Unsurprisingly, the most common New Years Resolution of the past 10 years is self improvement. Approximately 43% of people set the New Years Resolution to live healthier & lose weight, but only about 8% follow through.

They say, to lose weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise.

A job site is a bit the same - 80% is labour and 20% is admin. 

To see success you need to finish the job, but if you cut corners on the admin, it won’t stop your success, it will just slow it down.

I have learned from conversations with partners & clients that when it comes to Back Costing, people fall into one of three groups:

1. Not doing it
2. Using spreadsheets
3. Have a software with a back costing feature.

Back Costing manually is like doing a burpee

Using spreadsheets to back cost is almost the same as just not doing it.

Manually filling out spreadsheets can lead to human error, the time it takes is enough of an excuse not to do it, and if you don’t, who will notice?

And that leaves group 3, about 8% that are effectively following through.

Back Costing manually is like doing a burpee, you know it is good for you, but does anyone actually want to do them? Until now... Back Costing in NextMinute makes the exercise easier.

1) Create Jobs & Tasks from the quote

When creating a job from a quote, the system asks if you would like to create tasks too. It will create the tasks from the headings of each section within the quote.

So, if your clients work in stages and each section in their quote represents a stage, then these sections can be set up as tasks with a single click.

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2) Link charges straight from Xero

Whilst NextMinute can capture costs, it is not a must, however, having costs in the accounting software is.

Getting your clients to enter their bills directly to Xero or MYOB using AutoEntry, Dext or Hubdoc, is an efficient process, and then being able to sync them straight to NextMinute and assigning to a job takes the process to the next level.

Importing supplier bills from your accounting software is not a new feature for us. It of my favourite feature and it does lead in nicely to the next point.

3) Track Progress

As charges are added against the job, a progress bar will update giving you a real-time view of the financial health of the job.

Meaning, at a glance, they can see if they are approaching their budget.

4) Reporting

The crème de la crème for advisors… There is a Back Costing report linked to each job card. A real-time breakdown of labour & material costs by section.

So if the progress bar is showing something a bit funky, you can pinpoint why.

5) Integrations

The cherry on top, this feature is included in a system that also handles timesheeting, quoting, invoicing, and integrates with the accounting software and payroll. Making it so easy, there should be no excuse to not do it. 

As advisors, implementing Back Costing could be the easiest ways to help your trade clients get in shape.