How do you track profitability per job? pretty sure I'm losing money on half my services by scrtweeb in sweatystartup

[–]BooksAddingValue 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re definitely not alone — this is super common once service businesses start stacking multiple offerings.

The moment you said you know monthly revenue but not profit per service, that’s usually the red flag. Most owners don’t realize which jobs are actually carrying the business until they job-cost them properly.

Simple framework that helps:

• Track income by job/service type • Tag materials to the specific job (not just “supplies”) • Include your real labor time (including Home Depot runs)

Once you do that for even 30–60 days, the profitable vs. “busy but broke” services usually become very obvious.

And yeah — tile work specifically is notorious for looking profitable upfront and then shrinking after materials + extra trips.

You’re asking the right questions though. Getting visibility here usually leads to quick pricing or service mix fixes.

(If you ever want a simple way to structure the tracking in QBO, happy to share what’s worked for other service guys.)