If you can’t say which of your current jobs is making money, you’re not alone — most builders can’t, because their books show one big pile of costs instead of a per-job picture. Xero can fix that. Here’s how to set it up, step by step.
Before touching Xero, decide your cost breakdown. Most builders land on a handful of buckets per job: materials, subcontractors, labour, equipment and site costs. Keep it simple enough that whoever enters the bills can code them without a decision tree. Five buckets used consistently beat twenty used sometimes.
In Xero, go to your organisation settings and create a tracking category called Jobs (or Projects), with an option for each active job. Every invoice, bill and relevant payroll line then gets tagged to its job. (Xero allows two active tracking categories — if you’re also tracking by division or location, plan both before you build.)
For builders who want timesheets-to-job detail and quoting in one place, Xero Projects is the deeper alternative — happy to talk through which fits your business.
Job tracking only tells the truth if the accounts underneath are clean. Split your cost of sales so materials, subcontractor costs and direct labour each have their own account. Now every job report reads the same way your quotes are built — which is the whole point.
Raise each progress claim as an invoice in Xero, tagged to its job, and track claims against the contract value so you always know what’s been claimed, approved and paid. Deposits and part-payments get recorded against the claim they belong to — not floated in a general pool. When a payment schedule arrives for less than the claim, record the difference visibly. Under Security of Payment rules, your records of what was claimed and when are your evidence.
Retention is your money — parked. Record the retained amount when each claim is approved, in its own account, tagged to its job, with the expected release dates noted. Then review that account monthly. The builders who lose retention money are the ones who stopped looking at it.
If you pay contractors in building and construction, the ATO expects a Taxable Payments Annual Report by 28 August each year. Set yourself up so it’s a button-press, not a panic:
Set a monthly rhythm: run the P&L by job tracking category, compare each job’s costs against its quote, and ask one question — is this job tracking where we priced it? Break the costs down per job and you can see, project by project, what’s actually making you money. That makes your next quote sharper, and harder to underprice by accident.
Before touching Xero, decide your cost breakdown. Most builders land on a handful of buckets per job: materials, subcontractors, labour, equipment and site costs. Keep it simple enough that whoever enters the bills can code them without a decision tree. Five buckets used consistently beat twenty used sometimes.
In Xero, go to your organisation settings and create a tracking category called Jobs (or Projects), with an option for each active job. Every invoice, bill and relevant payroll line then gets tagged to its job. (Xero allows two active tracking categories — if you’re also tracking by division or location, plan both before you build.)
For builders who want timesheets-to-job detail and quoting in one place, Xero Projects is the deeper alternative — happy to talk through which fits your business.
Job tracking only tells the truth if the accounts underneath are clean. Split your cost of sales so materials, subcontractor costs and direct labour each have their own account. Now every job report reads the same way your quotes are built — which is the whole point.
Raise each progress claim as an invoice in Xero, tagged to its job, and track claims against the contract value so you always know what’s been claimed, approved and paid. Deposits and part-payments get recorded against the claim they belong to — not floated in a general pool. When a payment schedule arrives for less than the claim, record the difference visibly. Under Security of Payment rules, your records of what was claimed and when are your evidence.
Retention is your money — parked. Record the retained amount when each claim is approved, in its own account, tagged to its job, with the expected release dates noted. Then review that account monthly. The builders who lose retention money are the ones who stopped looking at it.
If you pay contractors in building and construction, the ATO expects a Taxable Payments Annual Report by 28 August each year. Set yourself up so it’s a button-press, not a panic:
Set a monthly rhythm: run the P&L by job tracking category, compare each job’s costs against its quote, and ask one question — is this job tracking where we priced it? Break the costs down per job and you can see, project by project, what’s actually making you money. That makes your next quote sharper, and harder to underprice by accident.
Steps 1–3 are an afternoon. The value comes from the habit: every bill coded to its job, every claim tracked, every month reviewed. That habit is exactly what a construction bookkeeper is for.
Easier if we set it up for you? Give us a yell — job costing setup is part of what we do for construction clients.
Trust matters when it comes to your finances. Our team brings years of hands-on bookkeeping and payroll experience, working with businesses in Parramatta.
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If your club’s books feel heavier than they should — or your next audit is already keeping someone up at night — let’s have a chat. Book a free consultation and talk directly with Dennis.