Job costing for excavation and site work contractors

Site work runs on machines, trucks, and fuel, and those costs pile up by the hour whether the dirt moves or not. JobMargin puts equipment, trucking, and dump fees on the job daily, so a site that’s exporting more than the takeoff shows up in days, not at closeout.

What site work contractors track in JobMargin

• Equipment, fuel, and repairs. Rentals, fuel, and equipment repairs each get a budget, so you see what the iron really costs per job.
• Trucking and dump fees. Haul tickets and dump fees post to the job, the fastest way to spot more export than the takeoff called for.
• Operator hours by site. Operators clock in at the site on their phones, and drive time can be its own pay type.
• Unsuitable soil as a change order. Over-ex and import go in as change orders with photos in the daily log.

Set up for excavation and site work from the first day

When you pick Excavation & Site Work as your trade, JobMargin loads these cost categories for budgets, receipts, and job costs. You can rename or add your own at any time.

• Labor
• Equipment Rental
• Fuel
• Hauling & Trucking
• Fill & Aggregate
• Disposal & Dump Fees
• Equipment Repair
• Permits
• Subcontractor
• Other

Bid line items use the units site work actually bid in: cubic yards (CY), tons (TON), square feet (SF), linear feet (LF), and lump sum (LS).

Example: what a site work job looks like mid-way

Clear and grub, cut and fill to grade, and bring in stone for the building pad and parking. Mass grading is about 70% done.

Labor and equipment are right with the 70% of grading done. Trucking at 82%, fuel at 83%, and dump fees at 82% are all ahead, which usually means more material left the site than the takeoff called for. Check the haul tickets against the cut quantities this week; if the soil was unsuitable, that’s a change order, not a loss.

Guides and tools for excavation and site work contractors