Job Costing
Job Costing for Contractors: The Complete Guide
If you don't know which jobs make money, you're flying blind. Job costing is how contractors find out — here's exactly what it is, the formula, and how to do it on every job.
By the RenoJira team — Updated June 14, 2026 · 8 min read
Quick answer
Job costing means tracking every cost and payment tied to one specific job — materials, labour, subcontractors, and client payments — so you know the real profit on that job, not just your business overall. Do it by creating a project per job and logging costs as they happen. The easiest free way is the RenoJira job costing app.
Key takeaways
- →Job costing = cost and income tracked per job, not just business-wide.
- →The formula: job price − all job costs = job profit.
- →The hard part isn't the math — it's capturing every cost as it happens.
- →You don't need expensive software — a free app does it from your phone.
What is job costing?
Job costing is the practice of recording all income and expenses tied to a specific construction job, so you know the exact profit or loss on that job — separate from every other job you're running. A general profit-and-loss statement tells you if the business made money this year. Job costing tells you if the kitchen reno on Oak Street made money. For a contractor running several jobs at once, that difference is everything: a business can look healthy overall while quietly losing money on a certain type of job.
The job costing formula
Job profit = Client price − (Materials + Labour + Subcontractors + Other job costs)
The math is simple. The discipline is capturing every line on the cost side — as it happens, not from memory at tax time. The costs contractors most often miss: the second and third material runs, cash paid to a helper, dump and disposal fees, equipment rental, and small change-order work that never got billed.
What to track on every job
- ·Materials — every purchase and run, with the receipt attached.
- ·Labour — your hours and any crew, including cash payments.
- ·Subcontractors — what you owe and what you've paid each sub.
- ·Other costs — permits, equipment rental, dump fees, fuel.
- ·Income — deposits and progress payments, so you also see what's still owed.
Three ways contractors do job costing (worst to best)
1. Memory and a shoebox. Costs live in your head and receipts pile up in the truck. Cheapest to start, most expensive in lost profit and a brutal tax season.
2. A spreadsheet. Better — it's written down — but only if you update it nightly at a laptop, which most contractors abandon by the second month. And it's never with you at the supply counter. (If you're here now, see how to track expenses per job.)
3. Track it on your phone as it happens. Snap the receipt when you pay, log the payment when it lands, and the profit number stays current. Nothing is forgotten because nothing waits. This is what RenoJira was built for.
How to do job costing with RenoJira (free)
RenoJira is a free job costing app built for contractors — not accountants. Create a project for each job, then log costs and payments against it in seconds:
- ·Snap receipts — the app reads the total and date and files it under the job.
- ·Track client and subcontractor payments — always know what's in and what's owed.
- ·See cost vs. price side by side — real profit per job, updated live.
- ·Works offline — log costs on site with no signal; it syncs later.
Coming from QuickBooks or a spreadsheet? See the best QuickBooks alternative for contractor job costing.
Job costing FAQ
What is job costing in construction?
Tracking all the costs and income tied to one specific job — materials, labour, subcontractors, and payments — so you know the exact profit or loss on that job rather than just your business as a whole.
What is the job costing formula?
Job profit = total client price − (materials + labour + subcontractor costs + other job expenses). Job costing means capturing every item on the cost side, per job, as it happens.
How do contractors do job costing without expensive software?
Create a project for each job, log every expense and payment against it as it happens, and compare cost to client price. A free app like RenoJira does this from your phone.
What is the difference between job costing and general accounting?
General accounting tells you whether the whole business made money. Job costing tells you whether each individual job made money — so you can stop repeating unprofitable bids.
Is there a free job costing app for contractors?
Yes. RenoJira is a free job costing app for iOS and Android — track expenses, client and subcontractor payments, and see real profit per job with no subscription.
Start job costing today
Know your real profit on every job.
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