NetSuite Job Costing. Simplifying Complex Project Administration

NetSuite Job Costing. Simplifying Complex Project Administration
Published:
March 7, 2023
Categories:
NetSuite

Are you struggling to keep track of your job costs, revenue, and other expenses related to each job or project? Do you have difficulty creating budgets, forecasting profits and losses, or generating reports? If so, then it's time to consider NetSuite Job Costing.


In this guide, we'll discuss the key features of NetSuite job costing and how it can benefit your business.

What Is NetSuite Job Costing?

NetSuite job costing is a NetSuite module that helps businesses track the costs and revenues associated with specific projects. It can be used to accurately allocate expenses to individual jobs, create budgets, and generate reports for analyzing profitability. This feature is especially useful for businesses within the construction, manufacturing, and service industries; as well as those that manage multiple projects.


By leveraging NetSuite job costing, businesses can improve their financial management. This in turn allows these businesses to gain more control over their project budgets and better understand their performance. NetSuite job costing also makes it easier to compare actual costs with budgeted amounts so that businesses can identify where they may need to adjust their spending. Additionally, with the help of this module, businesses can create forecasts on future projects to help them plan resources and minimize risk of going over budget.

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Benefits of NetSuite Job Costing

NetSuite Job Costing helps businesses simplify complex projects by allowing them to track and monitor costs, revenue and budget information for individual projects. With NetSuite's built-in mechanisms, you can easily view and manage any project's financial performance in real time.


Improved Cost Control


Gain a clear picture of project expenses and identify areas where they can cut costs. By having real-time access to cost data, businesses can make informed decisions that impact the bottom line.


Better Project Management


Empower your project managers to track project status, timelines, and budgets in real-time. This helps businesses keep projects on track and prevent overspending. Project managers can easily view performance metrics and make data-driven decisions that help ensure the success of the project.


Enhanced Reporting


NetSuite Job Costing offers customizable reporting features that allow businesses to create reports that meet their specific needs. This helps different roles who are involved in a project, like project managers, supervisors and project coordinators to be able to create reports to support their specific data needs.


Integration with Other NetSuite Features


NetSuite Job Costing integrates with other NetSuite features, such as financial management, order management, and inventory management. This makes it easy for businesses to manage all aspects of their projects in one system.


How to Use Job Costing in NetSuite

NetSuite allows you to easily track costs and revenue associated with specific projects, allowing businesses to make better decisions on how to optimize their profitability. It's the perfect job costing solution for businesses who need to analyze complex project performance.


Track Labor, Materials, and Other Expenses


Track labor, materials, and other expenses associated with your projects while ensuring accuracy in your job costing. This helps you accurately calculate the costs of each project and identify any areas that may need to be adjusted in order to remain profitable.


Allocate Costs to Specific Jobs


Quickly allocate costs to each job at the vendor bill transition entry screen. This allows you to accurately gauge the profitability of each project based on the actual expenses for each job. Users report that the job costing module has reduced project administration by at least 30%.


Create Budgets and Forecasts


NetSuite job costing enables you to create budgets and forecasts for future projects. This helps ensure that your company remains profitable by being able to adjust plans based on projected costs and revenues associated with each project.


Generate Detailed Project Management Reports


NetSuite enables users to generate reports for analyzing financial or operational performance data. This helps business owners quickly identify where their investments are going on specific projects and make adjustments as needed for maximum efficiency.

NetSuite Job Costing and PM Module

Industries That Benefit From NetSuite Job Costing

As previously mentioned NetSuite Job Costing provides structured processes and powerful tools for businesses in the construction, manufacturing, and service industries that manage multiple projects.


Here is a complete list of industries that could benefit from NetSuite Job Costing:


  1. Construction and specialty subcontracting - contractors, builders, architects, and engineers who manage construction projects.
  2. Project Manufacturers - companies that produce goods, where each major product has its own costs and revenue streams.
  3. Professional services - businesses such as consulting, legal, or accounting firms that track time and expenses on a per-project basis.
  4. Advertising and Marketing - agencies that work on campaigns for different clients.
  5. Engineering - firms that work on projects such as infrastructure development, civil engineering, and product design.
  6. Maintenance and Repair - service providers that handle equipment maintenance or repairs, where each job is unique.
  7. Healthcare - hospitals, clinics, and medical practices that track costs and revenue for different procedures and treatments.
  8. IT services - businesses that provide software development, web design, or other technical services on a project basis.
  9. Non-profits - organizations that work on projects or programs, where each initiative has its own costs and funding sources.
  10. Event Management - companies that organize events such as conferences, trade shows, and concerts, where each event has its own costs and revenue streams.


