Running a Mid-Job Cost Review

Pull all purchase orders raised against the job and sum the total committed cost. Compare against the materials and sub-contractor budget from the original quote.

Pull labour hours recorded to date from works order completions, site sign-offs, or timesheets. Compare actual hours against the labour estimate from the quote by trade or role.

Identify any costs incurred but not yet on a PO or works order: van stock used without a job booking, verbally instructed sub-contractor work, or deliveries received without a linked PO. Raise the missing documents now.

List any out-of-scope work already completed that has not been priced or authorized in writing. These are variations absorbed without a signed change order.

Estimate the cost to finish the remaining scope using actual cost rates from this job, not the original quote. If labour is running over estimate, apply the actual rate to the remaining hours.

Add actual costs to date and estimated cost to complete to get the estimated final cost. Compare against the original job budget to calculate projected final margin.

If projected margin is more than 5% below target, raise written variation orders for out-of-scope work, update remaining POs, and notify the customer of any cost or timeline change before the final invoice is issued.

We only checked job costs when we raised the final invoice - by then we had already done the work and had no way to recover the overspend.

Labour hours were running 30% over estimate but nobody flagged it until the job closed. We invoiced at the original price and absorbed over $1,800 in unrecovered time on a single job.

A sub-contractor did extra work on site and billed us on completion. We had no written instruction and could not pass the cost through to the customer.