Purpose: Unlock the power of job costing with payroll reports to gain granular insights into labor expenses per project and optimize your company's financial health. This article outlines which payroll reports include job costing and explains how BambooHR Payroll calculates job costing, helping you make informed financial decisions.

Table of Contents: 

• Job Costing Overview
• How is job costing calculated within reporting?

Businesses use job costing as a powerful accounting method to determine the exact cost of producing a specific product or service. Instead of looking at overall company expenses, job costing breaks down all direct costs (like labor and materials) and indirect costs (like overhead) associated with a single project or "job." For payroll, job costing allows payroll admins to contribute to a company's financial health by providing granular insights into labor expenses per project, moving beyond simply paying employees. 

BambooHR Payroll provides two reports in Reports > Payroll Reports that offer insights on job costing information for employees who track project/task hours: 

• Complete Summary - Project Tracking
• Journal Entry 

You will need one of the following access level permissions to view the mentioned reports: 

• Full Admin + EIN permission
• Payroll Admin + EIN permission
• Payroll Admin (Non-Approver) + EIN permission
• Payroll Reports Only + EIN permission

BambooHR will calculate the total pay for a specific project and task, and then divide that amount by the total overall pay to determine the allocation of job costs. This results in the percentage of total pay attributed to the project/task. BambooHR then applies that percentage to the wage, deduction, or tax amount to determine the specific allocation for each for that particular project. For example, if 30% of an employee's wages are allocated to Project A and 70% to Project B, their employer deductions and taxes will be split 30% to Project A and 70% to Project B.