Job costing and financial control for civil contractors

Civil Job Tracker gives Australian civil contractors a single commercial control system to replace fragmented spreadsheet workflows — without the complexity of enterprise ERP.

Civil Job Tracker · Commercial Position

Active Jobs

7

Committed Cost

$4.2M

Claimed to Date

$3.1M

Avg Margin

8.6%

Westgate Rd Upgrade
$1.8M8.4%
Hume Hwy Interchange
$2.4M11.2%
Port Melbourne Drain
$0.9M6.9%

Built for civil contractors who need tighter commercial control across live jobs

Multiple live jobsHeavy spreadsheet dependenceXero in the back officePM-led commercial workflowsDirector-level margin visibility needed

Why commercial control matters financially

The cost of poor visibility is rarely visible until it's too late.

Missed variations are lost revenue

Every uninstructed scope change that is not captured as a variation is margin you never recover. On a $2M job, that adds up fast.

Lack of visibility creates margin leakage

When directors cannot see committed cost, EAC and rate to complete in real time, the first sign of a problem is often the final account.

Delayed reporting creates decision risk

Month-end reporting from spreadsheets means you are always looking backwards. Civil Job Tracker gives you a current commercial position, not a historical one.

01

Fast enough for PMs. Strong enough for directors.

Civil Job Tracker is a single commercial control system that preserves the speed your team needs while giving management better visibility, cleaner approvals and stronger financial control — replacing fragmented spreadsheet workflows entirely.

For PMs and site teams

  • Fast entry — familiar spreadsheet-style speed
  • Familiar logic — rows, columns, build-ups
  • Variation build-ups that work like Excel
  • One place for all commercial workflow

For directors and management

  • Margin visibility across all jobs
  • Overhead control and allocation
  • Company P&L on cash and accrual views
  • Cashflow forecasting and committed cost

Job Costing

Track jobs the way civil work is actually measured

Cost codes, parent/child hierarchy, cost to date, committed cost, EAC and rate to complete — structured around real civil job commercial management, not generic project accounting.

  • Cost code hierarchy
  • EAC and rate to complete
  • Committed vs actual vs pending
  • Multi-job visibility
Cost Summary — Stage 1 Works
Cost CodeBudgetCommittedActualEAC
100Earthworks$280k$270k$195k$270k
200Drainage$155k$160k$88k$162k
300Pavement$395k$390k$200k$390k
400Structures$110k$107k$44k$109k
500Services$88k$85k$31k$87k
Margin: 8.4%EAC vs Budget: -$2,000Committed: 94%

Site Diary

Daily production records that feed commercial visibility

Record daily labour, plant, materials and site activity in a spreadsheet-style entry table. Diary entries connect directly to job costs, not a disconnected notes system.

  • Spreadsheet-style fast entry
  • Catch-up cost workflow
  • Links to job costing
  • Mobile-ready
Site Diary — 7 Apr 2026
ResourceTypeHoursRateCost
Excavator 20TPlant8.0h$150/h$1,200
Tipper Truck × 2Plant7.0h$90/h$1,260
Operators × 3Labour8.0h$65/h$1,560
Concrete SupplyMaterials$4,800
Daily total: $8,820

Purchase Orders

The three PO types civil contracts actually use

Fixed price, rate-only and lump sum POs — because civil contracts involve open quantities and you need the system to reflect how real commitments work on site.

  • Fixed
  • Rate-only
  • Lump sum
  • Committed cost tracking
  • Connected to job costing
Purchase Orders — Project Beta
PO-0041·Plant Hire Co.
Lump Sum$48,000Active
PO-0042·Civil Works Co.
Rate Only$12.00/m³Open
PO-0043·Materials Co.
Fixed$28,000Pending
Committed this month: $88,0003 POs awaiting approval

Progress Claims

Claims generated from the contract structure

Generate progress claims directly from the contract schedule, with full visibility of previous claims, current certified position and retention.

  • Contract-linked claims
  • Retention tracking
  • Practical completion
  • Defects liability
Progress Claim #4 — Project Alpha
Contract Value$1,240,000
Previously Claimed$618,000 (49.8%)
This Claim$186,000 (15.0%)
Retention Held (5%)$9,300
Net This Claim$176,700
Submitted · 3 Apr 2026

Variations

Variation build-ups that work more like Excel

Build variations with a fast, familiar layout — internal cost build-up separate from client-facing claim. No fighting the software to do what Excel already does naturally.

  • Excel-style UX
  • Internal vs client-facing
  • Variation status tracking
  • Contract impact
Variations — Northern Contract
VO-014·Additional excavation
Pending
Internal: $18,000Client: $24,000
VO-015·Boundary adjustment
Approved
Internal: $6,000Client: $8,000
VO-016·Scope revision
Draft
Internal: $31,000Client: $40,000

Total pending variations: $72,000 (client value)

Contract Schedule

Import your BOQ and keep scope visible

Import contract schedules, manage provisional items, track instructed scope and keep budget impact visible across the life of the job.

  • BOQ import
  • Provisional items
  • Contract vs instructed
  • Scope control
Contract Schedule — Stage 1 Works
ItemDescriptionQtyRateContractInstructed
1.1Cut to fill14,000m³$18/m³$252,000$252,000
1.2Import fill3,800m³$24/m³$91,200$104,000
1.3Topsoil strip8,500m²$4/m²$34,000$34,000
PS-1Provisional sum1 item$45,000$28,000

Xero Integration

Keep accounting connected without overloading Xero

OAuth-connected Xero integration — invoices, bills and reconciliation flow without making Xero do the job of an operational control system.

  • OAuth connection
  • Invoice sync
  • Webhook-driven
  • Two-way visibility
Xero · Connected
Connected· Last sync: 2 minutes ago
Invoice INV-0284
$18,000Synced
Bill BILL-0091
$6,200Matched
Invoice INV-0285
$24,000Awaiting approval

14 invoices synced this month

Financial Control

Company-level visibility beyond the job

Three-layer cashflow (Baseline, Live, Actual), period locking, overhead allocation, and company P&L on both cash and accrual views — so directors see what the business is actually making.

  • 3-layer cashflow
  • Period locking
  • Overheads module
  • Cash and accrual P&L
Cashflow — Q2 2026
AprMayJunTotal
Baseline$185k$210k$195k$590k
Live$192k$215k$200k$607k
Actual$188k$188k
Period locked · Mar 2026

Mobile

Built for site use, not just desktop review

The site diary works on mobile — so site teams can record daily activity from the field without waiting to get back to a desk.

Site Diary · Mobile

Tuesday 7 April 2026

Fine conditions · Full crew

Excavator 20T

8.0 hrs

Labour × 4

8.0 hrs

Concrete pour — Zone C

Spreadsheets are fast — until they become expensive

Why spreadsheets persist

Spreadsheets stay popular because they are flexible and familiar. But as a contractor grows, they also create version control problems, delayed reporting, weak approval structure and too much reliance on individual people.

What Civil Job Tracker replaces

Civil Job Tracker is not an add-on — it is a replacement for how the commercial side of the business runs. It keeps the speed and familiarity of spreadsheets while providing a single source of truth for cost, margin and commercial position.

The gap where most contractors lose control

Most projects aren't lost because of one major mistake — they're lost through small gaps in visibility, delayed information, and disconnected workflows.

Spreadsheets can't keep up. Enterprise systems don't reflect how work actually happens on site.

The result is the same: late decisions, missed variations, and margin slipping through the cracks.

FlowPilot is built to close that gap.

See whether Civil Job Tracker fits your business