Time Tracking and Cost Allocation in NetSuite

Time tracking and cost allocation can be complex, especially when it comes to projects that span multiple departments, teams, and locations. Fortunately, NetSuite's job costing feature simplifies the process, providing businesses with the ability to track all details at granular levels. With this information in hand, accurate budgeting and forecasting become much simpler.

NetSuite Job Costing Pricing

NetSuite Job Costing module is an additional add-on module, depending on the industry of NetSuite that you are subscribed to. The cost is a fixed price per year, with the ability to manage unlimited projects. It's worth mentioning that the NetSuite Job Costing module also requires NetSuite Advanced Projects to be licensed.

NetSuite Job Costing Implementation

NetSuite Job Costing is usually implemented during your initial set up, however, if you already use NetSuite, but aren't using the Job Costing functionality, it can be set up after Go-Live.


Define Job Costing Preferences


Defining job costing preferences allows you to set up the way you want to track job costs. In NetSuite, you can specify which types of costs to track, job numbering, and other job-specific settings. For example, you can set up cost categories for labor, materials, overhead, and other expenses.


Create Job Records


Jobs represent the projects or work that you want to track costs for. To create a job record in NetSuite, navigate to the job section and click "New". You can then enter relevant details such as the job name, start and end dates, and other project-specific information. You can also assign a job manager and specify the customer or project owner.


Set Up Cost Categories


Cost categories allow you to track different types of costs for each job. In NetSuite, you can create cost categories for labor, materials, overhead, and other expenses. You can specify the account and the billing rate for each cost category. Once you have created cost categories, you can assign them to specific jobs.


Assign Resources to Jobs


You can assign resources such as employees, contractors, and equipment to specific jobs. This allows you to track costs associated with these resources for each job. For example, you can assign an employee to a job and specify their hourly rate. When the employee logs time against the job, their hours are automatically tracked and costed against the job record.


Record Job Costs


As work is performed on a job, you can record expenses against the job record. You can do this manually or use NetSuite's time tracking and expense management features to ensure that all relevant costs are recorded accurately and in a timely manner. For example, employees can log their time against specific jobs using the NetSuite timesheet feature, and expenses can be entered and billed against the relevant job record.


Monitor Job Profitability


NetSuite's Job Costing module allows you to monitor job profitability by generating reports that show data at the job level. You can see which jobs are the most profitable and which ones are not. This allows you to make informed decisions about pricing, staffing, and resource allocation. You can also set up budget vs. actual reports to monitor how well you are tracking against budgeted costs.



NetSuite Job Costing. Simplifying Complex Project Administration


In Summary

In summary, NetSuite Job Costing has the power to revolutionize the way businesses track costs and revenue for complex projects. With features like labor tracking, cost allocation, budgeting and forecasting, and reporting, companies can gain insight into profitability in order to better optimize their job costing processes. This capability is especially beneficial for businesses in the construction, manufacturing, and service industries that need to manage multiple projects. Most importantly, NetSuite job costing allows businesses to reduce errors while improving overall financial management.


About CEBA Solutions

CEBA Solutions is a team of experienced NetSuite experts committed to empowering business’ to make the most of NetSuite ERP. Our team is dedicated to providing comprehensive NetSuite Professional Services that are tailored to the specific needs of your business. With our help, you can be confident that your NetSuite reporting system is set up for success.


Whether you need customized solutions, complete NetSuite implementation, or ongoing account maintenance services, we are here to support you every step of the way. If you're interested in learning more about how CEBA Solutions can help you maximize the potential of NetSuite's business management platform, we encourage you to get in touch with our team today. We look forward to helping you achieve your business goals.


About the Author

Zabe is a hands-on company Founder and President with expertise across multiple verticals to include business development, operations, distribution, finance, logistics, manufacturing, and the eCommerce industry.

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Zabe works to support growing businesses by helping integrate digital and software solutions to optimize their operations and save them money. Together, we help companies manage core business processes with a single, fully integrated system covering Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), financials, Client Relationship Management (CRM), procurement, warehousing, eCommerce, inventory, third-party logistics (3PL), and much more.

Areas of Expertise:

NetSuite

Workflow Automation

Client Relationship Management (CRM)

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Accounting and Finance

Manufacturing Operations

Wholesale Distribution

Global Supply Chain

3PL Management

Ecommerce Integrations

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