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This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. Here are the rules for the weekend posts. Book recommendation of the week: Rental House, by Weike Wang. After the daughter of Chinese immigrants and the son of a white, working class family marry, they grapple with their relationship with each other and both sets of parents over the course of a summer vacation. (Amazon, Bookshop) * I earn a commission if you use those links. View the full article

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Joel Kurtzman on leadership: “The leader is not separate from the group he or she leads. Rather, the leader is the organization’s glue—the force that binds it together, sets its direction, and makes certain that the group functions as one. Good leaders are not outsiders who cheer on a group. They are part of that group, integrated deeply into its fabric and emotional life. Connecting with the group you lead means demonstrating you are part of the group, understand its challenges, can do its jobs, and can stand the pressure and the heat.” Source: Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve the Extraordinary II. Greg Satell on identifying a keystone change: “To create real change, change that sticks and won’t be soon reversed, you need to identify a fundamental issue that encapsulates the value of the mission—a keystone change that is concrete and tangible, unites the efforts of multiple stakeholders, and paves the way for greater change. Revolutions don’t begin with a slogan—they begin with a cause. “It is never enough to merely state grievances to challenge the status quo. To create meaningful change, you must put forward an affirmative vision for what you want the future to look like. You have to define an alternative that is actually better, not just for those who agree with you, but for the vast majority of those who will be affected by the change you seek.” Source: Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change * * * Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. * * * Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas. View the full article

Key differences between the current and proposed rules. By CPA Trendlines Research> Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

Key differences between the current and proposed rules. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

Your partners will apply their expertise to generate insights and advice that your clients will value more. By Hitendra Patil Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Hitendra Patil. View the full article

Your partners will apply their expertise to generate insights and advice that your clients will value more. By Hitendra Patil Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Hitendra Patil. View the full article

