Track a job's costs, budget, and quote

Open a job from Invoicing › Jobs to see its running costs and add more. The job's number, its site address, and its dates sit on the Job details card: see "Find a job by its number, and record where it is" for those.

Mileage at CRA rates is the job's trips valued at the CRA per-kilometre rate, the same figure as your mileage deduction. It can differ from what you billed the customer for those trips. An invoice keeps the amount it billed, but a trip's deduction follows the kilometres: log an earlier trip later in the year and a trip can move to the lower rate once the year passes 5,000 business km, so its figure here changes and the invoice does not. On the phone the job shows it as its own line once the job has a trip, and it is not counted in Materials.

Add an expense. In the Expenses section, click + Add expense. Fill in the vendor, date, and the subtotal, GST/HST, and PST (in Quebec, put QST in the GST/HST box). The total adds up automatically. The job cost is the subtotal plus PST, because GST/HST and QST are credits you claim back. If your business is not registered for GST/HST, or uses the Quick Method, you cannot claim that tax back, so the job cost includes it. Click Add to job to log it against the job. This only tracks the cost on the job: it does not go into your books. To have it in your books too, add the bill or receipt under Ledger › Expenses and assign it to the job there instead. It then shows on the job as well, so do not add it twice.

Markup. The Markup % box is a percentage: type 15 for 15%. It starts at the job's default markup, or your business default from Invoicing › Settings (Default markup %) when the job has none. The form shows what the expense Bills at: the job cost plus the markup. That is the amount it goes on the customer's invoice for when you use + Invoice from Job. The markup never changes the job cost, so the job's profit counts what you actually paid. Set it to 0 to bill an expense at cost; leave it empty to use the job's markup.

Every expense on the job shows its Job cost, Markup and Bills at in the Expenses table. You can change the markup on any expense that is not billed yet: type a new percentage in its Markup box and press Enter. Labour logged on the job bills at its hourly rate and takes no markup. Moving an expense to another job, or assigning a scanned receipt to a job later, gives it that job's markup.

Drop a receipt instead. Drag a receipt image onto the Expenses section (or click Upload receipt). TALISK_HQ reads the vendor, date, and amounts off the photo and opens the same form pre-filled for you to check, including the Markup % the receipt will bill at. A scanned receipt, or a bill assigned to the job, costs the job what your books record as the expense: what you paid, including any delivery or tip, minus the tax you claim back. That follows the category you give it in Ledger › Expenses: a registered business claims back half the tax on a meal, and a Quick Method business still claims the tax on equipment (but nothing on a meal or supplies). Saving a scanned receipt also files it under Ledger › Expenses, where it waits for your review before it goes into your books.

Set a budget. The Budget card shows cost against your budget as a progress bar, turning amber then red as you approach and pass it. Click Set budget (or Edit) to enter the number. This is your internal cost budget for the job.

Set a quote. The Quote vs actual card compares the price you quoted the customer against what the job has actually cost, so you can see at a glance whether you are still under the quote. Click Set quote (or Edit) to enter the quoted amount.

If the job came from a quote your customer accepted online, this is already filled in, at the quoted price before sales tax. You can still edit it: if you agreed a different figure on the phone, type that one and TALISK_HQ keeps it.

Read the emails about this job. The Emails section lists every message you have pinned to the job, newest first, with who sent it and when. Click a subject to open it in Mail, or Remove to unpin it. You pin a message from the Mail thread itself, using Add to job, so see "Keep a job's emails together" for that half.

When the work is ready to bill, use + Invoice from Job to roll the unbilled costs into an invoice.