--- title: "How to track a job's costs" description: "Put in what you quoted and the profit you want, add costs as you pay them, and see whether the job will keep its profit." url: https://geiavwiyz.gleap.help/en/articles/179-how-to-track-a-job-s-costs collection: "Projects" updated: 2026-11-06 language: en --- # How to track a job's costs Put in what you quoted and the profit you want, add costs as you pay them, and see whether the job will keep its profit. The cost tracker shows you, while a job is still running, whether it will keep the profit you priced in. You put in what you quoted, the profit you want to keep and the sections you priced the job in. Then you add costs as you pay them, and the page tells you if you're on track or eating into your profit. Only your team's admins see it. ## Set up a job's costs 1. Open the project and click **Cost tracker**, under **Money** in the project's sidebar. 2. Click **Set up costs**. 3. Under **What did you quote?**, check the amount. It's the project's **Estimated value**, so changing it here changes that too. 4. Under **How much profit do you want to keep?**, pick **%** or **£** and type the profit. The line beside it says how much that leaves to spend. 5. Under **Split the £… into sections**, type a name and a budget for each part of the job, like the sections you priced it in. Click **Add a section** for another one. 6. Click **Start tracking**. You don't have to split every pound before you start. Anything you leave is tracked as **Not in a section**. The bar under the sections turns green and says **Adds up** once it's all split. Your own team's wages are a section like any other. Add a section for labour and type the wages in as costs. ## Add a cost 1. On the project's **Cost tracker**, click **Add a cost**. 2. Type the amount under **How much?**. 3. Pick the section under **Which section?**, or **Not in a section**. 4. Pick the day it was spent under **When?**. 5. If you like, say what it was under **What for? (optional)**, for example the skip hire or the merchant. 6. Under **How far through is … now?**, pick **Not started**, **¼**, **½**, **¾** or **Done** for that section. 7. Check the box at the bottom. It shows what this cost does to the section and to your profit before you save. 8. Click **Add to** and the section's name, or **Add cost** if it's not in a section. ## Update a section Click a section's row to open it. There you can: - Change its **Budget** and click **Save**. - Set **How far through is it?** as the work moves on. - See every cost against it under **Costs**, and delete one that went in by mistake. - Click **Add a cost**, or **Client agreed an extra**. ## Add an extra the client agreed 1. Open the section the extra belongs to. 2. Click **Client agreed an extra**. 3. Say what the extra is, then fill in **You charge the client** and **It costs you about**. 4. Click **Add the extra**. The project's Estimated value goes up by what you charge. The section's budget goes up by what it costs you, and the difference is added to your profit target. To take an extra off, delete it under **Extras the client agreed** in the section. ## Change the quote or the sections 1. Click **Change quote and sections** at the top right of the page. 2. Make your changes. 3. Click **Save**. Removing a section moves its costs to **Not in a section**, so nothing you've added is lost. ## What the page tells you The headline at the top is the answer: - **Nothing spent yet**: no costs added so far. - **On track to keep your profit**: spending is heading for your budget or less. - **Money is running ahead of the work**: spending is heading over your budget, so it's eating into your profit. - **Heading for a loss**: the job is heading to cost more than the client pays. Under it, **Money spent** shows how much of your budget has gone, next to **Time gone**, which comes from the project's start and finish dates. **Tasks done** shows too when the project has tasks. On the chart, the solid line is what you've spent so far, and the grey line is a steady pace that lands on your budget at the finish. The dashed line shows where spending is heading. Hover over the chart to see, for that day, what you'd spent, where the steady pace was, and how far above or below it you were. Each section's row says **On track**, **May go over**, **Paid upfront** (a deposit's gone out but the work hasn't started), **Not started**, or how much it's already over. ## How is "heading for" worked out? Each section is worked out on its own, then they're added up: - A section marked **Done** counts at what it cost. - A section under way counts at what it's spent, scaled up by how far through it is. £1,650 spent a quarter of the way through heads for £6,600. - A section not started counts at its budget, even if a deposit has gone out, unless it has already spent more than that. The total is rounded to the nearest £100, because it's only as good as the "how far through" you've picked. Keeping that up to date makes the biggest difference to it. ## Should I include VAT? It depends on whether your business is VAT registered. Click **Settings**, then **Cost tracker**, and answer **Is your business VAT registered?**: - **Yes, we're VAT registered**: leave VAT out of the quote and the costs. You claim it back, so it isn't a cost to the job. - **No, we're not**: include VAT, because it's a real cost for you. Until you choose, Buildscout counts your team as VAT registered. In Australia it's GST rather than VAT. ## Set your usual profit target 1. Click **Settings**, then **Cost tracker**. 2. Under **Usual profit target**, type a percentage of the quote. 3. Click **Save**. New jobs start with this target, and you can change it on any job. ## Why can't I see the cost tracker? Only your team's admins can see it, because it shows the business's figures. It's never shown on the client portal or to subcontractors, and it isn't in the phone app. ## Why can't I change anything? The project is complete. A finished job's costs can't be changed. The headline says what profit you made against your target, and each section shows how it came out against its budget. ## Why won't it load? The cost tracker needs an internet connection. A job's costs aren't kept on your device, so it can't open offline.