Crazy Busy Business: 3 Reasons Why You Must Job Cost

Crazy busy? Almost more work than you can handle?

It’s time to make your life a little easier. Join the 51 percent of electronic systems contractors (ESCs) who are job costing* and saving themselves time and money.

What is Job Costing?

Job costing is tracking the costs and profitability of a job. The information gained from job costing will help you build a stronger, more competitive business with less mistakes and more profit.

3 Reasons Why You Must Job Cost

1. Job costing can make you sane. 

“Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.”
—Unknown

Don’t repeat the same mistakes; take action to fix them immediately. You’ll save yourself time and money.

Job costing can help you review employee performance, and analyze job project costs and quote accuracy. Use this analysis to find where the problems are.

2. Job costing can make you profitable.

You’re in business to make money, so it makes sense that you need to see where and how you’re making money. Knowing this will help you to be profitable and grow. Job costing is the key.

When you job cost, you can see how profitable each project is, allowing you to focus your time on the types of projects that have proven to be most profitable. Job costing also allows you to see if your business is losing money on products or labor. This gives you the knowledge you need to set and adjust your prices, saving you money and making you profitable.

3. Job costing can make you competitive.

To be the top competitor in your market, you have to provide quotes low enough to please the customer, yet high enough to turn a profit. Job costing allows you to see what prices are reasonable for different types and sizes of projects. As you analyze past jobs, you can see exactly how much you need to charge for each part of a job (from products to labor) in order to make a profit. With these analyses, you can provide more accurate quotes that make both you and your clients happy.

Get Started

Keep your life sane; start job costing now. It may feel like a daunting task with a lot of data and clerical work, but CEDIA is here to help. Join us for our next free webinar in the Members-Only Business Toolkit Series, Job Costing and Overhead, on Wednesday, April 25 at 12 p.m. (EDT), presented by Leslie Shiner of The Shiner Group. Click here to register.

Still want more? Check out the CEDIA University course ESB203: Managerial Accounting and the CEDIA white paper Recommended Chart of Accounts.

Not a member? See what you’re missing. Join now at cedia.org/join.

*CEDIA. (2011). 2011 CEDIA Benchmarking Survey©.