ForConstructionPros.com

Few contractors know how to track job costs effectively. Very few. The reasons for their struggle are plentiful, but they start with a simple misunderstanding: The term "job costing" implies the goal is to track dollars, but what you really need to track is man-hours. As long as a contractor focuses on tracking dollars, he will never collect the type of information he needs to:

• Predict the cost of large projects accurately
• Achieve consistent on-time completion
• Persuade crews to work hard
• Accurately account for the impact of rapidly changing material costs

Small pavement maintenance contractors' job-costing systems should be built to track labor productivity - the time it takes field workers to perform their construction tasks. Few pieces of information have greater value to you than knowing the speed at which your crews work. Having that knowledge is like money in the bank. And the only way you get that knowledge is by installing an effective job-costing system.

KISS It
You need to use an easy-to-grasp approach. In other words, KISS it - Keep It Short and Simple.

Short means track the absolute minimum amount of information you need to make profitable decisions. Simple means your employees must be able to learn how to collect the data. You need to install a job-costing system that delivers the goods without being overbearing to your people. Difficult, but not impossible.

Cost Codes
When it comes to data collection, "more" is not better. "More" is destructive. Ask field workers to track too much data and they will revolt by recording useless data.