Job Costing

Know precisely what every component of every job, product or service contributes to your bottom line with Triumph ERP Software.

Knowledge of the bottom line is perhaps the most important piece of information any business needs in order to function efficiently and be successful. An accurate picture of what a particular project is costing ensures improved profitability. Furthermore, the ability to view and analyse all operational costs helps to improve productivity and procurement. Job costing is something that can facilitate this; it gives you more control over your business costs and margins, and generally helps you make your business better.

Job Costing means different things to different businesses. It could be applied to servicing a car, charging your time, or research and development. In general terms, Job Costing is the allocation of all time, materials and expenses to an individual project, job, item or event. It allows organisations to collect and report revenue and expenditure associated with these jobs against budgets and forecasts for better business management. The structure and operation of Job Costing will vary greatly depending on the nature and size of jobs in a particular industry. For example smaller jobs put more emphasis on scheduling, resource allocation and invoicing, while larger jobs that may go for months and be worth millions of dollars put more emphasis on procurement, cost breakdowns, budgets, work-in-progress and reporting.

The key to job costing is capturing the right information and then being able to report on it. Every business is unique; they each have different ways of managing jobs, different sets of KPIs, and require different pieces of information to report on.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF JOB COSTING

1. Better Control
While businesses may be making money, sometimes problems can be hidden in the background. Getting better control of jobs is good for businesses during both upturns and downturns of the economy.

2. Better Platform for Growth
A good job costing system is the foundation on which businesses can succeed and grow. Not only can it provide a competitive edge, it provides a structured framework to expand from.

3. Improved Profitability
By capturing and dissecting all the real costs associated with a job or project, businesses are able to easily analyse what works and what doesn’t, allowing them to continually improve their bottom line.

4. Systemised Approach
A good job costing system should have all the procedures and systems in place to operate a business on a day to day basis. It allows a business to work more like a synchronised machine. Not only does this add value to a company, ultimately it means that the business owner or manager does not need to be as hands on. They can work more on the business instead of in the business.

JOB COSTING MODULE FEATURES

With Triumph Job Costing module you are more able to control costs recorded against jobs and service functions within your business. Service businesses, where income is derived from time-based fees, find Triumph’s Costing module an invaluable tool to estimate, charge-out and bill time and material costs raised by a particular job or client. Triumph’s Costing module provides up to the minute information on units and amounts charged to a job. An organisation which manufactures unique items can assess the exact costs of all the various components used in producing a particular product. The ability to detail employee time and component costs helps improve productivity and procurement. In large and multi-departmental organisations Triumph’s Costing module can be used to provide internal cost analysis of departments, divisions and task groups. Management’s assessment of the contribution that various cost centres make to profitability will be accurate. They will be better placed to allocate resources where and when they are most needed. Jobs may be optionally broken down into cost centres on which flexible charge out rates can be applied.

A comparison of estimates with actual costs for budgeting and future quotation purposes is included in the reports generated with Triumph Accounting’s Costing module. Other reports can include transactions recorded against a job or cost centre, invoicing, and the utilisation of overheads and employees.

• Flexible setup to fit the way your business operates with charge-out rates for multiple cost centres within one job.
• Seamless integration with Inventory, Bill of Materials, Creditors, Purchasing, Purchase Requisitions, Point of Sale, Debtors and General Ledger.
• Ability to define a hierarchy of cost centres within jobs, jobs within parent jobs, and job groupings at top level
• Job Quoting creates jobs, budgets, purchase orders/requisitions and inventory requirement lists
• Detailed costing of individual components in a finished product.
• Comparisons of actual and budget costs for work in progress.
• Internal cost analysis of departments, divisions or task groups.
• Use the Time Clock module in workshop environments for fast and accurate time recording, and use the labour times to generate your payroll.
• Job Quoting creates jobs, budgets, purchase orders/requisitions and inventory requirement lists.
• Full Work in Progress (WIP) recording and reporting, allocated down to transaction level
• Capture of expenses for labour, materials, subcontractors, purchases and overheads
• Optional warnings in job budgets when expenditure is too high
• Optionally record income in advance
• Set “cost plus” margin rules on each job centre or cost centre
• View comprehensive statistics on the job including WIP and purchase commitments
• Jobs can run across financial years, or even as a perpetual job like a client
• Jobs for internal purposes may be created and managed in a similar way
• Wide range of reports e.g. Costing Comparison Reports, Work in Progress Reports, Invoice Worksheet Reports.
• Job worksheets, customer quotes, supplier requests for quotes, and customer invoices.
• Management of time-based fees for service businesses.
• Job Costing can cater for any costing or pricing system in any manufacturing, sub-contracting or service delivery environment.

Triumph’s Costing module offers equal success in small and large organisations.