Calculate Job Profitability
Automatically track labor, materials, and overhead costs across all jobs to calculate real-time profitability margins. Eliminate manual spreadsheets and get instant visibility into which projects are making or losing money.
When
New Expense or Time Entry Logged
Then
Updated Profitability Report Generated
12 hours per week
Time Saved
Recover 15% hidden costs
ROI Impact
To calculate job profitability for electrical projects, subtract total costs (labor, materials, equipment, overhead) from the contract value, then divide by contract value to get profit margin percentage. Automated systems track these costs in real-time as expenses are logged, eliminating manual calculations and providing instant visibility into which jobs are profitable.
How This Automation Works
New Expense or Time Entry Logged → Updated Profitability Report Generated
Connect Cost Data Sources
Integrate your time tracking system, accounting software, material supplier invoices, equipment management tools, and field service platform to create a unified cost data stream for all electrical projects.
Capture and Categorize Expenses
Automatically pull labor hours, material purchases, equipment costs, and overhead expenses as they occur, then categorize and allocate each cost to the correct job code or project number.
Apply Cost Formulas
Calculate fully-burdened labor rates including taxes and benefits, add material markups, allocate overhead based on your chosen method, and sum all direct and indirect costs for comprehensive job costing.
Calculate Profitability Metrics
Compare total job costs against contract value to determine gross profit, calculate profit margin percentage, compute earnings before overhead, and track variance from estimated costs.
Generate Multi-Job Reports
Create comprehensive profitability dashboards showing all active and completed jobs, rank projects by margin, highlight unprofitable work, compare performance by customer or job type, and deliver insights to decision-makers.
Trigger Alerts and Actions
Send notifications when job costs exceed budgets, margins fall below thresholds, or profitability trends negative, enabling immediate intervention and course correction on at-risk electrical projects.
How It Works
Electrical contractors lose thousands in hidden costs when profitability tracking is manual. This automation consolidates time sheets, material invoices, equipment rentals, and overhead allocations to calculate accurate job profitability across your entire project portfolio. The system pulls data from your field service management, accounting, and time tracking tools, then applies your cost formulas to generate detailed profitability reports by job, customer, or project type. You'll identify unprofitable jobs before they drain resources, optimize pricing strategies based on actual costs, and make data-driven decisions about which work to pursue. The automation runs continuously, updating profitability metrics as new expenses are logged, giving you real-time financial intelligence without the manual data entry.
The Trigger
Activates when labor hours are recorded, material purchases are invoiced, equipment costs are logged, or overhead expenses are allocated to active electrical projects.
The Action
Automatically calculates total job costs, compares against contract value, computes profit margins, and updates comprehensive profitability dashboards with current financial performance by project.
Common Use Cases in Electrical
- A commercial electrical contractor tracks profitability across 25 active projects simultaneously, discovering that service call work generates 18% margins while new construction averages only 9%, leading to a strategic shift in sales focus
- An industrial electrical firm identifies that a major client's projects consistently run 12% over budget due to excessive change orders, enabling renegotiation of contract terms and change order pricing
- A residential electrical company compares profitability by technician, revealing that newer installers take 30% longer on standard jobs, triggering targeted training programs that improve overall margins
- An electrical service provider analyzes job profitability by geographic region, finding that downtown projects incur 25% higher vehicle and parking costs, justifying location-based pricing adjustments
- A maintenance contractor tracks recurring service agreement profitability monthly, identifying which clients require excessive emergency visits that erode contract margins, leading to service plan restructuring
Results You Can Expect
Eliminate Profit Leakage
Uncover hidden expenses and unbilled costs that silently erode margins. Automated tracking captures every labor hour, material purchase, and overhead allocation that manual systems miss, recovering thousands in otherwise lost revenue per project.
Accelerate Financial Decisions
Make informed business decisions with up-to-the-minute profitability data instead of waiting weeks for month-end reports. Identify underperforming jobs immediately and adjust resource allocation before small losses become major problems.
Optimize Pricing Strategy
Use actual historical cost data to price future jobs accurately. Understand which project types, customers, and services deliver the best returns, then focus sales efforts on the most profitable opportunities while avoiding money-losing work.
Reduce Administrative Burden
Eliminate manual spreadsheet updates, duplicate data entry, and time-consuming cost reconciliation. Your team focuses on billable work and client relationships instead of chasing down expense receipts and calculating profit margins by hand.
Frequently Asked Questions About This Automation
Calculate electrical job profitability by subtracting all costs (direct labor with burden rate, materials, subcontractors, equipment, vehicle expenses, and allocated overhead) from total revenue, then divide by revenue for margin percentage. Track costs as incurred for accuracy.
Set Up Multi-Job Cost Analytics in Minutes
Stop doing manual work that software can handle. Fieldproxy makes it easy to set up this automation and dozens more - no coding required. Our AI builder helps you customize everything to match your exact business process.
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