The following features are advertised by SAGE as being available within its ‘job costing’ software module:

l Define and track all cost elements of every job.

With up to 10 analysis codes you can accurately track and analyse your costs.

l Split costs by their constitution component, e.g.

labour, materials, etc. enabling you to analyse and report on these categories.

l Track the status of jobs easily, including milestones, summarise costs and revenue and budgets.

l Track how much of each employee’s time has been used and on which jobs.

l Invoices can be automatically calculated according to your choice of billing methods, e.g. cost plus, fixed price or combination of charges based upon time, material and other costs.

l Post invoices against jobs as and when you like, improving cash flow.

l Offers a range of management analysis reports, including profitability reports that show costs, revenue and profit made against each job. This ensures that the you know exactly how much profit has been made on each job.

l True multi-user capability, enabling several employees to use the software simultaneously.

l Raise purchase orders against specific jobs, enabling you to analyse costs and increase control over what you buy for specific projects.

l Budget for costs that you have committed to, but haven’t yet been invoiced for.

l Save time by processing all your timesheets in a single batch rather than entering all the details on an individual basis.

Discussion point
1 What are the advantages of a computerised package compared to manual recording?