Job Costing & Invoicing

Job Costing & Invoicing

Rachel Booth, a JobTread Customer Training Specialist, demonstrates how to connect project budgets, customer and vendor documents, bills, time entries, and invoices so teams can track costs and profitability throughout a job.

Core Job-Costing Model

• Budget expenses: The approved amount the project can spend, based on customer-approved proposals, contracts, estimates, and change orders.
• Cost commitments: Amounts the company has agreed to spend, typically tracked through purchase orders and work orders. These support vendor accountability and help forecast remaining costs.
• Bills and expenses: Actual costs, such as vendor invoices and receipts.
• Labor costs: Calculated from employees’ logged hours and hourly cost rates.
• JobTread’s budget view separates details (gray), estimating (blue), job costing (orange), and customer billing (purple). Additional costing columns and a dedicated costing view can be enabled in budget settings.

Recommended Operating Workflows

Get customer approval before committing to extra work

1. Create or update budget items.
2. Generate a customer proposal or change order from the budget.
3. Send it for review and signature.
4. Once approved, the document updates the project’s approved budget.

Document vendor commitments

Create a purchase or work order from budget items, specify the scope and terms, attach relevant files, and send it to the vendor for approval. This supports clearer working relationships and more accurate forecasts.

Convert approved purchase orders into vendor bills

Carry the order details into the bill, attach the vendor’s invoice or other supporting documentation, record its invoice number, and route it for payment approval.

Separate invoice approval from payment recording

A project manager can approve a vendor bill, then the office team can register payment during its regular payment cycle. Record the payment method and any reference details.

Capture field expenses promptly

Field staff can photograph or upload a receipt and save it as a draft. Office staff can then complete the invoice details, assign it to the appropriate cost item or code, and register payment.

Track time alongside expenses

Time entries can contribute to job costs and, where appropriate, be included in customer invoices.

Customer Invoicing and Payment Collection

• Time-and-materials or cost-plus billing: Select bills and time, then filter by date or billing status and organize entries by expense type, code, or custom fields.
• Fixed-price billing: Select the relevant budget groups or line items and specify the amount or percentage to invoice.
• Invoice progress amounts can show customers what has been approved, previously paid, and is currently due.
• Payment schedules can request deposits or installments. One example sets a 15% deposit, payable after the customer approves the proposal.

JobTread can record payments manually or support online payments through integrations:

• QuickBooks Online: Offers a “pay in QuickBooks” option and two-way synchronization.
• Stripe: Supports credit-card and ACH payments through JobTread.
• Trust: Supports ACH and card payments, with funds deposited into a Trust bank account.

Change-Order Approaches

• Adjust an existing budget item when additional cost is needed for work already represented in the budget. Create a customer change order and obtain approval for the additional amount.
• Add new scope when the customer requests different or additional work. Create a new budget group and items, estimate labor and material costs, then send a change order for approval before starting.
• Accepted change orders increase the approved budget. Payment schedules can also be attached to change orders if the company wants to collect payment immediately rather than include the amount on a later invoice.
• The presenter recommends including contingency or “backup” lines in the initial estimate where appropriate, which may reduce the need for later change orders.

Examples and Figures

• A vendor commitment example explains that if $7,000 is already committed against a $10,000 bill, only $3,000 remains available for other costs.
• A proposal example adds a 15% deposit due upon customer approval.
• An electrical-materials example begins with a $1,000 budget and a $512 receipt. If the $512 was outside the original scope, a change order can increase the budget to $1,500, with the company’s markup applied unless it is intentionally set to zero.
• A separate skylight example shows how to add new labor and material items to a change-order group and obtain approval before creating commitments or incurring bills.
• Job costs can be marked final when no further changes are expected. The example shows a favorable result when actual spending is below the budget; the presenter cautions that real projects do not always come in under budget.

Practical Recommendations

• Keep a clear document trail from customer approval through vendor commitments, bills, and payments.
• Use descriptive document subjects and detailed scopes of work to make records easier to understand and report on.
• Attach receipts, vendor invoices, photos, and other supporting files to the relevant documents.
• Set user permissions so field staff can capture receipts without seeing administrative approval or payment controls.
• Recreate a recently completed job in JobTread to practice the full costing and invoicing cycle. Consult the Help Center or support team when questions arise.

Presenter and Resources

• Presenter: Rachel Booth, Customer Training Specialist at JobTread.
• Resources mentioned: JobTread Help Center and tutorials, JobTread AI support bot, JobTread Customer Support, JobTread Customer Success Managers, and the QuickBooks Online, Stripe, and Trust integrations.