Variance stays at $0.00 and the cost group looks fine. Projected Overrun is there to find these problems hiding in plain sight, early, before the leftover money runs out.
How it is worked out: Buildwise adds up how far each of Labor, Material and Trade is over its own estimate. It does not include Variance which includes cost groups and cost items where there is spend but no estimate or change orders.
As an example, a cost group with Labor estimated at $10,000.00 and Material at $5,000.00:
| Labor | Material | Totals | Over budget | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estimated | Actual | Estimated | Actual | Estimated | Actual | Variance | Projected Overrun | |
| Example 1 | $10,000 | $12,000 | $5,000 | $2,000 | $15,000 | $14,000 | $0 | $2,000 |
| Example 2 | $10,000 | $16,000 | $5,000 | $2,000 | $15,000 | $18,000 | $3,000 | $3,000 |
Example 1: Labor is $2,000.00 over, but the cost group in total is under its estimate. Variance is $0.00, so Projected Overrun shows the $2,000.00.
Example 2: Labor is $6,000.00 over and the cost group in total is $3,000.00 over. Variance shows $3,000.00, so Projected Overrun shows the rest: $6,000.00 minus $3,000.00 = $3,000.00.
Add Variance and Projected Overrun together to see everything that is over budget. Projected Overrun is $0.00 once the cost group is marked complete. It shows on this page and on the Job Costing and Budget tabs of a Cost Plus project. A Fixed Cost project's own Job Costing tab does not show it.
For the budget view, see View Budgets Across All Projects.
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