Using Cost Types

The Job Cost system allows you to track as many as 12 types of costs for each cost code (phase, subphase, etc.) within a job. Use cost types to summarize costs for a job, to determine general ledger accounts for Work-in-Process accounting, to indicate which types of costs are subject to sales tax, and to indicate which types of costs are billed by transaction detail for Time and Material jobs. A cost type is identified by a one-character code.

The Job Cost system incorporates the following standard cost types that are predefined and cannot be deleted, although the description can be changed. These predefined cost types are used by the system as described here. You can add up to six user-defined cost types to detail other categories of costs.

Cost Type	Description
L	The Labor cost type is used for all direct payroll costs posted from the Payroll module or from Job Posting Entry.
M	The Material cost type is used for costs associated with the purchase of materials for a job.
S	The Subcontract cost type is used for costs associated with vendors who are your subcontractors for a job.
O	The Overhead cost type is used for posting indirect expenses that cannot be directly attributed to the job. Overhead can be applied automatically using a different percentage rate for each cost type.
B	The Burden cost type is used to track indirect labor expenses such as workers' compensation, SDI, FICA, etc. Burden can be applied automatically by the Payroll module.
E	The Equipment cost type is used to track or allocate costs associated with use of equipment for a job.

Estimate and cost-to-date information for each cost code can be detailed by one or more of the cost types. This feature, in combination with the flexible cost code format, allows you to organize and track costs associated with a job in the manner best suited to your needs.

If you are using the Work-in-Process method of accounting, you can define separate Work-in-Process and Cost of Sale general ledger accounts to use for each cost type. You can define additional cost types for the purpose of distributing the general ledger postings; however, all labor costs must be posted to the Labor cost type.

Cost types are also used to indicate taxable and nontaxable costs for the purpose of billing and estimating. You can define additional material cost types to differentiate between taxable and nontaxable costs.

You can also indicate which types of costs are billed by transaction detail for Time and Material jobs by selecting the Bill Detail check box in Job Cost Options for each cost type. For example, you may want to summarize labor costs by cost code but show invoice detail for material and subcontract costs. The cost types are defined and maintained in Job Cost Options.

For more information, see:

Job Cost Options

Using Cost Codes

Job Cost FAQs