Manual Job Costing Feedback

NOTE-- We retired the MacNail estimating program in 2000, and replaced it with Goldenseal construction estimating software. There are still a significant number of die-hard MacNail users, so we keep the manuals online for them! Goldenseal is an integrated program that also includes accounting, scheduling and contract writing. It includes several reports showing estimated vs actual job costs, which will help you to improve the accuracy of your estimates.

The safest (but most labor-intensive) way to feed back job costs is to do it yourself, manually. There are plenty of intangibles and uncertainties in both estimating and job costing, and an experienced person will always do the best job of figuring them in!

To feed back job costs manually from the MacNail construction management software, follow these steps:

1. During the year, set up your estimates using MacNail Estimating, just as you normally do. For each project that you actually do, set up a Cost Control worksheet, and track actual construction costs in the Checkbook Ledger, Labor Log, Material Log and Subcontractor Log that come with MacNail Accounting. Try to be as accurate as possible in both your estimating and your job costing.
2. When you have some spare time, review the Cost Control worksheets from projects that you have completed. Open as many Cost Control worksheets as you can, since you'll be much more accurate if you base your calculations on several projects.
3. Review the 'estimated versus actual' costs in each construction cost category (or subcategory). If a particular cost area is consistently high or low, figure roughly how far off it is.
4. Open your main 'price book', whether it is an estimator or a Price Master.
5. Adjust the labor unit prices for all the line items that were used on that project. You can directly adjust the actual labor person-hour figures up or downwards, or you can type a percentage multiplier into the 'lab adj' column of a Price Master (see page 176).
6. For material costs that are off, adjust the quantities or waste factors in the Assemblies file if you are using it. Otherwise, change the material unit price, or type a percentage adjustment factor into the 'mat adj' column of a Price Master (see page 176).
7. If you think the cost difference should be across-the-board for the entire cost category, rather than for just the items used on that one project, adjust the other unit prices in that category as well.

HINT: A quick way to put the same percentage into many rows at once: type the multiplier into one of the rows, click on it and choose Copy from the Edit menu, click on the cells you'd like to adjust, then choose Paste from the Edit menu.