Profit per service job is what a job earns minus its actual costs: recorded hours multiplied by the cost per hour, plus the purchase price of materials used and travel costs. You only get immediate insight when hours and materials are recorded per work order, so you can run job costing per job, customer or work type instead of waiting for the annual accounts.
Revenue is growing, the team is busy, but less is left at the bottom line than you would expect. Only the year-end figures show the margin has slipped, and nobody knows exactly where it went wrong. That big customer on a fixed price? The call-outs on the far side of the county? Or the materials that never made it onto the invoice?
This article shows how to see whether each service job makes a profit or a loss, what data you need and how to move from gut feeling to a monthly job costing review.
Why can't you see straight away whether a job is profitable?
Because the data you need sits in four different places. Hours are on a timesheet, materials on a supplier delivery note, revenue on the invoice in the accounting package and the cost of your technicians in the owner's head. Pulling that together per job takes an afternoon. So it does not happen.
What do you need for profit per job?
1. Actual hours per work order
Not estimated but recorded: start and end time, with work and travel time separate. On a digital work order the technician starts a timer, so hours per job are right.
2. The cost of an hour
Add up a technician's annual costs (wages, employer costs, van, tools, phone, training) and divide by billable hours. Travel, breaks, meetings and sickness come off. Many owners calculate with hours present and so underestimate their cost per hour.
3. Materials with purchase and sales price
Every item on the work order has a purchase price and a sales price. Keep prices up to date so your margin does not quietly evaporate when suppliers raise theirs.
4. The revenue
If the invoice comes directly from the work order, the revenue is automatically tied to the right job.
From estimate to job costing
Insight into profit starts upfront. In OutSmart Calculations you add hours and materials and see purchase price, sales price and margin as you go. With margin targets and colours you see at once when a quote falls below your target.
Afterwards you set reality beside it. With Reports you build Excel reports from work orders, hours, invoices or materials, with fields such as cost price, sales price, hour costs and revenue. Filter by period or customer and have the report emailed to you every month. For dashboards, connect OutSmart to Power BI.
Worked example: A call-out billed at £125 (1 hour at £80 plus £45 materials). The technician spent 1.5 hours on site plus 50 minutes of travel you do not charge. At a cost of £48 per hour, labour costs £112 and materials £28 to buy. Revenue £125, costs £140: this job loses you £15.
Where does the margin usually leak away?
- Travel time that is not charged, especially on small jobs far away.
- Fixed prices that keep overrunning without anyone noticing.
- Materials that never reach the work order, and so never reach the invoice.
- Return visits written off as warranty without being recorded.
- Maintenance contracts with an annual price that has not changed in years.
Profit insight without vs. with OutSmart
From year-end figures to insight per job.
| Step | Paper and Excel | With OutSmart |
|---|---|---|
| Hours per job | Estimated or from memory | Recorded on the work order with work and travel time |
| Materials per job | Delivery notes, often incomplete | Items on the work order with purchase and sales price |
| Estimate upfront | Spreadsheet without margin control | Calculations with margin and margin targets |
| Job costing | Only at year end, no detail | Report per period, customer or work order, emailed automatically |
See your profit per job in 3 steps
Step 1: Calculate your real cost per hour. Use billable hours, not hours present. This one number decides whether all your estimates are right.
Step 2: Record hours and materials per work order. Without reliable hours and materials per job, every post-job costing is a guess. Start here, even if you change nothing else yet.
Step 3: Run a job costing review every month. Have a report per work type and per customer arrive automatically each month and compare it with your estimates. Adjust rates, fixed prices or contract prices where you see structural losses.
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