Running reports is a tiresome, repetitive task. Pulling data, formatting it, and syncing everything in one single Excel file takes time. Even when the tools we use have their own reporting systems, formal reports are typically submitted in a different format. Thankfully, if you work with Salesforce, there are easy ways to pull reports and sync data. While Salesforce has a built-in system for downloading reports, Unito can help amp up your process. Keep reading to learn more about how to export a Salesforce report to Excel, and how to create automatic syncs between both tools. First method: export a Salesforce report to Excel manually Knowing how to export a Salesforce report to Excel is simple, but before you get started you need to ensure you have the correct user permissions. Check with your administrator and have them enable “Export Reports” for your Salesforce account. Once your permissions are set, you can follow these simple steps to export Salesforce reports to Excel automatically: Step 1: From the “Sales Console” page, click the drop-down icon and select “Reports.” On this page, you’ll see a list of all active and available reports. Each report will be listed as an individual line item. Step 2: On the far-right side of each line, you’ll see another drop-down icon. Click on this icon for the report you want to export, and then select “Export.” Here, you can pick between a Formatted Report or a Details Only Report: Formatted reports will include headers, groupings, and filter settings, and can only be exported as .xlsx files. Details only reports will have no formatting and can be exported as .xls, .xlsx, or .csv files. This is helpful if you plan on manipulating data later in Excel using custom formulas, or want to use the data to create charts, graphs, or pivot tables. Step 3: Once you select the type of report you want, click the blue “Export” button in the bottom right-hand corner. There you go — in three simple steps you can export Salesforce data to Excel automatically! Limitations of this method While exporting reports from Salesforce to Excel is simple, there are some limitations to this built-in method. It’s a manual task: This method requires someone to manually export the reports from Salesforce every single time. This will eat up a lot of precious time and resources for that person. Data may be out of date: After exporting a Salesforce report to Excel, the data stays as-is. Since it’s being exported manually, it won’t update, and you won’t be able to tell if you have the most recent information. If you’ve spent all week putting together a report and then need to make a last-minute change, you’ll need to do another manual update to get the latest data. There’s no automation with this method, which can be inconvenient. Human error: Every manual task runs the risk of human error. You might export the wrong report and then have to start over, or accidentally format the data incorrectly once it’s in Excel. Security: Data recorded in Salesforce is secure, but exported data in an Excel spreadsheet loses that protection. You’ll need to ensure any sensitive information is kept secure. “Some other tools we looked at were kind of crazy when it came to pricing. Another big thing for us is 2-way sync for our Salesforce instance. Most of those options only offer directional sync and Unito is bidirectional, which is what we really needed. Plus they offered the best pricing for us at this stage.” – Anel Behric, IT Manager, Cloudwerx Read the Case Study Second method: export a Salesforce report to Excel automatically with Unito While Salesforce offers its built-in method mentioned above, Unito boasts powerful integrations that will keep all your Salesforce objects (custom and standard) updated with real-time, 2-way updates for your whole team. All you need to do to get started is set up a new workflow in Unito. Here’s how: Step 1: Sign in to your Unito account (or sign up if you don’t have one yet!). Step 2: On the dashboard click + Create flow and then select the blue “Start here” button. Step 3: Select the tools you want to sync. Then, click Add a tool to this flow and search for Salesforce. Then, connect your Salesforce account to Unito and choose an object type to sync. Step 4: Follow the same steps for Excel (or another tool). When you’re setting up your workflow, you can also pick a 1-way flow (creating Salesforce objects based on Excel rows or adding Excel rows linked to Salesforce objects) or 2-way flow (to create and sync data from Salesforce to Excel, and Excel back to Salesforce) depending on your needs. There are also more advanced options for custom rules and individual fields that can be synced, as well as field mappings and additional configurations. Step 5: Once everything is selected, click on the blue Confirm button in the bottom right-hand corner. Setting up a new workflow is straightforward and simple – anyone can do it! Unito also offers support if you run into any issues. Why Unito is the best solution Over 50,000 users across the globe have chosen Unito to help them keep work synced between teams. Here are some of the reasons why people love it: Automatic updates: Say goodbye to manually pulling reports and synchronizing data – Unito will automatically update exported data from Salesforce for you! And with proper formatting in Excel, you can turn raw data into detailed reports for any kind of reporting. Configuration: You can configure each Unito flow to fit your specific needs. You can pair Excel and Salesforce and integrate with other tools such as ServiceNow, monday.com, Wrike, and more. If you prefer Google Sheets over Excel, Unito can help you integrate that with Salesforce too. Historical data flows: Want historical data included in your integrations? No problem! When setting up your workflow you can indicate how much, or how little, data to sync. 2-way sync: Data can easily flow from Salesforce to Excel and vice versa. Gone are the days of updating multiple tools with the same change — Unito will do this boring work for you. Sign up for free: If you’re still not convinced, you can sign up for a 14-day free trial to test out Unito and see if it’s the right fit. You can learn more about Unito’s two-way integration for Salesforce here. Want to know more? Find out more about what Unito's Salesforce-Excel integration can do. Learn more How to install the Unito add-in for Excel To start using Unito to pull data from Excel, you can either get the Unito add-in for Excel in your browser or follow these steps: Step 1: At the top of Excel, click “File” and then select “Get Add-ins.” Step 2: In the search bar, type “Unito” and hit enter. “Unito for Excel” will come up in the results. Step 3: Click “Add” and then continue to accept the terms and conditions. Now the add-in will appear on the right-hand side of your workbook to use. More information on how to use the Unito Excel add-in can be found here. Looking for other ways to integrate Salesforce? Here are some of our other in-depth guides to integrating Salesforce with other tools using Unito: Syncing Salesforce and monday.com Integrating Salesforce with Trello Syncing Wrike and Salesforce Integrating Salesforce and Google Sheets FAQ: Export a Salesforce report to Excel Can you export a report from Salesforce to Excel? Yes, you can export Salesforce reports to Excel in one of two ways: Using Salesforce’s built-in exporter, which allows you to export reports in .xls, .xlsx, and .csv formats. These can then be opened and managed in Excel. Note that with this method, reports will quickly become outdated. Using Unito’s 2-way sync integration, which will automatically create rows in an Excel spreadsheet to match work items in Salesforce. It will also update everything in Salesforce and Excel automatically as you work. How do I get data from Salesforce to Excel? When exporting data from Salesforce reports to Excel, you can use one of the following methods: Salesforce’s built-in exporter: As long as you have the right user permissions, you can use built-in features to export Salesforce reports as files you can open in Excel. Automation tools: Platforms like Zapier and Mulesoft allow you to set up automations that push data from Salesforce to Excel as you create new work items. You can also set up automations that update simple fields, but you’ll still have to do most of the updating manually unless you spend extra time setting up complex automation chains. 2-way sync platforms: Tools like Unito create two-way relationships between work items in Salesforce and rows in Excel spreadsheets. That keeps your reports automatically updated in both tools without any extra manual work. Can you automatically export a Salesforce report to Excel? While Salesforce allows you to export Salesforce reports to Excel, you have to do this manually. If you want to automate this, you’ll need to use third-party tools. Platforms like Zapier and Mulesoft allow you to automatically push Salesforce data to Excel with a scheduled export, but they won’t keep that data up to date. A 2-way sync platform like Unito will both automatically export Salesforce reports and keep them up to date. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on any work-related questions that you want to talk about (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to take your questions to other readers. * If you submitted a question to me recently, please do not repost it here, as it may be in my queue to answer. View the full article

Discover why intentionality and clarity are key traits for successful leaders. Gear Up for Growth With Jean Caragher For CPA Trendlines Go PRO for members-only access to more Jean Marie Caragher. View the full article

Discover why intentionality and clarity are key traits for successful leaders. Gear Up for Growth With Jean Caragher For CPA Trendlines Go PRO for members-only access to more Jean Marie Caragher. View the full article

