Free Excel Job Costing Template
Are you struggling to keep track of your project expenses and accurately measure the profitability of each job? Look no further! Introducing our free Excel job costing template to streamline your cost management process and maximise profits. But first, let’s dive into what job costing is and why it’s crucial for your business.

What is Job Costing, and Why Does it Matter?
Job costing, or project-based accounting, is a method of tracking and allocating costs associated with individual projects or jobs. This approach allows businesses to accurately determine each job’s profitability and make informed decisions on pricing, resource allocation, and overall project management.
Neglecting job costing can lead to underestimating project costs, undervaluing your services, and ultimately, losing potential profits. As a business owner, implementing a job costing system can help you avoid these pitfalls and ensure sustainable growth.
Job costing can also ensure that you charge for all the hours worked. When invoicing, it is easy to underestimate the time worked on a project. Job costing can help you keep track of the hours worked and ensure you get paid for all your hard work.
Disclosure: This content may contain affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I may get a commission (without any extra cost to you).
Why use Job Costing Excel Templates?
Using Excel templates is the most efficient and cost-effective way to manage your job costs. Using job costing software can be expensive and, for many businesses, isn’t necessary. Excel templates provide an ideal solution to track costs associated with projects/jobs without expensive software.
By calculating actual job costs, you can compare them to the project budget and ensure that you have not exceeded the budget. This is essential to ensure you make a profit on each job. With prices increasing all the time, it is easy to underestimate the cost of a job and underestimate it against the actual cost.
Our Excel template is suitable for small projects, but if you have something larger to track, other job-costing Excel templates are available on the internet. As already discussed, alternative software is available, including job costing in Xero and QuickBooks Accounting Software.
Job Costing with Accounting Software
For most small businesses, using accounting software can save both time and money. Accounting software can produce monthly and year-end accounts and track costs.
Both QuickBooks and Xero offer project tracking. They allow you to set up a project and allocate expenses, including purchases, mileage, overhead expenses and labour. The main advantages of using accounting software are having everything in one place and producing accurate reports and sales invoices based on the actual total cost.
Our Free Excel Job Costing Template
Our free job costing template for small businesses is designed to make cost management easier. The template helps you track all actual costs associated with a job and splits them into supplies, labour, and other costs. This makes it easier to see the breakdown of the different elements of each job.
Job Costing Template Example
Below is an example of our Excel template for a small business. It is based on a bathroom company installing a new family bathroom. It includes supplies, labour and other expenses.


The above example shows the total cost of 2617.20, broken down into three sections: supplies of 1615.95, labour of 940.00, and miscellaneous expenses of 61.25.
Job Costing Excel Template Instructions
Use the link to download the free job costing template later.
At the top, enter the job details; this may be a job number, name or address.
As you spend money on the project or complete time on the project, record it within each section.
Supplies or materials needed
Add a brief description, total quantity and price. The total amount is calculated.
Labour
For labour, add a description of the job completed, or, if using a subcontractor, include their name, total hours or days, and the daily or hourly rate.
Other
In the last section, ‘other’ you add any expenses that do not fall into supplies or labour. Examples might include mileage, postage, and general overheads charged to jobs.
Our free Excel job costing template is designed to simplify cost management. It fits on one page, but you can add more rows in Excel to track all your actual costs for a project or job.
Free Excel Job Costing Template Free Download
Licence Agreement
By downloading our free templates, you agree to our licence agreement, allowing you to use the templates for your own personal or business use only. You may not share, distribute, or resell the templates to anyone else in any way.
Is the job costing template free to download?
Yes, the template is free to download in Excel format. No sign-up is required. It allows you to enter labour hours and rates, materials costs, and overheads, and automatically calculates the total cost.
When should I consider job costing software instead of a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet works well for businesses with a small number of jobs running at any one time. If you are managing multiple concurrent projects, need to track labour time in real time, or want job costs to feed automatically into your invoicing and accounts, dedicated job costing software or a full accounting package such as Xero or QuickBooks will be more efficient.
Can I use the template to track multiple jobs at the same time?
Yes. Each worksheet tab can be used for a separate job. Duplicate the sheet for each new project and keep all your job cost records in one workbook. Naming each tab with the job number or client name makes it easy to quickly find individual jobs.
Job Costing Template Conclusion
Implementing a job costing system is crucial for businesses looking to maintain a competitive edge and maximise profitability. Our free Excel job-costing template offers a user-friendly, customisable solution to help you achieve these goals.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to take control of your project costs and unlock your business’s full potential. Download our free Excel job costing template today and start making data-driven decisions that will drive your business forward.
Related Excel Templates
Cash Book, which will show the sales, gross profit, expenses and net profit for a small business









