How to Know Which Jobs Are Actually Making Money
A job sells for $10,000.
That sounds good.
But then you subtract:
- labour,
- materials,
- subcontractors,
- additional site visits,
- discounts,
- rework,
- and unexpected costs.
Suddenly the job that looked great on the sales report may not have made much money at all.
Revenue tells you what came in.
Profitability tells you whether the job was actually worth doing.
Start With the Quoted Value
Every job needs a clear starting point.
That might be:
Quoted value: $10,000
From there, the business can compare what was expected against what actually happened.
The more accurate the underlying job data is, the more useful that comparison becomes.
Track Labour Against the Job
Labour is often one of the biggest costs.
If technicians already clock into jobs or record timesheets, those hours can be attached directly to the work.
For example:
Quoted labour: 24 hours
Actual labour: 31 hours
That seven-hour difference matters.
Without job-level time tracking, it can disappear inside payroll.
Track Materials Too
The same applies to purchasing.
If materials are ordered against the job, the system can compare:
Expected materials: $2,200
Actual materials: $2,750
Now the business can see exactly where the margin changed.
This is much more useful than looking at total monthly purchasing spend.
Include Variations Properly
Extra work can improve profitability if it is captured and charged correctly.
It can destroy profitability if the business performs it for free.
Approved variations should update both:
- the customer value,
- and the expected job cost.
That gives a more accurate picture of the final result.
Compare Expected Margin to Actual Margin
A simple job profitability view might show:
Quoted value: $10,000
Final revenue: $10,750
Labour cost: $3,200
Materials: $2,600
Other costs: $450
Gross job margin: $4,500
Now management can compare jobs properly.
You might discover that:
- one service type is consistently profitable,
- another regularly runs over labour,
- certain products create too much rework,
- or some customers require far more admin than expected.
That information can influence quoting and operations.
Look for Patterns, Not Just Bad Jobs
One unprofitable job may simply be unusual.
The real value comes from finding patterns.
For example:
Bathroom renovations repeatedly exceed labour allowance
Commercial maintenance has strong margins
Certain installations require too many return visits
A supplier's product regularly creates extra labour
Those patterns can change how the business prices future work.
Make Job Profitability Visible Before the Month Ends
If profitability is only reviewed in accounting reports weeks later, it is hard to respond.
A connected operational system can show indicators while the job is still running.
For example:
Labour hours above allowance → flag
Materials exceed budget → alert
Variation completed but not charged → flag
Job margin below target → manager review
Now management can act before the job is completely finished.
Start With Five Recent Jobs
Take five completed jobs.
For each one, compare:
- quoted revenue,
- final revenue,
- labour hours,
- labour cost,
- material cost,
- variations,
- and final margin.
If assembling that information takes hours, that is the first problem to solve.
At 5M Consulting, we help businesses connect quoting, field time, purchasing, variations and reporting so job profitability becomes visible instead of being reconstructed manually after the fact.
If you know your monthly revenue but cannot tell which individual jobs actually made money, your systems are missing an important part of the picture.