Sage Job Costing

P123_2

I am about to set up a ltd company doing painting & decorating. I am currently looking for a software package that will help me price work. Has anybody used or heard of this product as it would help me start up my business.

Thank You

Pennywise

To be honest, I think that Sage Job Costing would be too expensive, too complicated and too over-spec'd for what you need. From experience, most people get themselves tied in knots when trying to do stock control and job costing for very small businesses - it simply takes far too long to do it properly. For example, do you really want to spend time analysing tins of undercoat between jobs? - i.e. 1/2 tin to Mrs Smith, 1/4 tin to Mrs Jones, etc - what's the point? Likewise for your time, do you really intend to keep detailed timesheets and then spend time keying them in? It's OK if you employ an administrator to do the keying and maybe have staff that you need to manage, but not for just yourself.

Instead, I would work on a simple spreadsheet template for your quotations. Type in the number of hours and your best estimate of the materials and let it print out a quote for you (use multiple sheets, one per job). When the job is done, have another column where you type in your best guess at the real time and materials costs. It would quickly show the profit made and also highlight where you need to improve your quotation skills! Cheap and simple!

If you really do want a proper system, I'd go for MYOB or Quickbooks which are far cheaper and will include accounting, such as cash book, sales invoicing and reminders, etc as well as costing and stock control if you really think you'll need it.

P123_2

Thanks Pennywise

bridiej

I do all my accounts on Excel, much easier than trying to deal with Sage

Lawbag_2

sage job costing is deff. overkill when dealing with job costing

basically you will need to break down the work into

Materials -
Labour - on and off site
Sub-Contracted Labour -

By all means use sage for the accountsm but the Instant Accounts versions

Jayne*OO7

I use instant accounts v11 for our small building business. When I put in any info I use the department to allocate it to a job eg Mrs Bloggs is Dept 1. Then I can run the various reports to see how much we have spent on each job eg supplier payments and bank payments or anyother way the money went out that I can not think of at the mo!