This report shows you what the expected cost is to complete a job, and how far you are over or under your estimate. You might want to run this report every week or two to keep a close eye on your expenses. Then if you start heading above your estimated cost, you can take action quickly to reduce the cost before it's too late.

For each item of a job, the report shows your estimated cost, the percentage complete, and the actual cost to date. From these numbers, QuickBooks calculates and displays the cost to complete the item (that is, the estimated remaining cost), the expected actual cost (the actual cost to date plus the estimated cost to complete), and the amount over or under the estimate. The amounts for all the items are subtotaled by item type, and then totaled for the job.

In order for QuickBooks to calculate the cost to complete and the expected actual cost, you need to have entered at least a summary estimate into QuickBooks, and you need to tell QuickBooks how far along you are on the items that appear on that estimate. When you run this report, QuickBooks first displays the Update Item Percent Complete window, which you use to indicate how complete each item of the job is. (Only items that appear on the estimate are shown.) Enter a percentage for each item, indicating how close the item is to completion. See updating item percent complete for more information. If you don't enter a percent complete for an item, QuickBooks assumes the item is 0% complete.

The "% Complete" column is always defined as how complete the item is in total. If you change the Columns drop-down list to something other than "Total only," this column will not change.

This report shows details about each item of a job. If you'd prefer to see a summary of all your jobs, without the item level detail, use the Cost to Complete by Job Summary report.

To create this report

From the Reports menu, choose Contractor and then Cost to Complete by Job Detail.

From the Reports menu, choose Project Costing and then Cost to Complete by Job Detail.

From the Reports menu, choose Industry Specific, then Contractor, and then Cost to Complete by Job Detail.

Related topics

• Getting the most out of a report

• Memorizing a report for reuse