Although it may not be at the top of the average accounting software review, the "Job Cost Report" feature is a feature that, when used to its fullest potential, can increase profits and the bottom-line. Job cost reports take a more focused micro-level view of your company.

While most accounting reports deal with the big picture of revenue-versus-expenses, the job cost report feature can help you see which jobs are bringing in the most money for your business and which are losing money. From this knowledge sprouts more profitable projects. When each project is either made profitable or purged, the overall financial sustainability of a business is increased.

How do job cost reports in financial software work? A common method accounting programs use to calculate the cost of a job is by using time-loggers to keep track of the time spent working on each individual project. These time-loggers work similarly to time clocks for wage employees. For example, if an employee spends two hours on a particular project, that will be logged directly into the accounting software.

What does the accounting program do with this information? Several things. It uses the cost-per-hour of the project (for example, the cost-per-hour of payroll for the employees who work on the project) and the revenue earned per hour of the project to provide a summary of the net profit per hour spent on the project.

Once the financial software review of all of the individual jobs and projects within a business is complete, the data can be analyzed to ensure maximum profitability. Each individual project is visible in terms of its profitability. Choices then become much clearer. Does a business want to maximize its profits? With a clear image of which projects are losing money and which ones are gaining money, running a business becomes much less "seat of the pants" and much more calculated and efficient.

This is where accounting software reviews are crucial. Reviews will often focus on the flashiness of the software or the number of features rather than job cost reporting and other fairly obscure features. It may be essential to infer and triangulate when researching this feature. Key things to watch for when considering the ability of a program to track job costs include:

a) level of detail in the program as a whole;
b) ability of the software to track time spent on projects in real time;
c) options to manually add and edit job data after the project time is tracked.

Job cost reporting is not as widely used as payroll and accounts payable features, so it may be necessary to do a little bit of research on the software company's website about this feature.

When used effectively, a job cost report and the post-mortem analysis of it can be the difference between a profitable company and an unprofitable one. Accounting programs which provide this service automatically can add a level of value to a business that other accounting programs do not.