This article is posted with permission from our partner MacPaw. MacPaw makes Mac + iOS apps that have been installed on over 30 million devices worldwide. Freelancers Union members receive 30 days of free unlimited access to CleanMyMacX and Setapp: https://freelancersunion.org/resources/perks/macpaw/ What’s really important in the freelance writing world is developing a unique writing style and improving as a professional. Refining your writing in a competitive industry helps you become truly unique in your craft so you stand out among the thousands of writers you’re up against. Now, a unique writing style and improving as a writer can help you compete for traffic, rankings, and views. That’s why trying different tools to refine this is important. But it’s also important because it’ll help you bring value to your client’s writing orders. So, how can you refine your writing style? What is writing style?But first off, what is writing style? It really refers to the word choice, the voice you adopt throughout the piece, and the way the writing appears to your readers. A few examples of writing styles exist, as stated by the University of Rhode Island, and these can include persuasive, expository, and descriptive. Using a few strategies and tips can help you get the writing style spot on and ensure it meets style guide expectations. If you’re looking for a shortcut, you can also use apps, as you’ll soon see! 3 strategies and apps to develop a unique writing styleNow, we can break down the tips into three specific strategies, which include generating creative ideas and creative writing styles, making complex texts accessible, and ensuring the text is logical and flows well. These tips are easy to execute when you have apps to include in the writing process. And I’ve tried a few of the important apps out for you. So, let’s look at the three strategies and apps that can help. Generating creative ideas and writing stylesIf you want to be particularly creative with your blog posts, landing pages, case studies, and other writing projects, you will need creative ideas. Unfortunately, ideas need to come from somewhere and be organized, so one strategy you might consider is mind mapping. It’s a tip for organizing disorganized thoughts so that all your creative ideas translate well on the page. And it reflects well in a compelling writing style that also shows off your creative flair. Now, tools can make mind mapping easier, ensuring your notes and creative ideas are easier to organize, link together, and easier to expand on. This is why you need to try the Muse app when generating creative ideas and organizing your thoughts. The Muse app allows you to sketch, highlight, make notes, embed images, and much more. It’s intuitive and ideal for bringing clarity to disconnected ideas. You can use it to develop a unique writing style when communicating with clients in a client outreach project as a freelance writer. Writing complex texts with easeTechnical writing can be quite challenging, can’t it? It requires a means to convey complex ideas in the right writing style and accompany this with quite a few citations, references, statistics, and so on. This type of text isn’t always easy to produce. But a tip to ensure you get the writing style correct is to keep all the citations, footnotes, and references organized. When you include them in the text, the statistics and complex ideas are conveyed correctly, are in the right places, and the technical writing style shines through. You can achieve this with the help of MonsterWriter and its range of features. This app enables you to write whatever document, essay, or notes you want. Producing a logical structure and flowPart of developing a unique writing style that aligns with the type of work you’re creating is to produce a logical structure beforehand. A tip for achieving this is to create an outline in a list form that describes each section you want to include as well as a range of notes that you’ll want to keep organized. Getting that logical structure perfect by using a plan and notes can help with technical writing and persuasive writing because it ensures all the points flow and nothing feels ‘out of place.’ And for this structure and flow planning process, try to incorporate the Craft app into your work. Now, Craft lets you write documents without much effort, but where it really shines is with its range of other features that can organize thoughts and help you achieve a logical flow. Develop your unique writing style with tips and appsA unique writing style can help you produce content that resonates with your audience and satisfies your clients — that’s why it’s important to strive for this in your freelance writing work. This doesn’t need to be an impossible task; the apps and tips discussed can help you. So, the only thing left to mention is where you can get these apps. Setapp is home to all of these apps, along with many more. Go straight to Setapp to find them. Use them in a seven-day free trial to get an understanding of how they work and develop a unique writing style as a freelancer with fewer challenges. View the full article

This article is posted with permission from our partner MacPaw. MacPaw makes Mac + iOS apps that have been installed on over 30 million devices worldwide. Freelancers Union members receive 30 days of free unlimited access to CleanMyMacX and Setapp: https://freelancersunion.org/resources/perks/macpaw/ What’s really important in the freelance writing world is developing a unique writing style and improving as a professional. Refining your writing in a competitive industry helps you become truly unique in your craft so you stand out among the thousands of writers you’re up against. Now, a unique writing style and improving as a writer can help you compete for traffic, rankings, and views. That’s why trying different tools to refine this is important. But it’s also important because it’ll help you bring value to your client’s writing orders. So, how can you refine your writing style? What is writing style?But first off, what is writing style? It really refers to the word choice, the voice you adopt throughout the piece, and the way the writing appears to your readers. A few examples of writing styles exist, as stated by the University of Rhode Island, and these can include persuasive, expository, and descriptive. Using a few strategies and tips can help you get the writing style spot on and ensure it meets style guide expectations. If you’re looking for a shortcut, you can also use apps, as you’ll soon see! 3 strategies and apps to develop a unique writing styleNow, we can break down the tips into three specific strategies, which include generating creative ideas and creative writing styles, making complex texts accessible, and ensuring the text is logical and flows well. These tips are easy to execute when you have apps to include in the writing process. And I’ve tried a few of the important apps out for you. So, let’s look at the three strategies and apps that can help. Generating creative ideas and writing stylesIf you want to be particularly creative with your blog posts, landing pages, case studies, and other writing projects, you will need creative ideas. Unfortunately, ideas need to come from somewhere and be organized, so one strategy you might consider is mind mapping. It’s a tip for organizing disorganized thoughts so that all your creative ideas translate well on the page. And it reflects well in a compelling writing style that also shows off your creative flair. Now, tools can make mind mapping easier, ensuring your notes and creative ideas are easier to organize, link together, and easier to expand on. This is why you need to try the Muse app when generating creative ideas and organizing your thoughts. The Muse app allows you to sketch, highlight, make notes, embed images, and much more. It’s intuitive and ideal for bringing clarity to disconnected ideas. You can use it to develop a unique writing style when communicating with clients in a client outreach project as a freelance writer. Writing complex texts with easeTechnical writing can be quite challenging, can’t it? It requires a means to convey complex ideas in the right writing style and accompany this with quite a few citations, references, statistics, and so on. This type of text isn’t always easy to produce. But a tip to ensure you get the writing style correct is to keep all the citations, footnotes, and references organized. When you include them in the text, the statistics and complex ideas are conveyed correctly, are in the right places, and the technical writing style shines through. You can achieve this with the help of MonsterWriter and its range of features. This app enables you to write whatever document, essay, or notes you want. Producing a logical structure and flowPart of developing a unique writing style that aligns with the type of work you’re creating is to produce a logical structure beforehand. A tip for achieving this is to create an outline in a list form that describes each section you want to include as well as a range of notes that you’ll want to keep organized. Getting that logical structure perfect by using a plan and notes can help with technical writing and persuasive writing because it ensures all the points flow and nothing feels ‘out of place.’ And for this structure and flow planning process, try to incorporate the Craft app into your work. Now, Craft lets you write documents without much effort, but where it really shines is with its range of other features that can organize thoughts and help you achieve a logical flow. Develop your unique writing style with tips and appsA unique writing style can help you produce content that resonates with your audience and satisfies your clients — that’s why it’s important to strive for this in your freelance writing work. This doesn’t need to be an impossible task; the apps and tips discussed can help you. So, the only thing left to mention is where you can get these apps. Setapp is home to all of these apps, along with many more. Go straight to Setapp to find them. Use them in a seven-day free trial to get an understanding of how they work and develop a unique writing style as a freelancer with fewer challenges. View the full article

