What to write down after every job

Why write down every job

A few notes made while the job is fresh do three things. They show whether the job made what you quoted. They make your next quote better. And they give every line on your invoice a record behind it.

What to write down after every job

Keep it to a short list you can fill in the same day:

• Job name, customer and dates.
• Hours worked, by person.
• Materials bought, with the receipt.
• Trips made and the distance.
• Changes the customer agreed, and what they added or removed.
• What took longer or cost more than you expected, and why.
• Anything left to do, and what to do differently next time.

Worked example: a bathroom refresh (made-up figures)

You quoted 30 hours and $1,200 of materials. Your timesheet shows 36 hours. The receipts add up to $1,350, and an agreed extra shelf accounts for the $150 difference, which was added to the invoice.

The materials are covered. The 6 extra hours are not. At an example cost of $60 per hour, that is 6 × $60 = $360 of unbilled time. Your notes say the old wall took longer to open up than expected.

That one note is the lesson. On the next quote for an older house, you allow more hours for the wall, or list the old wall as an assumption.

You also log 12 trips of 20 km each, 240 km in total, in the mileage log, so the trips are on record when you or your accountant need them.

Keep it in two places

Log hours in the timesheet and materials and trips in the expense and mileage log. Add a few lines of notes for the rest. Compare the totals with the quote when the job is done.

If the job changed along the way, the guide on recording changes to a job shows what to write for each change.