Know Where Every Dollar Went -
Before the Job Ends
Construction job costing that shows budget vs actual by cost category while the job is running - with committed POs, change-order impact, and an owner-ready PDF when it's time to present.
The Solo plan ($19.99/mo) includes a sample Job Cost page; the full workbench is on Enterprise at $199/mo. 10-day free trial of every Pro feature. Add a card at signup - cancel before day 10 and you won't be charged.
Most contractors find out if a job made money after it's over
Job costing by spreadsheet
- • Receipts in a shoebox, categorized months later
- • No idea which categories are bleeding until the job closes
- • Issued POs invisible until the bill lands
- • Change orders approved but never reflected in the budget
- • Allowance overages absorbed silently instead of billed
- • Nothing presentable when the owner asks where the money went
With SpecNook
- Budget vs actual per cost category, live
- Issued POs counted as committed money before the bill arrives
- Approved change orders surfaced next to the budget
- Selection overages caught and totaled automatically
- Sub contracts and payments rolled into the projection
- A present-to-owner PDF when it's time to show your work
How SpecNook tracks job costs
One page per project: the budget baseline, what you've spent, what you've committed, and where it's heading.
Budget vs Actual by Category
Set an original budget per cost category. Every expense lands in its category, and each row shows spent against budgeted with the variance - over in red, under in green.
Committed Costs
Issued purchase orders count as committed money before the bill arrives. Each category shows a projected total (spent plus committed), so you see a blown budget coming instead of discovering it.
Change Orders and Overages
Approved change orders and selection-allowance overages are totaled at the project level and shown alongside the budget - never smeared across categories they don't belong to.
Subcontractor Costs
Track sub contracts and payments per project, and flip a toggle to fold committed sub costs into the projection. Subcontractor cost tracking is included on Pro and up.
Draw Schedules
Set a deposit and progress draws against the contract value, then track which draws have been paid as the job moves. The money coming in stays visible next to the money going out.
Variance You Can Act On
Two numbers per category: variance (spent vs budgeted) and projected variance (where it lands once committed costs arrive). The second one is the early warning.
The full Job Cost workbench
On the Enterprise plan ($199/mo), the Job Cost page becomes a complete cost workbench. The Solo plan includes a sample version: manual expenses and original budgets.
Home Depot Expense Import
Import your Home Depot purchase history and land each purchase in the right cost category - no retyping receipts. A cost catalog keeps your categories consistent across projects.
True-Up Against QuickBooks
Reconcile what Job Cost says you spent against the invoices in QuickBooks, so your project numbers and your books tell the same story.
Present-to-Owner PDF
Generate an owner-ready cost report: the budget, what changed, what was spent, and where it landed. Walk into the closing conversation with the numbers already organized.
Job costing in 3 steps
Set the baseline
Enter the contract value and allocate an original budget to each cost category. That baseline is what every later number is measured against - it never silently moves.
Capture costs as they happen
Log expenses into their categories, issue POs so committed money is visible, record sub contracts and payments, and let approved change orders and allowance overages surface automatically.
Watch the variance and present
Check the per-category variance and projection while you can still steer the job. At the end, true up against QuickBooks and hand the owner a clean PDF of where every dollar went.
Frequently asked questions about job costing software
What is construction job costing software?
Construction job costing software tracks what a project actually costs against what you budgeted, broken down by cost category - framing, plumbing, finishes, and so on. Instead of finding out at the end of the job whether you made money, you see per-category variance while the job is running, when you can still do something about it.
How does SpecNook track budget vs actual?
You set the contract value and allocate an original budget per cost category. As expenses come in, each one lands in its category, and SpecNook shows spent vs budgeted with the variance for every category - over in red, under in green. Change orders and selection-allowance overages are surfaced at the project level alongside the budget, so the headline number reflects the whole job.
What counts as a committed cost?
A purchase order you have issued but not yet received. SpecNook carries committed costs separately from expenses, because money you owe is not the same as money gone - and adds them into each category's projected total. That projection answers the question variance alone can't: a category can be under on spend and already over on commitment. Draft POs are never counted, so you don't see overspend that hasn't happened.
Do change orders and allowance overages affect the budget?
Yes. Approved change orders and selection-allowance overages (when a client picks above their allowance) are totaled at the project level and shown alongside the budget baseline. They are kept separate from the per-category rows rather than being smeared across categories, so every number on the page traces back to something real.
Which plan includes job costing?
Every Solo plan ($19.99/mo) includes a sample Job Cost page: add expenses manually and set original budgets per category. The full Job Cost workbench - Home Depot import, cost catalog, True-Up against QuickBooks invoices, the present-to-owner PDF, and projection toggles - is on the Enterprise plan at $199/mo. Subcontractor cost tracking, which feeds sub payments into your job costs, starts on Pro at $79/mo.
Is there a free trial?
Yes. SpecNook has a 10-day free trial of every Pro feature. Add a card at signup - cancel before day 10 and you won't be charged. The full Job Cost workbench is an Enterprise feature, so it isn't part of the Pro trial - but the Solo plan's sample Job Cost page stays available throughout your trial, and the trial covers Pro features like subcontractor cost tracking and QuickBooks.
Where the costs come from
QuickBooks Integration
Import customers and projects, sync invoices hourly, and true up job costs against your books.
Change Order Software
Document scope changes with line items and signatures - the change orders that feed your budget.
Subcontractor Management
Sub contracts, payments, and lien waivers - the sub costs that roll into your projection.
Stop guessing at your margins
See budget vs actual by category while the job is running - not after it's too late to matter.
Start your free trialSample Job Cost page on every plan from $19.99/mo; full workbench on Enterprise at $199/mo. 10-day free trial of every Pro feature. Add a card at signup - cancel before day 10 and you won't be charged.