And, unfortunately, the problems don’t end there—ChatGPT also serves up middle-of-the-road content, and charges you a fair whack for the privilege. Can you get the same (or better) functionality from a different AI tool? I think so. I am currently…Read more ›View the full article

These are the 100 most expensive keywords on Google Ads, along with their monthly search volume and cost per click (CPC). The main reason is due to Google’s ads mechanism: Companies have to outbid each other in order to secure…Read more ›View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go… 1. CEO shared family trip photos after announcing budget cuts We just had a company-wide town hall, and the CEO — whom I’ve always known to be even-tempered and generally reasonable — kicked things off by sharing a recap and photos of his recent Disney World trip with 20 family members. This comes shortly after we were told about budget cuts, no bonuses, and rising health insurance costs that are eating into our modest merit increases. Needless to say, vacations aren’t exactly top of mind for most of us right now. Was this tone-deaf? Or am I overreacting? It was tone-deaf. Most people have no interest in seeing the CEO’s family trip photos at the best of times! Displaying the photos at all is weirdly self-centered for a town hall. But doing it right after announcing bad financial news is astonishingly out of touch. 2. Struggling new hire won’t stop aggressively complimenting our work I work in a 30-person department in a much larger 10,000-person organization. The department is divided into several smaller teams with individual supervisors and team leads in addition to the more junior folk, and I’m the departmental manager. We have a recent hire who is struggling performance wise. We have them on a PIP and are doing all we need to there. Some of the areas of improvement are really, really basic (and this is not an entry-level position) like “respond to colleagues’ email questions” and don’t no-show meetings. They don’t have much in the way of skills yet in the position either. I share this for context, that this employment relationship is really not going well. They also don’t have much grasp of organizational norms like not asking the CEO for direction on a project directly in the bathroom. Yet this person loves to give work-related compliments. Daily “I’m so impressed by the quality of your work on this project” type of comments to me, who is more senior and decades more experienced than them. “I am struck by how passionate and hard-working this team is. Well done” after their colleagues have completed a project they had nothing to do with. Occasionally, this is peppered with unasked for, lengthy feedback on projects they had nothing to do with, with wacky suggestions for improvement. These have been easier to deal with directly. The compliments, however, appear awkward for folks on the receiving end. I’ve noticed the immediate team barely responds anymore. It feels like this is the individual’s attempt to dominate and exert authority in areas where, frankly, they have no subject knowledge. How would you respond? “Thank you, I appreciate that.” That’s it. It’s possible that it’s an attempt to assert authority where they have none (the unsolicited feedback on projects they’re not involved with certainly sounds like that), but it’s also possible that they know they’re flailing and are looking for some way to better enmesh with the team / be liked / contribute something people will appreciate. It’s the wrong way to do it, but I’d look at it as an additional facet of the incompetence you’re seeing in other areas. They’re not reading situations well, they probably sense that on some level, and they’re trying to fix it … just badly. If they were otherwise a promising employee and the inappropriate compliments were affecting their working relationships or the way they were perceived, it would be a kindness to talk to them about it. But since this is the least of the issues you’ve got to tackle with this person, a quick “thanks, appreciate it” is the way to go. 3. Calling out your company on social media Last week Meta announced some changes to their free speech policies, including some quite awful examples of posts they will now allow, which include things like calling immigrants “dirt” and describing homosexuality as a mental illness. I don’t work for Meta, but I saw a post from a connection of a connection on LinkedIn who does work there. She’s written a long and (in my view) well-argued post, criticizing the new policy and outlining the harm to marginalized communities, including the LGBT+ community she’s a member of. Frankly I wish more people were as brave as her in calling out the terrible practices of their companies. She has not put anything about her intention to leave, but my question is: is someone working for an organization as big and as politically influential as Meta risking their job by publicly criticizing their company on an issue like this? In my view it’s not the same as airing your office’s dirty laundry — it’s not like she’s posting about her boss Gary who she’s fallen out with. And these are major changes that will likely affect her community, maybe her personal online safety, and are quite obviously politically driven. But of course she is calling into question the wisdom of her organization’s leadership and the decisions of her colleagues, even if they are people she doesn’t know personally. What do you think? Yes, there’s some risk to her job. Not necessarily the “call you into HR and fire you today” kind of risk, but the risk that she’ll be more likely to end up on lay-off lists? Or not be promoted into a higher-level position she might want at some point? Absolutely. (In theory there’s also the “fire you today” kind of risk, but she hopefully has enough of a read on the politics of her workplace to know whether that’s likely or not.) It’s also true that the larger the company and the more they’re used to being part of the public dialogue (as Meta is, and especially right now), the more they’re probably used to these kinds of internal discussions playing out publicly and the less jarring it may feel internally. 4. My boss calls me, and only me, by my last name I have been employed at my current company for 20+ years. My manager and I share the same first name. In one-on-one conversations or emails, he refers to me by my first name. In all other instances, he calls me by my last name. Others are starting to pick up on this during team meetings and they do the same. He only does this to me — everyone else is on a first name basis. It makes me feel disrespected. What is a good way to tell him this bothers me? And should it bother me? I don’t know that he’s doing it to disrespect you, but you’re allowed to prefer being called by your first name! My guess is that because you share a name, he might be trying to distinguish between the two of you. Obviously when he’s the one speaking, it’ll be obvious that when he says Lucien, he’s referring to the Lucien who is not him (unless he has a habit of talking about himself in the third person). But maybe he’s hoping that if he uses your last name, others will pick up on it (as they are) and it will cut down on confusion about which Lucien is being referenced when others talk. I don’t know — just a guess. Regardless, you can absolutely say to him, “I noticed you often call me Mackelberry instead of Lucien. I really prefer Lucien.” View the full article

