Office Overhead Costs

Track all costs that can't be assigned to any particular job with an Office Cost Control worksheet. Office costs will be entered as job number 99 unless you change the code on the Master Index in the MacNail construction accounting software.

NOTE-- Goldenseal construction accounting software replaced MacNail in 2000. It's an integrated program that includes general accounting, job costing, payroll and project billing, plus estimating and other features. Goldenseal easily posts overhead expenses to Overhead accounts, so you can track your general business expenses.

The Office Cost Control sheet uses different cost categories than regular job cost sheets. They all use two letters, and consist of costs that can be used for your Schedule C or corporate tax returns. You can modify these codes, if you prefer a different system.

HINT: Print out the Office Cost Control worksheet to use as a guide when entering data. It shows all cost categories on the far left.

Wage withholding expenses are tracked separately at the bottom of the worksheet--they should not be considered as direct office expenses, since they are added to the labor 'burden' that is job costed in the labor column.

Depreciable items are also tracked separately--you should extract all purchases that must be depreciated, and add them to a depreciation tracking worksheet, for tax purposes.

Transfers and petty cash transactions are also handled separately, since they are usually job costed elsewhere.