Available in Sage 50 Premium Accounting and higher.
Cost Codes
A cost code identifies a specific cost (or category/task) within a phase and provides a greater level of detail for the job. By using cost codes, you can identify and record each specific cost within a phase.
You should create cost codes that can apply to most of your phases and multiple jobs (such as "materials", "labor", and "equipment.") In this way, you can easily track your job costs by keeping the number of different cost codes to a minimum. The best way to identify which cost codes to set up would be to consider what resources are that you use for completing a job whose cost affects your budget.
Example for a landscaping company
The company might break down its jobs to three different phases:
- grading
- planting
- maintenance.
For each of these phases, there are different costs:
- labor
- materials
- equipment rentals and use
- subcontracted labor
- overhead
These different costs would be set up as cost codes in Sage 50. Then, when you are billed for equipment costs associated with grading, you would select the particular Job, the grading Phase, and then the equipment Cost Code. In this way, you can track your exact equipment costs for a particular job.
Example for a catering company
Phases might be:
- food preparation
- service
- clean up.
Cost Codes might be
- Food
- Beverages
- Alcohol
- Linen
- Tableware
- Truck Driver
- Decorator
These Cost Codes include materials, labor, equipment, and so on.