Process invoicing - how to keep track?

joel_19

Hi guys. I am wondering if any of you have a way that you keep track of what has been accomplished at each job. We might be doing 10 jobs at once - and we go one day to this job - the next 2 days to a 2nd job, and so on.

Invoicing becomes the problem. When we do up the proposal, we come up with "terms" that will ask for a deposit, and then specifies an amount for different segments of the job ie: rough, boiler install, ac startup, etc. The problem is - is that the ones in the office that do the invoicing never know what part of the job has been completed. The technicians/installers are not in the office a lot - so the girls do not get a chance to talk with them - and don't want to interupt them during the day.

Have any of you come up with a good way to keep track of what's been done at each job - who has been there last - and exactly what they have done - and what materials they have used?

Any ideas you have - and/or forms or sheets or job folders that you use - and could share would be extremely helpful. Thanks!

Erika

EBEBRATT-Ed

Where I work each job is assigned a job #. Any materials picked up at the supply house etc are marked with the job # as well as our po #. The installers split there time up each day and charge there time to the respective job #. Any material returned is a credit to that job #. Material taken from the shop or truck is charged to the job # and is marked "truck stock". Any left over material and misc. items not returned are charged to truck stock.

Hope this helps. Not a perfect system-but what is. As for a discription of the work service calls are written up on service reports and are turned in to the office. We try to get the techs to mark them "job complete" or "job not Complete.As far as installations-guess you would have to talk to the mechanic.

Boiler Guy

That is

the way we do it too. However, your staff have to be responsible enough to make the system work effectively. This is where we experience BREAKDOWN. How do you educate the staff?

J.C.A._3

B.G.

They are already educated, the thing is to make them keep up with the inventory of/on the job on a daily basis.

I wish I had a dime for every time I've heard ...."I'll take a stock list at the end of the job". How about the HOURS that were spent on something that wasn't covered in the original contract? (We all know the beginning of that one....While you're here....)

Daily reports from the techs are the only way to keep track of time and materials used on each and every job.If it takes time to do it daily, GIVE IT TO THEM, and PAY THEM FOR IT. After all, it IS part of the job and the only way I know of tracking actual costs. Chris

Mark Eatherton1

Right on Chris...

We use a time sheet that has a listing for every typical task on our jobs, including set up and tear down time. Our employees fill this out daily, and turn it in at the end of the week. That way, we have a handle on what labor went to what task on what job. It also helps us track our labor factors for bidding. If we see that the guys are taking too long to install whatever, we can ask them if it was a site specific problem, or if we need to adjust our labor factors. Conversely, if we find them doing things quicker than we anticipated, we check with them again to see if it was a site specific thing, or if we should adjust our labor estimates downward.

One thing for sure, the employees MUST fill this paperwork out daily, if not twice a day before they forget how much time and what tasks they performed. We explain it to them that its not a tool to check up on them,but rather a tool we use to test ourselves and our estimation skills.

Materials are tracked by job name, with any major components that come off the trucks noted and billed accordingly. We order major components "just in time", and keep a rolling inventory of commonly used pipe, valves and fittings in stock on the trucks.

We also don't bill in phases, but instead bill progressively. We also don't ask for any money up front, but instead depend on a line of credit from our bank, and roll the cost of that line of credit into our overhead so that everyone helps pay for it. But that's just our way of doing business, which based on conversations here puts us in a real small minority. To each is own.

The most important part is that labor and materials be tracked on a very tight basis, and billed out weekly.

There is a 2 way paper flow. From the field to the office, and from the office to the estimators. It is a MUST if you are to keep control of your cost of doing business.

ME

Mark Wilson

webtimesheet

We have a 16 person engineering firm with an office in Maryland and one LA. I ended up purchasing and using a program from a company called Replicon. The tool is priced per number of employees, starting with a 10 and under license and then more money for chunkcs of 10. We have found this product to be real helpful. It allows us to setup customers, different projects for individual customers. It's main purpose is to provide a web based timesheet. This is accomplished by a simple setup on a machine hooked to the internet. Better if it is on a cable mode or DSL with a small Linksys or similar router.

This tool is not cheap for a small couple person outfit and for people who have < 10 employees there are some free programs which allow up to 10 licenses. They are hoping you grow beyond 10 and keep them. The pricing for 20 employees is about the same for all of these packages.

The nice thing is it allows folks to be able to get to their timecard from home, the tool automatically sends out reminders, you can track expenses per customer or project. It will also allow you to track against the budget.

It took some time to setup and learn but it has saved us an incredible amount of time and kept us from making too many mistakes.

Mark Wilson

wrong email

In case folks have questions my email is mwwilson@comcast.net.

Rookie

We work on task books

For service work we work out of a task book, the Tech sells the task fill out a 3 copy cash form and then does the work.He turns in with the cash slip ( just an invoice filled out by the tech)his labor slip, we get these from NEBS, they are simple Material and Labor reports, in this he list the materials used, job code and his time, and the invoice number.Back at the office the office girl inputs the cash slip into quickbooks por contractors addition then input the time and job name on a time card that the Tech fill in every morning.On contract jobs ( larger jobs full heating systems, new house plumbing ect)we use an excel spreadsheet to track the hours and the materials, we also have all our inventory on excel, and we use that for some estimating.This is cumbersome and I would love to swiytch to a dispatching , inventory , estimating program without changing my accounting program ( Quickbooks), that would be to much right now.

Boiler Guy

Chris, Mark

Your ideas always work in theory. We try to ensure this procedure is followed as well. How can you convince/force a highly educated tech to recognize the importance of material lists? It just seems that the best of techs are the WORST at paper trails. (I also recognize I am guilty of this at times too.) Any ideas?