Job costing for small operations
What did that job actually cost?
Not what you quoted. What it took.
Parts, labor, the second trip, the bay it sat in for two days, and the hour nobody billed. One ticket, one number.
The quote said fourteen hours.
It took nineteen. There was a second trip for a part that didn't fit. Somebody did an alignment that never made it onto the invoice. The bay was tied up Thursday and Friday. A quote knows what you charged. Getting it to say what the job cost is a different piece of work.
What exists today.
The record underneath: an item master, and an operations event lane that timestamps what happened on the floor. It is the substrate the costing sits on, and it is real.
What does not exist yet.
Jobs, routings and labor capture — the parts that turn those events into a number. They are being built, and this page will not claim them before they work.
Why you are seeing this now.
Because the most useful thing at this stage is a shop willing to tell us what its current answer costs it. That conversation shapes the product; it is not a waiting list.
We don't replace the system you already have.
If you run an ERP, keep it. This is the shop-floor half it was never good at — capture, real job cost, and the seam into your quality records. Here is what we do beside it.
TrainWorthyAuditWorthyResourceWorthy
Three products. One system underneath. Each tier adds the next — with nothing to migrate when you move up.