Division Cost Codes
🚧 If Your Job Cost Report Doesn’t Follow Construction Divisions… You’re Guessing.
The last few general contractors I reviewed had one major issue:
No structured cost divisions.
Everything was coded like this:
• Subcontractors
• Materials
• Labor
• Misc Expense (🚩)
• Other (Double 🚩🚩)
In professional construction, projects are segmented using the 16 divisions defined by the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI).
Each division represents a defined scope of work:
- Site Work
- Concrete
- Masonry
- Metals
- Wood & Carpentry
- Roofing
- Doors & Windows
- Finishes
- Specialties
- Equipment
- Furnishings
- Special Construction
- Conveying Systems
- Mechanical
- Electrical
When your chart of accounts and job cost codes don’t mirror how construction is actually performed, you lose:
• Visibility into margin by trade
• Accurate estimate vs actual comparisons
• Historical pricing data
• Leverage in subcontractor negotiations
• Confidence in your WIP reports
And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
If you’re doing $3M+ in revenue and you’re not segmenting costs by division, you’re not managing construction — you’re reacting to it.
This is about knowing which scope is quietly eating 4% of your profit on every job.
Professional contractors track by division.
Everyone else tracks by bank balance.
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