Estimating decides what you promise. Job costing reveals what you delivered. Shops that only estimate keep repeating the same optimistic hours and forgotten travel. Shops that only cost after the fact know they lost money but never fix the next quote. You need both — linked.
What each one does
| Estimating | Job costing | |
|---|---|---|
| When | Before the job | During / after the job |
| Inputs | Assumed hours, parts, margin | Actual hours, miles, parts, fees |
| Output | Price / proposal | True profit and variance |
| Failure mode | Hope-based pricing | Autopsy with no feedback loop |
Why "good" quotes still lose
- Estimate used unburdened wages or skipped travel
- Field hours ran long and nobody updated the book
- Change orders were free
- Materials were marked up but overhead never hit the job
- Win rate pressure pushed discounting that job costing never saw
Close the loop in four steps
- Estimate with the same cost categories you will track later (labor, travel, vehicle, materials, overhead, leads).
- Capture actuals from clock-ins and invoices — not Friday memory.
- Compare estimate vs actual on every major job type weekly.
- Update flat rates and templates where variance is chronic.
Stress-test a finished job in the job profitability calculator, then compare to what the original quote assumed. The delta is your pricing curriculum.
Compare a quote to reality
Cost a completed ticket in the free calculator and line it up against the estimate assumptions.