How to track job or project profitability more effectively
For tradies and other project-driven businesses, success isn’t just about landing work — it’s about making sure each job is profitable. Too often, business owners don’t know how much profit (or loss) they made on a job until long after it’s finished. Tracking job or project profitability more effectively helps you quote better, schedule more realistically, and improve margins over time.
Clear budgets and estimates
Accurate budgeting is the foundation of profitability. If you don’t set a target, you can’t measure performance or catch issues early.
Actions:
Create a detailed quote or estimate for each job that includes expected costs and hours.
Break down tasks into line items with specific labour and material allocations.
Use consistent templates to ensure every job is scoped in the same way.
Include contingency buffers for unexpected changes.
Confirm that your team understands the scope and budget before work begins.
👉 For your next job, build out a simple estimate with itemised costs. Compare it with similar past jobs to check if it’s realistic and complete.
Track time and expenses in real time
Missed time entries and forgotten expenses are common sources of lost profit in trade businesses. By tracking time and costs as they happen, you’ll get a clearer picture of profitability and can fix issues before they get out of hand. Real-time visibility keeps you in control and ensures every billable hour and cost is captured.
Actions:
Use time-tracking software or job cards for every team member.
Encourage your team to log hours daily while details are fresh.
Record all materials, subcontractor costs, and out-of-pocket expenses promptly.
Match each cost to the correct job or project code.
Set up notifications or reviews for jobs approaching their budget limits.
👉 Choose a simple, mobile-friendly job management tool (like WorkflowMax or Fergus) and trial it on your next job.
Compare actuals to budget throughout the job
Keeping an eye on actual income and expenses against the budget as the project progresses helps you catch overruns early, make adjustments, and protect your margins.
Actions:
Set milestones to review progress mid-job (e.g. 25%, 50%, 75% completion).
Compare actual time and cost against the original estimate at each stage.
Investigate any blowouts immediately and figure out how to fix them.
Keep notes on lessons learned for future pricing and planning.
Share insights with your crew so everyone learns from the data.
👉 Pick one active job and schedule a mid-project profitability check.
Use job costing reports to improve future quotes
After a job wraps up, comparing actual costs against your estimate gives you valuable insight for future quoting. Accurate job costing helps you understand where you gained or lost margin, so you can sharpen your pricing and improve efficiency.
Actions:
Run a job costing report for every completed project.
Break out gross profit by labour, materials, subcontractors, and overhead.
Note where you under- or over-estimated your costs or time.
Store and categorise completed job data to reference when quoting similar work.
Use insights to refine future pricing, scheduling, and planning.
👉 Take your last completed job and run a post-project review.
Keep profitability front and centre
Profitability shouldn’t be an afterthought — it should be part of how you and your team work every day. When your crew understands the impact of their decisions on the bottom line, they’re more likely to act with efficiency and cost-awareness.
Actions:
Set profitability goals for each job and share them with your team.
Use dashboards or weekly summaries to show how jobs are tracking.
Offer bonuses or incentives tied to job profitability (if appropriate).
Train staff to understand how their actions affect margins.
Celebrate wins when jobs come in on time and under budget.
👉 At your next toolbox meeting, share one job’s profitability story and what was learned.
Final thoughts
Tracking job or project profitability effectively isn’t just a finance task, it’s a practical tool for building a stronger business. When you know which jobs are making money (and which aren’t), you can quote with confidence, schedule more realistically, and improve your margins over time. It doesn’t take complicated systems, just clear estimates, consistent tracking, and a habit of learning from every job. Over time, those small steps add up to big results.
For tradies, this can be the difference between just getting by and running a business that grows year after year. If you’d like a hand setting up better job costing or want advice that’s tailored to your trade, our Wellington accountants and business advisors are here to help.
Get in touch with us today and let’s make sure every job pays off.
What our clients say
“Affinity Accounting provide an excellent and friendly service with clear advice and support. They have been invaluable in helping me set up my business and lay the bedrock for a profitable future.”
-Ben Heaven