Projects are expensive. There are labor costs, material costs, overhead and operational costs. When a contractor bids on a construction project or a manufacturer takes on a job, they need to have an accurate forecast of the price for the project to make a profit, which is why job costing is so important. Making accurate estimates of construction costs requires an understanding of job costing, knowing what a job cost sheet is and what needs to be included in that costing sheet. We’ll go over all, plus explain when to use job order costing and provide an example of a job cost sheet to make sure the definition is clear. What Is Job Costing? Job costing or job order costing, is a type of cost accounting method that helps identify project costs and track them to keep to your project budget. It tracks all costs and revenue associated with a particular project and is commonly used in construction projects, but it can also be found in manufacturing, engineering, retail, logistics, healthcare and more. When doing job costing for a project, you’ll break down your project costs into three areas: labor, materials and equipment or overhead costs. We’ll get into more detail on that in a moment. The goal is to clearly understand the profit or loss related to each project by looking at the cost of each piece of the project, which allows managers to track the profitability of each. Using job costing can also help future projects. By looking back at past estimates and comparing them to actual costs, you can make more accurate estimates when planning for a similar project. Job costing can help managers identify inefficiencies and excess costs that can be addressed by automating work or allocating resources better. Project management software can help you plan, schedule and track your project costs. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software with multiple project views that let you plan costs and resources on Gantt charts, track workflow on kanban boards and allow teams to execute their work on task lists. When a project is planned on a Gantt, set a baseline to capture your planned costs and compare them to actual costs in real time so you can track your expenses and keep to your budget. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. /wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Manufacturing-gantt-chart-light-mode-costs-exposed-cta-e1712005286389-1600x659.jpgProjectManager’s Gantt charts plan, manage and track project costs. Learn more What Is a Job Cost Sheet? A costing sheet lists all the component costs for a project. The pricing is done per unit and often shows the cost of that component from a previous project so they can be compared. The costing sheet will then add the final cost of the project. As noted above, this can be applied to a number of different projects but is also found when manufacturing distinctive products. It’s a good fit for businesses that provide specialized goods or expensive projects, such as computers and automobiles. /wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Job-cost-sheet-template-featured-image.jpg Get your free Job Cost Sheet Template Use this free Job Cost Sheet Template for Excel to manage your projects better. Download Excel File Benefits of using a costing sheet include that they show the product’s production cost overall as well as the unit costs. In terms of manufacturing, they can help keep product costs under control. They also help develop product policy and aid in the decision-making on product pricing. And, as noted, helps managers compare costs to past outcomes and benchmark costs. What Should Be Included in a Job Cost Sheet? Here are the most important components of a job cost sheet for construction, manufacturing and other similar industries that utilize the job costing method. 1. Job Information The job cost sheet should include general information about the job, which helps construction firms manage their job cost sheet archives. Job number Client details Job description Start and end dates 2. Direct Labor Costs Direct labor costs are the costs of the salaries of all the employees that are directly related to the execution and management of the job. Labor costs are calculated by multiplying the daily payroll rate for each employee by the number of days they’re working on a specific job. Employee hourly pay rate Hours worked Role description 3. Direct Materials Costs Direct material costs are generated by all the materials, components and other tangible elements that’ll be used for the execution of the scope of work and can be traced such as wood, concrete, cement or glass. When measuring direct material costs it’s important to include the following details. Measurement unit Item quantity Unit cost 4. Overhead Costs Overhead costs in manufacturing or consturction are not directly related to the job but refer to costs that allow a business to operate, such as rent, utilities and other business expenses that can’t be considered direct labor or direct materials. To find them, break down daily operating costs and then attribute the correct proportion to the project. Because this is a difficult figure to discern, companies will often apply an overhead fee to each project of 10 percent of the job. 5. Direct Equipment Costs Direct equipment costs in job order costing refer to the expenses directly tied to the use of equipment on a specific project. These may include: Equipment purchase or lease Operating costs such as fuel or maintenance costs Wages and benefits paid to the workers who are operating the equipment 6. Subcontractor Costs Subcontractor costs are those incurred by a general contractor when they hire external companies or individuals to execute certain parts of the construction project. These may include things like labor costs, materials provided to the subcontractor, equipment costs or overhead costs like legal fees or project management fees. 7. Profit Margin Another part of a job cost sheet is the profit margin. This is the percentage of profit that the company will make on the project. To calculate the profit margin: Subtract the total project costs including labor, materials, equipment, overhead, etc. from the total revenue Divide the gross profit (revenue minus costs) by the total revenue The profit margin is essential for determining how profitable a project is and allows the business to make informed decisions moving forward. 