Job costing software for small builders

What to track on every build

A small build runs for weeks or months, and the margin moves every time a subbie invoice lands or a variation gets done without paperwork. Track these against the job as they happen, not at handover:

• Your crew's hours, per person, per day, against the job
• Subcontractor invoices as they arrive, with the invoice attached to the job
• Materials and hire, with the docket on file
• Variations, priced and approved in writing before the work, each on its own line
• Progress claims: what has been claimed, what has been paid and what is still owing
• Allowances: what you allowed for prime cost items and provisional sums against what was really spent

Contracts, deposits and the paperwork

The rules for residential building contracts are set by each state. In NSW, for example, residential building work over $5,000 including GST needs a written contract. Work between $5,000 and $20,000 needs a small job contract. Work over $20,000 needs a large job contract that includes a progress payment schedule, a five clear business day cooling-off statement and a note that you must give the client a home building compensation certificate. NSW also caps the deposit at 10% of the contract price. Other states set their own thresholds, so check with your state's building or fair trading regulator before you sign. This is general information, not legal advice.

TrackYaTradie handles the quote, the variations and the progress claims. It does not write the contract: use your state's or your industry association's contract and attach it to the job.

A worked example: a bathroom renovation with variations

Here is a bathroom renovation, priced and then tracked through three variations. The numbers are illustrative, and the hourly cost for your own crew is the builder example on the tradie hourly rate calculator: about $142 an hour, because site meetings, quoting and insurance take a bigger share of a builder's year.

Three variations come up: a niche in the shower wall, a heated towel rail, and a ceiling repair found during demolition. Each one is priced on the job and sent to the client the day it comes up:

Approved and claimed, the variations take the price to $42,225 ex GST and the profit to $8,445, still 20%. Done as favours, the same work leaves the price at $39,375 and the profit at $5,595, about 14%, before a single hour runs over. Approved variations stay on their own lines and go onto the next claim, so each one is claimed with the stage it belongs to, not remembered at handover. Variations: how to price them and get them approved covers the wording.

Progress claims

Set the payment stages on the job as percentages of the price, for example deposit, base, frame, lock-up and completion, and claim each stage as you reach it. The job shows what has been claimed, paid and owing next to the costs so far, so a build that is behind on payments and ahead on costs shows up before it becomes a cash problem. The free progress claim template covers what each state asks a claim to include.

Supervisors, subbies and who sees the numbers

Your crew and regular subbies can each have a tradie login to log hours and work through checklists, and they never see costs or profit. A supervisor can have an admin login to run jobs, the calendar, checklists, quotes and invoices, while job costs, profit and hourly rates stay with the owner.

What TrackYaTradie does not do for builders

• No contracts, insurance certificates or compliance documents. Use your state's forms and attach them to the job.
• No estimating from plans, gantt charts or construction programmes. The calendar rosters people by the day.
• No purchase orders, supplier portal or subcontractor tendering.
• No defects or warranty register.
• Xero only: there is no MYOB or QuickBooks sync.

If you need those, TrackYaTradie vs simPRO covers when a bigger platform is the better buy.