Exploring Tradie · one-page sheetBack-cost one job.Then quote the next one properly.
Back-costing is reading a finished job backwards: what it cost, what it earned, where the margin came from. Do it on one job — finished, invoiced, still fresh — and the next quote gets better. That is the whole point.
Pick one job
Finished and invoiced in the last month. Not the biggest — the one you are curious about.
Gather four numbers
Per section: what you quoted, what it cost, what you invoiced. Labour, materials & subbies, other.
Build the table
One line per section, margin in the last column. Your AI can build it from a Xero and job-software export.
Write two things down
Two things worth your time — not ten. Then change the next quote or the next job setup.
| Section | Quoted | Cost | Invoiced | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | $172,000 | $131,500 | $184,200 | 28.6% |
| Materials, subbies | $398,000 | $386,900 | $419,600 | 7.8% |
| Other | $18,000 | $2,150 | $27,400 | 92% |
| Total | $588,000 | $520,550 | $631,200 | 17.5% |
Materials carry the risk and return the least at a flat markup — they came in $11,000 under the quote, so the quote was fine, the markup is the issue. The labour markup was not consistent across the phases — foundations and framing at one rate, fit-out at another, so the margin depended on which phase ran long. Two things. Next quote changed.
Export the job's costs and invoices, paste them in, and ask:
Build me a job profit table with one line per section — labour, materials and subbies, other — showing quoted, cost, invoiced and margin. Then write two things worth my time from it, in plain words. Do not give me ten.Check the key figures against Xero before you believe them.
Why the first one is rough
- The quote was one figure per section, so you can see over and under by section but not by stage
- The job software was not set up to match the quote, so costs landed wherever
- That is normal. The first back-cost shows you the shape; the second one, on a job set up to match its quote, shows you the truth
- Set the next job up before it starts: quote sections become the job's cost sections, same names, same order
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