8. Planned Costs vs. Actual Costs Comparison In a construction project, planned costs refer to the expenses that were budgeted for a particular project. These may include labor, equipment, materials, overhead, etc. The actual costs include the real expenses incurred during the project. These may differ from the planned costs due to unexpected issues, changes in scope, market fluctuations or inefficiencies. Be sure to include this information in the job cost sheet. Job Costing Example To better understand job costing, let’s move from the abstract to a practical example. We’ll make up a simple construction job, say, Acme Construction, which has been hired to dig a hole and lay the concrete for the foundation of a building. The first thing is to figure out labor costs. There will be the crew making the foundation pit. That’s five people at $100 a day per person, with a duration of three days to make the hole. Next comes the cement crew. Again, this is a five-person job at $100 per day per person, with a duration of two days. Labor, therefore has a total of $2,500. Next, we have to look at materials. Concrete will cost $1,000. There’s also the excavator to dig the hole and the cement truck to deliver and dispose of the cement. Rentals for these two machines add up to $1,000. Therefore, material costs are $2,000 To calculate the overhead costs, we’ll spitball the figure at 10 percent of our project total, which is $4,500. That gives us an overhead cost of $450. That means our job will cost $4,950. Here’s what the cost sheet for this simple project should look like. /wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Job-cost-sheet-example.png Job Cost Sheet Template To streamline a job cost sheet, download our free job cost sheet template. This is a versatile template that provides a structured framework for tracking and managing the expenses tied to a specific project or job. /wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Job-Cost-Sheet-Template-600x495.png When to Use Job Costing As we’ve mentioned, job costing is a cost accounting method that’s used in virtually every industry that manages projects. Therefore, managers use job costing in a variety of disciplines. Let’s look at three of the more commonly used job-costing industries: project management, construction and manufacturing. Job Costing in Project Management Project management is a discipline that crosses many fields. It’s a methodology for delivering a project and costs are one of the most important aspects of that management. Job costing is often used to help estimate costs on a project, but also to help track the project to ensure that there’s no overspending. This is done through the job costing technique of comparing the planned costs against the actual costs. If a project is going over budget, then either the scope or the time must be adjusted unless additional funding can be secured. Construction Job Costing Job costing is often found in construction where it’s used to accurately track all costs associated with the job. As we’ve noted, that includes labor, material and overhead costs. It starts by getting a detailed breakdown of the entire project, which allows managers to track expenses and calculate future profitability. By quickly identifying expenses that cut into profits, construction contractors can rectify the problem and save their profit margin. Manufacturing Job Costing Again, in manufacturing, job costing plays the same important role. It adds the labor, materials and overhead for each job to make sure that production costs are correct. As in construction, this allows the company to measure profitability and hit targets for margin. It also allows them to benchmark themselves against the competition to uncover areas that can be improved and make them more competitive. Using job costing in manufacturing also helps plan budgets and operating expenses over the long term. Advantages of Job Costing If you’re on the fence about using a job cost sheet, we’ve provided some advantages to consider below. Helps Determine the Profitability of a Job or Project Before a project is considered successful, its profitability needs to be considered. Job costing tracks and analyzes all project costs which helps with accurate cost tracking. As a result, project stakeholders can calculate the total project cost, determine the gross profit and determine the profit margin. It enables businesses to make informed decisions and improve their overall financial performance. Allows to Detect Cost Overruns Job cost sheets also identify cost overruns in various ways. For one, it compares the actual costs to the budgeted costs for each cost category. If actual costs are more than the budgeted amounts, it identifies a potential cost overrun. Project managers can detect cost overruns early to take corrective action accordingly. Facilitates Cost Allocation, Tracking and Control A final benefit of job order costing is accurate cost allocation, tracking and control. Job costing systems record all project expenses and help prevent cost overruns by comparing actual costs to the budget. In other words, it provides insights into project costs so businesses can improve efficiency, control expenses and improve their profitability. Disadvantages of Job Costing While the advantages of job order costing are clear, there are also some disadvantages to consider. Time-Consuming Process Job costing requires that all materials, labor hours and overhead for each individual job must be tracked. This means teams are spending time on documenting costs, maintaining records and putting together reports. Limited Scalability A job cost sheet is the most impactful for customized, one-off jobs or smaller projects. If a business needs to scale up to mass production or handle many jobs at once, job costing isn’t practical. Complex Overhead Allocation Overhead costs such as administrative expenses or rent are shared across jobs and need to be allocated using a predetermined method. It can be difficult to choose and implement the ideal allocation basis such as labor or machine hours. As a result, some jobs may be overburdened or undercharged. ProjectManager Helps Keep Track of Project Costs Job costing gets you a figure for the estimated cost of the project and that figure can then be used to track your costs and revenue throughout the project with project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that lets you plan, manage and track your project costs in real time. Use our Gantt charts to plan your costs and view the whole project on a visual timeline. Link all four dependencies to avoid costly bottlenecks and set the baseline to track costs in real time throughout the software. Track Labor Costs With Online Timesheets When teams log their hours in the software, management isn’t only getting secure timesheets that streamline the payroll process but another tool to track time and costs. Our timesheets help managers control labor costs and help with project estimates by looking at timesheets from previous projects. Timesheets can automatically log hours and give managers a window into the percentage of tasks their team has completed in real time. This helps managers spot issues and keep projects on track, both in terms of schedule and cost. /wp-content/uploads/2024/05/timesheet-lightmode-good-version-lots-of-tasks-1600x869.png Monitor Budgets With Real-Time Dashboards Once a baseline is set on the Gantt chart, live data is delivered to the real-time dashboard and six project metrics are displayed in easy-to-read graphs and charts. There’s a cost chart that allows managers to get a high-level view of their budget, including the planned and actual costs so they can respond accordingly if the project is spending beyond what’s been allocated. Unlike other project management tools, there’s no time-consuming setup required with our software. It’s plug-and-play. If you want to get more details toggle over to our customizable status, portfolio and more reports. Filter the report to see only what you want and it’s easy to share to update stakeholders. /wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Dashboard-light-mode-1600x857.jpg There are other features to help you stay on budget, such as resource management tools that allow you to