Job costing for civil and excavation contractors
You met us at Dirt World, so here's how CFOS handles what civil and excavation contractors fight with. Equipment hours, trucking, unit price billing and pay app cutoffs are covered. It all works on top of QuickBooks Online.
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Equipment hours and daily rates
Your machines are your biggest cost and the easiest to lose track of. The operator logs hours on the daily, and CFOS charges the machine to the job each day it's on a daily at a rate. That rate comes from what it costs to own the machine, so the job pays for the dozer and not a guess.
Owning cost means payments, insurance, repairs and fuel spread over the hours you expect to use it. Set the rate once for each machine and CFOS applies it. When a job goes long, you can see the equipment line going over before the pay app goes out.
Trucking by the hour or by the load
Trucking is where excavation jobs leak. Some haulers charge by the hour and some by the load, and tickets come in on slips at the end of the week. CFOS codes trucking to its own cost code on the job, whether it's hourly or per load, and you check each bill against the tickets before it's paid.
A bill emailed to your bills inbox is read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. If the hauler's bill is higher than what you committed, you see it before you pay. That one check saves more than most owners expect.
Unit price billing, T&M, pay app cutoffs and retention
Unit price jobs get billed by the cubic yard or the ton, and the quantities change every month. CFOS builds the G702 and G703 for unit price and lump sum work, so you bill the quantity installed against the price in the schedule of values. You see the quantity left on each item, which tells you whether the job is going to overrun.
T&M tickets ride on the daily. The foreman records the crew, the equipment and photos, the GC signs on site, and it becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. Pay app cutoffs come with reminders to the PM, and retention is tracked on every pay app so you know what's held.
Where to go next for your kind of work
Excavation, sitework, underground utility and SWPPP each have their own cost codes and their own way of losing money. The trade pages below show the codes we start with for each one. Pricing is a flat monthly amount based on your revenue, with every module included, so you can see what it costs before you ask us anything.
At your size, the equipment rate and the trucking tickets are usually the first two things worth fixing. Both are set up once. After that they work on every job.
Get on the list for the day it opens
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime.
We email you when CFOS for QuickBooks opens, plus a few updates before then. Your address stays with Run On CFOS. One click unsubscribes.
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime. It opens January 2027. We email you the day it opens.
What people ask
Can CFOS handle hauling by the load?
Yes. Trucking has its own cost code, and you code the hauler's bill to the job by the hour or by the load. The bill is checked against the PO before it's paid.
How are equipment daily rates set?
From what it costs to own the machine. You set a rate per machine. CFOS charges it to the job for each day the machine is on a daily.
Does it work for unit price contracts?
Yes. CFOS produces G702 and G703 pay apps for unit price and lump sum jobs. You bill the quantity in place each month against the price in the schedule of values.
Is the price based on my revenue?
Yes. It starts at $300 a month for a company up to $3M of revenue. Every module is included at every price, and the bill follows your revenue.
- /trades/excavation/job-costing-software
- /trades/sitework/job-costing-software
- /trades/underground-utility/job-costing-software
- /trades/swppp/job-costing-software
- One price. Every module. Priced by your revenue.
- Use all of it, or just the part you need
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