Contractor guides: job costing, pricing, paperwork and crew pay
Job costing means adding up every cost on a job (materials, labor, subs and overhead) so you know what the job really made. These guides explain how to do it, how to price your work, how to handle the paperwork and how to record crew pay. Pick the topic that matches the problem in front of you.
Job costing basics
What job costing is, how to add up a job, and how to read the numbers while the job is still running.
- What Is Job Costing? A Contractor's Plain-English GuideJob costing means tracking every dollar a job costs you — labor, materials, subs, fees — while it runs, so you know your real margin before the job ends, not at tax time.
- Construction Job Costing: How to Do It RightA working contractor’s method for construction job costing: cost categories, loaded labor rates, daily capture, and the weekly habit that fixes your next bid.
- How to Calculate the Total Cost of a Job (Full Formula)The formula to calculate total job cost, worked three times with real numbers — labor, materials, overhead, and the markup vs. margin trap explained.
- Job Cost Sheet: What Goes On It + a Free Construction TemplateWhat belongs on a job cost sheet, a free construction template with working formulas, and a real $42,000 bathroom filled in so you can see the variance column work.
- Free Construction Job Costing Spreadsheet (Excel + Google Sheets)A free, working construction job costing spreadsheet: budget vs actual by category, a cost log with live totals, auto margin — plus when you'll outgrow it. No email gate.
- Job Costing Example: A Real $42,000 Bathroom RemodelA worked job costing example with real numbers: how a $42,000 bathroom remodel bid at 30% margin came back from the accountant at 12% — and the math behind it.
- How I Job-Cost My Own Remodeling Jobs (Case Study)The builder of Job Cost Pro runs a Fort Worth remodeling company. Here’s the exact per-job workflow he uses on his own bathrooms and kitchens, dogfooded daily.
- How to Track Job Profitability Before the Job EndsHow to track job profitability while a job is still running: budget by phase, actuals as they land, committed costs, and a margin-today number you can trust.
- Job Costing Reports Every Contractor Should ReadA plain guide to job costing reports for contractors: what they show, the 7-step process behind them, real report types, and how often to actually read one.
- How to Track Multiple Jobs at Once Without Losing Your MindRunning 3+ jobs at once means receipts, crew, and budgets blur together. Here is how to keep every job separate and know which ones are actually making money.
- Why "Profitable" Jobs Still Go Broke (The Margin Leak Problem)A contractor can close good jobs all year and still end up broke. Here is the real reason: margin leaks — small, invisible costs that never get logged.
Pricing and markup
Markup, margin, overhead and labor cost: the math behind a price that leaves you a profit.
- Markup vs Margin: The Difference, in Contractor MathMarkup is figured on cost; margin is figured on price. Same dollars, two percentages — and bids die in the gap. The formulas, the conversion table, and one worked job.
- What's a Good Profit Margin for a Construction Company? (2026)The real answer: NAHB puts remodelers at 29.9% gross, 6.3% net in 2024 — but yours depends on overhead. Here is how to compute and benchmark your own.
- Construction Overhead: What It Is and How to Price It InConstruction overhead is every cost of staying open that no single job pays for — the truck, insurance, software, unbilled hours. How to find your rate and price it into every bid.
- How to Calculate Labor Cost for a Construction JobHow to calculate labor cost for a construction job: wage plus taxes, comp, non-billable time, and tools — the loaded rate, built step by step with real numbers.
- How to Price a Bathroom Remodel (Real $42K Example)How contractors actually price a bathroom remodel bid, category by category — with a real $42,000 Fort Worth job as the running example, margin included.
Bids and estimates
How to bid without giving your margin away.
Contracts and billing
Invoices, contract types, change orders and lien waivers.
- How to Write a Contractor Invoice That Gets PaidWhat goes on a contractor invoice line by line, how to number them, payment terms that work, deposits and progress billing, and when to send it. With a free template.
- Fixed-Price vs Cost-Plus Contracts: Which Protects Your Margin?Fixed-price and cost-plus protect different things. Here is how each actually works, when to use which, and why cost-plus lives or dies on your job costing.
- Change Orders: How to Track Them Without Losing MoneyVerbal "sure, no problem" changes are how contractors lose margin. How to price a change order fast, document it, and track its real cost against the price.
- How Lien Waivers and Job Costing Work TogetherA lien waiver says a job was paid in full. Sloppy job costing cannot prove that. The plain-English connection between the two, and how to keep the paperwork honest.
Receipts and taxes
Keep receipts organized, split them across jobs, and get them ready for tax time.
- Contractor Expense Tracking That Doesn't Eat Your EveningsA contractor’s method for expense tracking: capture at the point of spend, the expenses everyone forgets, a 5-minute daily routine, and month-end done in minutes.
- Splitting One Receipt Across Multiple Jobs (the Right Way)One supply run, two jobs, one receipt — here is how to split it so each project carries its real cost instead of one job eating the whole ticket.
- How to Organize Receipts for Taxes (Without a Shoebox)A receipt system that survives a busy year: capture at the counter, sort into Schedule C categories, keep digital copies, and know the $75 rule and the $2,500 rule before April.
- Tax Deductions for Construction Contractors (2026 Checklist)The write-offs that actually apply to the trades — tools, the truck, subs, permits, dump fees — plus the ones that are not, and the receipt rule behind all of them.
- Construction Bookkeeping: A Contractor's Plain-English GuideConstruction bookkeeping is ordinary bookkeeping plus job costing — and that half decides whether you are profitable. The accounts, the monthly close, and what a bookkeeper costs.
- How to Export Receipts to QuickBooks (CSV and IIF)Three real ways to get jobsite receipts into QuickBooks — the built-in snap, manual entry, and a field-capture export — with the exact file formats accountants want.
Crew and pay
Track crew hours and handle subcontractor pay the right way.
- Construction Time Clock for Small Crews: How It Really WorksA construction time clock explained plainly: one-tap jobsite prompts, opt-in automatic clock-in, lunch and overtime rules, and what your crew’s privacy looks like.
- Automatic Clock-In at the Jobsite: No More Forgotten TimesheetsCrew forgets to clock out, timesheets get padded or shorted, and you spend Friday chasing hours. An automatic clock in app for contractors ends the guessing.
- Paying 1099 Subcontractors: A Contractor's GuideHow GCs actually pay 1099 subs: the difference from W-2 crew, job costing sub invoices correctly, W-9s, 1099-NEC basics, and protecting margin per job.
See every job's costs and margin as they come in.
Snap receipts, record crew hours and watch each job's margin move as costs come in. Free plan: 3 projects, 50 receipts a month. No credit card. Some features require a paid plan.