Cost Codes in Job Costing Analytics & Reporting in Ontraccr
🧾 Cost Codes in Job Costing Analytics & Reporting in Ontraccr
📘 Overview
Cost codes are central to Ontraccr’s Analytics Engine, enabling detailed reporting across labor, materials, equipment, overhead, subcontractors, and budgets. Every time data is logged using a cost code — whether via time entries, forms, or equipment logs — that information is captured and becomes queryable and filterable in the reporting layer.
This article covers how cost codes appear in analytics dashboards and how you can use them to drive cost analysis and performance reviews.
📊 Where Cost Codes Show Up in Analytics
Cost code data is available in:
- Progress Page Reports
- Time Card Reports
- Material & Equipment Reports
- Analytics Engine Dashboards
- Project Overview Dashboards
Each of these reports allows you to:
- Filter by cost code
- Group by cost code
- Visualize actual vs. estimated per code
🧩 Analytics Engine Use Cases
In the Analytics Engine, you can create custom dashboards using cost code data:
📘 Example 1: Labor Cost by Cost Code
- Chart type: Bar or Table
- X-axis: Cost Code
- Y-axis: Actual Labor Cost
- Filters: Project = “Midtown Tower”
📘 Example 2: Cost Code Overrun Analysis
- Metric: % Over Budget
- Group by: Cost Code
- Visual: Conditional formatting (red/yellow/green) based on thresholds
📘 Example 3: Hours Burn Rate by Phase
- Metric: Hours Logged ÷ Estimated Hours
- Group by: Phased Cost Code or Phase Label
- Filters: Trade or Division
📥 Data Sources Feeding Cost Code Analytics
| Source | How It Links to Cost Code |
|---|---|
| Time Entries | Must include Labor/Overhead cost code |
| Forms | Use cost code field for materials, equipment, subcontractors |
| Budget | Estimated hours/cost entered by code in Step 5 |
| Invoices (Billable Codes) | Show billing value tied to code |
📌 Report Configuration Options
- Filter by cost code category (Labor, Material, etc.)
- Filter by division (if division tagging is used on cost codes)
- Compare multiple projects by matching cost code across jobs
- Stack metrics (e.g. Labor + Subcontractor cost per code)
🔍 Tips for Cost Code-Based Reporting
- Use consistent naming conventions to simplify cross-project reporting (e.g. “LAB-001 – Rough-In” in all jobs)
- Leverage phased cost codes to break reporting into stage-level views
- Combine actuals with contract value to assess profitability per trade or activity