Cost Control
Overview
Cost Control helps you manage and track the cash flow of the job. It works by entering in the jobs expense invoice against its Cost Centre budgets. Each Cost Centre allows you to enter multiple expense invoices to track its profit or loss. When entering the expense invoice it also allows you to send it directly to MYOB or Xero in the same action.
At the bottom of Cost Control, it shows the jobs current overall profit and loss at any stage of the job. Just make sure you have entered all the jobs expense invoices and employee labour to date.
Cost Centre budgets are built up from allocated Cost Schedule item material costs, labour costs, entered quotes and allowances. Every dollar in the quote is allocated to a Cost Centre budget to track.
See Toolbar and Related Features below to learn how Cost Control works and interacts with other features in SoloAssist.
Toolbar
This will save all changes to the current job open.
This adds a new Cost Centre to Cost Control. Cost Centre budgets are built-up of material or Labour costs allocated from Cost Schedule items.
This allows you to merge an existing Cost Centre with its expense invoices and budget override, into another Cost Centre.
This will delete the selected Cost Centre and break the allocated Cost Schedule item links. Once deleted, it cannot be undone. View the Cost Schedule Link Reports to relink the Cost Schedule Item material and labour costs to their new Cost Centre budgets.
Opens a new Expense Invoice for you to add against a Cost Centre budget. After filling in all the expense invoice details you can send the expense invoice to MYOB or Xero saving you double entry bookkeeping.
Deletes the selected Item/s. Once deleted, it cannot be undone.
This report shows the unpaid expense invoices for the job.
Is used for Claim Methods Lump Sum (% Complete Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly) or Cost Plus. It works in conjunction with the Cost Control Cost Centres % Complete and or the Expense Invoices entered for the job.
Allows you to send multiple Expense Invoices directly to MYOB or Xero preventing double data entry. It also allows you to export the Cost Centre Budgets or Expense Invoices to a CSV file format for importing into other applications, such as Excel.
Importing a CSV file to Excel
Open Microsoft Excel ► Open New Blank workbook ► Go to the Data tab ► Select From Text/CSV (Get & Transform Data) ► then find & open the CSV file you're wanting to view or edit ► File Origin 1252: Western European (Windows) ► Delimiter Comma ► Select Load
If you require assistance, please contact your local IT Technician.
This opens the SoloAssist Help Centre to the topic you are currently in.
Terminology
Cost Centres
Cost Centre
Cost Centres are separate job budgets from the contributing costs in your job or quote. All job items (e.g. Subcontractor Quotes, Supply Item Costs, or Allowances) are allocated to a Cost Centre to track the jobs profits and losses. Cost Centres are allocated from each Cost Schedule Items Material Cost and or Labour Cost.
% Complete
A Cost Centres % Complete is manually entered or adjusted as the Cost Centre is completed or gradually completed. As each Cost Centre % Complete is entered, it then adjusts the estimated projected 'Cost to Complete'. At the bottom of Cost Control, it displays the Total % Complete estimated average overall for the job.
Expense Invoices
Expense Invoices are your job costs. They are also known as purchase invoices or bills for labour, materials or services.
Related Features
XERO, MYOB Connection
For more information, see our XERO and MYOB Connection pages.
How do I...
Enter the % Complete to a Cost Centre?
1) Select the Cost Centre you want to edit, then select Edit Cost Centre in the toolbar.
2) Right-click on the Cost Centre you want to edit, then select Edit Cost Centre in the pop-up menu.
Enter a Budget Override to a Cost Centre?
To enter a budget override, open/edit the Cost Centre you want the budget changed to, then select the Budget Override tab. Select New Budget and fill-in the new budget details and amount.
Enter a Credit Note to a Cost Centre?
To enter a Credit Note to a Cost Centre, enter an Expense Invoice amount with a negative value.
Export a CSV file?
Select Cost Control ► Send To ► CSV then select Budgets or Invoices, then click OK and save the CSV file into your job folder.
Open Microsoft Excel ► Open New Blank workbook ► Go to the Data tab ► Select From Text/CSV (Get & Transform Data) ► Open the SoloAssist CSV file ► File Origin 1252: Western European (Windows) ► Delimiter Comma ► Select Load
Troubleshooting
The Suppliers are showing different between computers?
SoloAssist uses a database file to store your Suppliers details. By default, each computer has its own database. When you have more than one person working with SoloAssist, you will usually want to use only one Suppliers database and share it with the other computers. The easiest way to share the Suppliers database, is to relocate it into a shared folder on a local network or an offsite server (cloud storage) that is accessed over the internet. E.g. Dropbox, Onedrive, Local office network, etc.
The default location for the Suppliers database file is in This PC ► Documents ► SoloAssist ► Database. If you want to share the database folder with another computer, you need to copy the Database folder to a shared location. Then on each computer, go into the SoloAssist Options menu and change the Database Folder Location to the new shared location.
The Suppliers and Expense Invoice windows are opening slow?
The Suppliers contact details and Cost Control Expense Invoices may open slower than other windows in SoloAssist. This is due to them extracting information from Xero that is being used in the Suppliers contact details and Expense Invoices.
Cost Centre budget links?
Cost Centre budgets are set up by linking each Cost Schedule Items material or labour costs.
You can view a broken links report by selecting Links Reports > Cost Centre Links in the Cost Schedule toolbar. This report only shows broken links from Cost Schedule Items to their Cost Centre budgets in Cost Control. Make sure you have no broken links showing, otherwise this can affect your Cost Centre budgets and the jobs profits and losses.
User Tips
1) Double-clicking on a Contributing Work Group in the Edit Cost Centre window will automatically take you to the Cost Schedule work group to view.
2) Hovering the mouse cursor over a Material or Labour Cost on the Cost Schedule will show the allocated Cost Centre budget in Cost Control.
