Equipment costs, coded to the job
Rentals, fuel, and repairs are captured against the job and cost code they served, tagged as the equipment cost type - so the job-cost report shows what machinery really cost each job.
Why equipment cost gets lost
Equipment cost is easy to bury in overhead. A rental invoice, a fuel card charge, or a repair bill often posts to a general expense account and never reaches the job that used the machine. When that happens, jobs that lean on equipment look more profitable than they are, and equipment-heavy bids get underpriced.
- Rental invoices should hit the job the equipment worked on.
- Fuel and repair costs belong to the jobs that consumed them.
- Equipment is a distinct cost type, so its share of a job is visible.
How Fintra captures equipment cost
- Code equipment bills and expenses to a job and an equipment cost code.
- The equipment cost type keeps machinery cost separate from labor and material.
- Equipment cost rolls into the job-cost report and the estimate at completion.
- Committed equipment rentals can be tracked as commitments until invoiced.
What this is - and isn’t
Why it changes your bids
When equipment cost is job-costed, you learn which types of work truly need heavy machinery and what it costs, so your next estimate reflects reality. Equipment cost hidden in overhead does the opposite - it makes equipment-heavy jobs look cheap and skews your bidding.
Frequently asked questions
How do you track equipment costs in construction?
By coding equipment-related costs - rentals, fuel, and repairs - to the specific job and cost code they served, rather than to general overhead. Fintra uses a distinct equipment cost type so machinery cost rolls up per job alongside labor, material, and subcontract costs.
Does Fintra allocate owned-equipment usage by hours?
Not today. Fintra captures the actual equipment costs you incur - rental invoices, fuel, repairs - against jobs and cost codes. It does not yet compute internal equipment rental rates or allocate owned-equipment usage by machine-hours, so the numbers reflect real spend rather than a synthetic internal charge.
Why should equipment costs hit the job?
Because equipment left in overhead makes equipment-heavy jobs look more profitable than they are and leads to underpriced bids. Job-costing equipment reveals the true cost of machinery on each project and improves future estimating.
Can I track committed equipment rentals?
Yes. A rental agreement can be recorded as a commitment against a job and cost code, so the open committed cost is visible before the rental invoices post, just like any purchase order or subcontract.
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Stop hiding equipment in overhead
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