Job management: how to do it in your company, step by step
Managing a job means following a piece of work for a client from quote to delivery, keeping time, hours and costs under control. The point is to know at every moment where you stand and whether you are making money, not to find out at the end. A clear plan, logged hours and regular checks are enough.
The stages of a job
- Quote: you estimate tasks, hours and price.
- Kick-off: you confirm objectives, owner and dates with the client.
- Planning: you split the work into tasks with deadlines and assignees.
- Execution: the team works and logs hours.
- Control: you compare hours and dates with the plan.
- Closing: you deliver, invoice and work out the result.
What to keep under control
- Planned and logged hours, item by item.
- Deadlines and deliveries: what is late and by how much.
- External costs: suppliers, licences, travel.
- Changes requested by the client: how much they affect time and price.
- Margin: what is left after costs.
To do the maths, read how to calculate job margin.
Managing jobs in Excel
Excel is fine with few jobs: one row per job with client, owner, amount, planned hours, hours used and status. To see the plan over time you can use our Gantt chart template.
The file starts to weigh you down when the jobs are many: hours arrive late, data sits in different files and the status has to be rebuilt by hand before every meeting.
How Klokka and Projekta help
Klokka logs hours on every job and shows project hours and margin. We are also preparing Projekta, Kamzan’s project management software, to follow plans, deliveries and job hour budgets.
Alex