The $600 Shed that really cost $4,000

House renovations and improvements are interesting projects which need good project management skills. Several years ago I had to erect a shed for a tenant and to show how naïve I was about building back then I just saw a nice sized shed advertised for $600 and thought that would do the trick – good size and nice and cheap.

Luckily I had a friend who was much handier than me and some staff who could help with the project.

Job Tracking (in MYOB) and Projects in Xero is a system where you can allocate job numbers to transactions and then run reports to show the income and expenses that relate to that job number. Seems pretty simple right?

The problem with proper project and job tracking is that it involves many people making sure that they use that job number. Not just office admin staff but the trades people who are working on site need to keep track of every aspect of the job.

In this case study you’ll see how the trades people going to Bunnings to buy screws and wood for the concrete slab need to keep track of their expenses, just like the tradies who picked up the 10 bags of cement from the depot.

A tricky transactions was when they needed the help of another staff member to come and help put the roof on the shed. This person had to come from another work site, spend 30 minutes helping and then driving back to the other site – it was 1.5 hours of time that needs to be tracked as an expense!

Learn Job Tracking in MYOB and Projects in Xero

Learn how to manage the income and expenses for job tracking using both MYOB and Xero in The $600 Shed Case Study with the Advanced Xero and MYOB Courses. Read other blog articles relating to Xero Projects.

Combine these skills with good credit management skills and you can ensure that your business doesn’t lose money when working on small or large projects for clients.