Job costing

In a make-to-order shop, every job is its own profit-and-loss statement. Job costing pulls together hours from the floor at the right rates, material from purchase orders, outside processing like plating or heat treat with its landed cost, and then compares that to the quoted price. The result answers the question that matters most when quoting the next one: did we make money on this part?

Many small shops only find out after the invoice is paid, if they find out at all, because labor isn't tracked against jobs or the data lives in three places. Without it, the same underpriced part keeps getting quoted at the same price.

Traveler is designed to show a one-screen job P&L while the job runs, using quoted hours against actual hours from floor scans, material from POs, outside processing landed cost, and margin now. A variance flag warns when a job is trending over quote, and the actuals feed the next quote of the same part.