Operational outcome
Labour cost tracking on every job
Put the team’s hours against the jobs and tasks they actually worked on so labour stops disappearing into the week.
Without it
The hours were worked. The question is where.
Payroll can tell you how long someone was at work. It does not automatically tell you which jobs used that time or what those hours did to the job cost.
The whole day lands on one job.
Someone moved between three jobs, but the timesheet makes it look like they spent the day on one.
Timesheets are filled in from memory.
By Friday afternoon, Monday morning is already a guess.
Workshop and site hours get split apart.
The same job carries labour in different places, but the cost still needs to come back together.
Non-chargeable time hides inside the week.
Travel, rework, setup and waiting still use paid hours even when the customer does not see them.
The job looks fine until labour is added.
Material can be easy to see. The hours are often the bit that quietly moves the result.
The next quote uses another rough guess.
Without real history, estimators keep allowing the hours they hope the job will take.
What good looks like
People record time against the work they did, and those hours become useful job cost information.
With it
Turn worked hours into useful job information.
Labour tracking works when recording time is simple enough to happen and detailed enough to be useful. The goal is not to count every minute. It is to know which work used the meaningful chunks of the team’s time.
Where did the day actually go?
Split time across the jobs people really worked on.
Which part took the hours?
Record time against tasks where that extra detail is useful.
How much labour is in this job?
See the hours building while the work is still underway.
Did we allow enough time?
Compare the real labour with what you expected.
What should we allow next time?
Use completed job history instead of starting from another guess.
How you get there
Get the hours back onto the work.
Nothing here is a separate exercise. It is the same job record, kept current as the work moves.
01
Set up the job
02
Break out tasks
03
Put people on work
04
Record the time
05
Split the day
06
Check missing hours
07
Feed job costs
08
Use the history
The parts doing the work
What delivers it
These are the features this leans on. Each has its own page if you want the detail.
Timesheets
Get everyone’s hours onto the jobs they worked on, so you know what each job is really taking before it’s finished.
Job Costing
Put the real hours, purchases, stock and changes against the job so the result is based on what happened, not what you hoped would happen.
Proof
What it looks like in a real workshop
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We didn’t wanna pay 100 grand upfront for a program – but then we found WorkGuru.
Nick Mazzella, Administrator, Frontline Trays & Trailers
Fit
Will the team actually keep time properly?
It only works if the process fits around the job. The aim is enough useful detail to understand labour, not turning tradespeople into full-time data entry staff.
“People jump between jobs all day.”
That is exactly when splitting time matters. Put the meaningful chunks of the day against the jobs that used them.
“We do not need minute-by-minute tracking.”
You probably do not. Capture enough detail to understand the job without pretending every minute needs a category.
“Our staff are not sitting at computers.”
They should not need to be. Time recording needs to fit around the work, not become the work.
“We already do timesheets for payroll.”
Payroll answers how long someone worked. Job time answers what those paid hours were actually spent on.
Who feels this most
The trades that ask for this first
These are the industries where this comes up in almost every conversation. Pick the one closest to yours.
Next door
Usually asked for together
These lean on the same parts of WorkGuru, so businesses chasing one normally want the other.
Job Cost Control
Watch costs against the quote while the job is still running, not after it has been invoiced.
Job Profitability
Know what the job actually made, not what the quote said it would.
Workshop Scheduling
Put work in front of the right people in the right order, and move it when things change.
FAQs
Labour Cost Tracking questions
What is the difference between payroll and job time?
Payroll tracks paid hours. Job time tracks which jobs and tasks those hours were spent on so the labour cost is useful.
Can staff record time against more than one job a day?
Yes. When people move between jobs, their time can be split across the work they actually completed that day.
Do labour hours need to be tracked by task as well?
Not always. Task-level time is useful when you need to understand which parts of a larger job are using the hours.
How does labour time affect job costing?
Recorded job hours form part of the real cost and show whether the original labour allowance was enough.
Can labour history help with future estimating?
Yes. Completed job time gives estimators a better starting point for how long similar work actually took in practice.
Do we need to track time if we charge a fixed price?
Yes if you want to know what the job cost you. Fixed-price work still uses paid labour even when hours are not billed.
See it on one of your own jobs.
Bring us a normal week of timesheets and we will show you how those hours can become useful job cost information.