Job costing for tradies: know when a job’s running over

What is back costing?

Back costing means checking the job against the quote: what you’ve spent on materials, subbies and your crew’s hours, next to what you allowed for them. Most tradies only find out a job lost money when the accountant does the books. Back costing tells you while there’s still time to do something about it, like raising a variation or pulling back on the hours.

In Sammy the budget is your budget cost: what your quote said the job would cost you, before your markup. It’s not the price your client pays. Your costs stay in Sammy and are never shown to the client.

How it works

1. Your client accepts the quote. Sammy turns it into a job with its own number, like JN-0012, and keeps what the quote said the job would cost you as its budget.
2. You add costs as you go. Type the figure off the docket and pick materials, subbie or other. Sammy assumes the docket includes GST and shows you the amount without it.
3. Or snap the receipt. Take a photo or upload a PDF and Sammy reads the supplier, date, total and GST in about ten seconds, and suggests the line of the quote it belongs to. You check it and save.
4. You log your crew’s hours. Tap 4, 8 or 10 hours and add who was on site. Sammy costs the hours at the rate from your quote’s labour lines, so they count against what you quoted for labour.
5. Your crew can send their own. From the job card on their phone, they log hours, parts and photos of the dockets. You check them, approve them, and they land on the job as costs.
6. You see where the job is at. The job shows what you’ve spent against the budget, by type and by section of the quote, with what’s left to go.

What the job shows you

• Spent against budget. A bar with what you’ve spent, the percentage of the budget it’s used and what’s left. Go over and the extra shows in red, with the amount.
• Each type of cost. Materials, labour, subbies and other, each against what you quoted for it, like $2,140 of $7,690. A cost the quote didn’t plan for says “not in the quote”.
• Each section of the quote. The Costs table lists your quote’s sections with the allowance, what you’ve actually spent and the difference. Tap a section to see its lines and the costs on each.
• A heads-up before it’s too late. Sammy tells you when a job reaches 90% of its budget and again if it goes over, for the whole job, each type of cost and each section. It comes once, in the app, by email and on your phone.

When the client wants something extra

Raise a variation from the job. Sammy prices just the change, your client accepts it on their phone like a quote, and it’s added to the job: its price to the contract sum and its costs to the budget. Sections that came from a variation are numbered, like V01, so you can see what the extra work has cost you on its own.

The rest of the job is there too

Back costing sits on the job page alongside everything else you need once the work is won:

• The site, with directions, who to call and site notes like the gate code. Send it all to your crew as a job card, without your prices.
• The contract, sent to your client to sign on their phone and counter-signed by you (on Sammy Pro), or marked as signed on paper.
• What the client pays: the contract sum, what’s invoiced and paid, and the next progress claim ready to claim in a tap.
• The project plan, with what’s on now, and documents like a SWMS that Sammy drafts from the job.

Not every job starts with a quote. For call-outs and service work, see do and charge.

Questions tradies ask

Can my client see my costs?

No. Costs stay in Sammy and are never shown to your client.

What if I change the estimate after the client accepts?

The budget is the quote your client accepted, so changing the estimate afterwards doesn’t move it. Extra work goes through a variation, which adds to the budget once the client accepts.

Does the budget include GST?

No. Every figure leaves GST out, the same as the costs in your quote. Type a docket’s total as it’s printed and Sammy takes the GST off for you, or mark it ex GST or GST-free.

I won quotes before jobs existed. Can I track those?

Yes. Go to Projects, choose Jobs and tap Import quotes, then tick the accepted quotes you want as jobs. Each job takes its budget from the quote as it reads today.

Can my team add costs?

Yes. On a team account anyone who can open the job can add costs, and each one shows who added it. The over-budget alerts go to the person who owns the job.

Step-by-step guides

• Tracking what a job actually costs
• Running a job: contract, plan and status
• Raising a variation when the job changes
• Getting a contract signed in Sammy