keep your team’s workload balanced so they can work at capacity and stay productive. Risk management features allow you to identify risks and track issues until they’re resolved. There are also task management features, automated workflow with task approvals to ensure quality deliverables and much more. Alternative Methods to Job Costing Other cost accounting methods can be used instead of job costing when measuring the cost of jobs and projects. The most commonly used alternatives to job costing are process costing, activity-based costing, batch costing and contract costing. The sections below explain the differences between these approaches. Job Costing vs. Process Costing We’ve talked a lot about job costing, but to sum up, it’s an accounting method of tracking all costs and revenue associated with a project. There’s also something called process costing, but it’s a different accounting method and it’s important to understand the difference between the two, Process costing is also an accounting method, but it’s deployed when there’s mass production of similar products by collecting and assigning manufacturing costs to the units produced. Unlike job costing which is used in customized manufacturing, process costing is used in standardized or mass-produced manufacturing. With job costing, the cost of each complete job is done. In process costing, the cost is determined by the process and the production budget. The cost calculation for process costing is based on the process, not the job, as in job costing. Another difference is that costs can’t be transferred in job costing, but that can be across processes in process costing. Also, each job is different in job costing, but process costing is about projects produced in large volumes. Job Costing vs. Activity-Based Costing When comparing job costing and activity-based costing, job costing is typically simpler and suitable for many businesses while ABC used a refined approach based on activities. While activity-based coaching is more accurate, it requires more effort to implement and maintain over time. Job Costing vs. Batch Costing Job costing is used when each job has unique characteristics and jobs need to be tracked individually. Batch costing, on the other hand, is used when products are made in groups with similar characteristics and the focus is on tracking costs for the batch. Job Costing vs. Contract Costing If the project is smaller or shorter-term, job costing is more suitable as costs are tracked for each individual job. If the project is large and long-term, contract costing is preferred as it considers the unique challenges of revenue recognition and potential losses or profits. ProjectManager is online project management software that connects teams across departments and time zones, allowing them to share files, comment at the task level and more. Our software allows managers to plan, manage and track more than costs but every aspect of their budget. Join teams at companies such as Avis, Nestle and Siemens who are using our tool to succeed. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. The post What Is Job Costing? How to Make a Job Cost Sheet (Example Included) appeared first on ProjectManager. 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This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I work at a barbershop that’s under the booth rent model, so I’m a sole proprietor. How do I professionally tell people to stop coming in sick/bringing in their sick kids? Should I display a sign at my station as well? I don’t understand how a haircut is so important when you’re sick. Not only do I hate how being sick feels, I live with my 86-year-old grandfather and it’s not in my agenda to get him sick. It’s also very inconvenient and puts my job at risk because of having to reschedule clients. I had a parent bring their super sick kid in on Christmas Eve. He sat in the front the entire time, but was there for a while because I cut the dad and brother’s hair too. The kids came in halfway through dad’s haircut, so I felt obligated to finish his haircut and the other brother wasn’t visibly sick so it put me in a weird spot where I felt I could only turn down the one. Ideally, I wouldn’t have cut any of their hair, but people just don’t seem to have any consideration for others. It’s happened to me so many times this past year. Honestly, if people come in sick I think it’s fair to refuse service and charge a no-show fee. Even if they gave me 10-minute notice and just let me know they were sick, I wouldn’t charge. I don’t know if that’s how it works though. I’m just tired of people getting me sick. It has happened so many times recently, and it’s almost always from kids. The easiest way to handle this is when people are making appointments. Whoever takes those appointments should reiterate your policies before ending the call: “We ask that you reschedule if you’re sick or anyone coming with you is sick. Please call if that happens and we’ll get you rescheduled.” If people schedule online, have a similar policy posted there. Hell, there’s scheduling software that will require clients to check a box confirming they’ve read and agree to follow the policy before the appointment can be confirmed. If you happen to be the sort of barbershop that has an email list of clients and/or social media, you could also advertise this policy there. It won’t reach everyone, but it’ll help to get people thinking about it. Whether you have the ability to do any of these things as a sole proprietor in a shop you don’t own is a different question. But I’d bet you have colleagues who would add their voices to yours in pushing for it. You’ll still probably get clients who come in sick or with a sick kid anyway, because people are inconsiderate. In those cases, are you willing to say, “I’m sorry but I can’t do the appointment while you’re sick/with a sick child here — I have to be careful because I have an at-risk family member. Let’s get you rescheduled”? If you want to offer a discount for the rescheduled appointment, that would help from a client relations perspective, but you don’t have to. For the sake of thoroughness: you will probably lose some clients over this. Some people will be outraged that they showed up and are getting turned away (although that’s less likely if you warn them about the policy when scheduling them). So you’ll have to decide if you’re okay with that. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. Just a heads-up that Ask a Manager is on Bluesky in case you’re over there: bsky.app/profile/askamanager.org If you’ve been considering trying Bluesky but haven’t made the leap: I really like it. It has a lot of the stuff that used to be great about Twitter before it imploded, plus cool features like being able to mute posts with particular keywords (so if you just can’t handle hearing anything about llamas this week, you can eradicate them from your feed), there are cool “starter packs” (so if you want to quickly follow a bunch of people who post about science or linguistics or yarn or cats or whatever your interest is, you can just subscribe to the relevant starter pack), you can have your chronological timeline back without an algorithm overruling your choices about your feed, the engagement is more interesting, and so far it’s just … nicer. View the full article

