Contractor job costing
See the job that is losing margin while there is still time to act.
RAKE builds a contractor job-costing system for roofing and service businesses doing roughly $1–6 million in annual revenue. It connects contract value, estimated cost, actual materials, labor, subcontractors, supplements, and change orders into an owner view of job profitability and missing cost information.
What gets built
A system shaped around the way your business actually works.
Create one cost story for every job
Job profitability becomes difficult to trust when revenue is in the CRM, materials are in supplier records, labor is in payroll, and subcontractor costs are in accounting. RAKE maps those sources into a consistent estimated-versus-actual view.
- Contract and estimate baseline
- Materials and purchase costs
- Labor and subcontractors
- Supplements and change orders
Surface missing costs before closeout
A margin number is only useful when the underlying job record is complete. Exception views can identify jobs missing invoices, labor, supplements, or approvals so managers know which number needs attention before relying on it.
- Missing-cost alerts
- Budget-versus-actual variance
- Open supplement visibility
- Closeout readiness
Use completed jobs to improve the next estimate
The operating value continues after closeout. RAKE can organize profitability by service, crew, salesperson, lead source, neighborhood, or job type so owners can refine pricing and decide where the business should focus.
- Margin by job type
- Crew and sales patterns
- Lead-source profitability
- Pricing review inputs
Implementation
A 90-day rollout with useful checkpoints before the finish line.
Day 30
Cost-source map
Define job-cost categories, source systems, baseline completeness, and the first profitability benchmarks.
Day 60
Live job-cost view
Connect priority cost inputs and launch exception views for active and recently completed jobs.
Day 90
Profitability review system
Finalize ownership, closeout checks, reporting, and the recurring margin-review cadence.
Questions owners ask
Frequently asked questions
What should contractor job costing include?
Contractor job costing should compare contract revenue with estimated and actual materials, labor, subcontractors, equipment, permits, supplements, change orders, and other direct job costs. Overhead treatment should be defined with the contractor's accounting advisor.
Does RAKE replace accounting software?
No. RAKE can connect operating and financial signals into job-level views, but the accounting platform remains the financial system of record. The implementation defines which data can be connected and where manager input is still required.
Can RAKE show estimated versus actual margin?
Yes, when the necessary contract, estimate, and actual-cost data is available. RAKE can organize those inputs and flag incomplete records so owners understand both the margin view and the confidence they should place in it.
How long does a contractor job-costing rollout take?
RAKE uses a 90-day rollout. Cost sources and benchmarks are mapped by day 30, the first live job-cost and exception views are operating by day 60, and ownership and review routines are established by day 90.
RAKE by 2Stack
Start with the operational problem—not a software shopping list.
In a discovery call, we will map the current constraint, the tools already in place, and what a useful first 30-day benchmark should look like.
Related resources
Last updated · Questions? team@2stackops.com