What this guide helps you decide
Use this guide to find why a job's hours, cost, price, or margin moved—and to decide which assumptions deserve changing before the next quote.
Start with the Estimate vs Actual Profit Calculator, then review time, material, disposal, hauling, change work, and revenue in matching categories.
Close every job
Collect paid hours, hour-meter time, receipts, dump tickets, subcontractors, callbacks, and change work.
Classify the variance
Separate estimating errors, execution problems, customer changes, unknown conditions, and deliberate goodwill.
Protect the next quote
Update production, access, mobilization, material, or risk assumptions only when the evidence is repeatable.
Review effective revenue
A profitable total can still hide weak hourly recovery if the job consumed an outsized schedule slot.
Keep scope notes
Clear inclusions, exclusions, allowances, and change triggers reduce the chance of repeating preventable losses.
Put this guide to work
Close the estimate and actual in the same categories: paid hours, meter hours, travel, material, hauling, disposal, subcontractors, rework, change work, and final revenue. A variance is useful only when both sides use the same units and scope.
Classify each variance as estimating, execution, customer change, unknown condition, or deliberate concession. Change a default only when the cause is understood and repeatable; keep one-off surprises in the risk notes instead of burying them in a production rate.
Preserve the original estimate
Keep the accepted estimate unchanged and record approved changes separately. Compare the original scope with the original actual, then review change work on its own. Rewriting the estimate after the job hides the information needed to improve production assumptions, minimums, allowances, exclusions, and the process for documenting customer-requested work.
Worked estimate-versus-actual example
An original estimate carries $8,500 of revenue and $6,000 of cost, for $2,500 expected profit and a 29.4% expected margin. The completed job has $8,900 of final revenue because $400 of change work was approved, but actual cost reaches $6,900. Actual profit is $2,000 and actual margin is 22.5%.
Do not describe the entire change as a $500 profit miss. Separate the $400 approved revenue change from the $900 cost variance, then locate that cost variance by category. If $650 came from additional paid hours and $250 from disposal, the next action is clearer than simply raising every price. Use the estimate vs actual calculator to keep the arithmetic consistent.
Closeout checklist that improves the next estimate
- Freeze the accepted estimate and list each approved change separately.
- Match estimated and actual labor, machine, material, hauling, disposal, subcontractor, and revenue units.
- Assign a cause to each material variance: estimate, execution, customer change, unknown condition, or concession.
- Update a production default only when the work type, units, machine, crew, and conditions are comparable.
- Recalculate markup and margin with the markup vs margin calculator after all revenue and cost are recorded.
Source note: Use the signed scope, approved change records, timecards, meter logs, supplier invoices, scale or dump tickets, payment records, and closeout photos. The pricing checklist helps carry the resulting evidence into the next customer-ready quote.
Job closeout questions
Which variance should I review first?
Separate approved scope changes from the original estimate first. Then review paid time, production, material or disposal quantities, and unbilled work in dollar order.
When should the review be completed?
Close each job as soon as final time, tickets, invoices, approved changes, and revenue are available. Review repeated production and cost patterns at least quarterly before changing standard assumptions.
Should one poor job reset the estimating defaults?
Usually not. Identify whether the cause is repeatable and whether the machine, crew, units, scope, and conditions match future work. Keep one-off events in the risk record.
Turn production variance into a better default
Compare the estimated and observed cycle assumptions with the production and unit-cost calculator. Change a default only when the unit and field conditions are comparable.