Don’t assume they know how good you have it. By Marc Rosenberg CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset Go PRO for members-only access to more Marc Rosenberg. View the full article

Don’t assume they know how good you have it. By Marc Rosenberg CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset Go PRO for members-only access to more Marc Rosenberg. View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “Utopia for a proactive accounting professional is a diary filled with appointments to meet with prospective ideal clients.” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “Utopia for a proactive accounting professional is a diary filled with appointments to meet with prospective ideal clients.” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. Let’s talk about malicious compliance — times when someone purposely exposed the absurdity of a rule by doing exactly what they were told to do. For example: “I had a boss who needed to know via email every. single. time. we stepped away from our computers (we were all fully remote). So I decided to comply 100% with her request. I told her when I’m using the restroom, that I had to put cream in my coffee, that I’m going to put on a sweater because I’m cold, I’m about to open my living room blinds, you get the point. Others did that too and after like two weeks, she said we no longer have to notify her unless it’s going to be over 15 minutes.” • • • “I worked for a company that insisted we wear our teal-colored polo shirts at all times. They only did up to a Large. I am NOT a Large, I am a short, hairy, fat, apple-shaped stud muffin (male). OK, be like that. So I wore the one they got me. The squeamish can stop reading now. Basically the stretchy fabric stretched and showed the spare tires, it didn’t cover the bottom of my belly, my moobs were prominent, and it even had chest hair poking through the fabric. Finishing work that very day, I was asked not to wear it and to wear my usual shirt.” • • • “I work in engineering and had a program manager, Todd, who had risen through the ranks on his ‘business savvy,’ which turned out to mean ‘bullying every young engineer on his team and relentlessly cutting corners on quality.’ He came by my desk on Tuesday and asked me to run a test by Friday. Not only would this have been a crazy workload, but it was logistically impossible – the required parts to run the test wouldn’t show up for a week. (Think like, running a test of how quickly a car can stop … without installing the brake pads.) Todd sends me an email that says, ‘I think of you as someone who is committed to the success of our project, and I would hate to change that impression. Unfortunately, that is not a delay we can absorb. I have you penciled into this meeting with [Big Boss] on Monday to report the results of the completed test.’ So I’m like, okay, you know what? Fuck you, Todd. I confirm via email that he wants me to run the test without brake pads and he says yes. I bust ass to run the test without brake pads on Friday and of course it fails miserably. I send a picture of the literal debris to him on the same email chain and go immediately to happy hour. Monday morning I come in to an angry ‘we need to get to the bottom of this failure’ email from Todd. I ignore it. Straight to the meeting with the big boss. I’m like, ‘Hey guys, I’m so sorry but I haven’t had time to pull together a slide deck since the test was just run on Friday afternoon. I do have some pictures and schedule updates to share, so Todd do you mind actually pulling up that email chain?’ I explain what happened in the most neutral way possible. Big boss is immediately like … ‘Wait, WTF, why didn’t we wait for the brake pads and do this right?’ I respond that decision was direction from the program rather than a technical decision, so Todd would be better positioned to speak to it. Sweet revenge. He never asked me to cut corners again, and ended up leaving ‘for another opportunity’ like six weeks later.” • • • Share your stories of malicious compliance — your own or other people’s — in the comment section! View the full article

CEO says it’s about investing in tech & talent. Accounting ARC With Donny Shimamoto Center for Accounting Transformation Go PRO for members-only access to more Center for Accounting Transformation. View the full article

CEO says it’s about investing in tech & talent. Accounting ARC With Donny Shimamoto Center for Accounting Transformation Go PRO for members-only access to more Center for Accounting Transformation. View the full article