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# Track job costs with Projects

Job costing means giving every sale and every cost the job it belongs to. Each job then has its own small profit and loss, so you can see which jobs made money and which cost more than you charged, while there's still time to act.

In BooksGPT a job is a **project**. You put the project on its invoices, bills and bank transactions, and its page adds them up: income, cost, profit and margin, with the cost split by type.

## Add Business Max

Projects are part of **Business Max**:

- $30 a month, added to a Solo or Business plan. The first week is free the first time you add it.
- Included with the Practice and Firm plans, so there's nothing to buy.
- Only the workspace owner can add it. Everyone else is told who to ask.

To add it:

1. Open **All pages** in the left sidebar, then click **Sales** and **Projects**.
2. Click **Add Business Max** and finish the checkout.

You come back to Projects, ready for your first project. You can also add it from [Settings](https://app.booksgpt.ai/go/settings) under **Plan & billing**.

## Create a project

1. On **Projects**, click **New project**.
2. Type a **Name**, such as Lakeview deck. It's the only field you must fill in.
3. Keep the **Job number** BooksGPT offers, or type your own. Each number is used once per workspace.
4. Pick the **Customer** if there is one. A spec home or an overhead job can have none.
5. Choose the **Status**, and add the **Start** and **End** dates and **Notes** if you like.
6. Click **Create project**.

![New project: Lakeview deck, job number 1003, customer Hannah Brooks, status Not started, Nov 2 to Nov 25, 2026](https://booksgpt.ai/help/projects/new-project.png)

Creating and editing projects takes the owner or bookkeeper role.

## Put the project on its costs and income

Give the project to every piece of money that belongs to the job:

- **Bills:** in the bill editor, pick the project under **Bill dimensions** for the whole bill, or give one line its own under **Line dimension overrides**.
- **Bank transactions:** open a transaction's details and pick the project. For many at once, tick them on [Transactions](https://app.booksgpt.ai/go/transactions), click the pencil icon (**Bulk edit**) and use **Set project**.
- **Journal entries:** each line can carry a project.
- **Checks:** a check takes the project when your workspace has no other tag, such as Class.
- **Invoices:** pick one **Project** for the invoice, and every line goes on it.

Credit memos, voids and corrections take the income back off the same project by themselves.

Beside the project, pick a **Cost type**: Materials, Labor, Subcontractors, Equipment or Other. Payroll reaches jobs as Labor through a [payroll split](https://help.booksgpt.ai/en/article/track-hours-on-jobs-and-split-payroll-by-job-t3yt3k/). A cost with no type still counts, under **No cost type**.

![Bill HL-20931 from Harbor Lumber Supply: Bill dimensions set to Project Miller garage and Cost type Materials, and its line inheriting both](https://booksgpt.ai/help/projects/bill-project.png)

| Pick the project when you enter the bill or invoice. Tagging later works too, but a forgotten bill makes the job look better than it is.

## Read the job cost report

**Projects** lists each project with its **Income**, **Cost**, **Profit** and **Margin** since it started, and a total underneath.

- **Active**, **Done** and **All** choose which projects show. Cancelled projects are under **All**.
- **Accrual** and **Cash** switch the basis, as on your other reports. Accrual counts income when you invoice and costs when you're billed.

![Projects on Active: Lakeview deck, Miller garage and Ortiz kitchen remodel with their income, cost, profit and margin, and the Active projects total](https://booksgpt.ai/help/projects/projects-list.png)

Click a project to open its job cost report:

- The top row shows its income, cost, profit and margin.
- **Cost by type** splits the cost into Materials, Labor and the rest.
- **Accounts** lists the income and cost accounts behind those figures.
- Click **Income**, **Cost** or a cost type to see every line behind it, then click a line to open its bill, invoice or entry.

![Miller garage's job cost report: income $38,500.00, cost $29,555.00, profit $8,945.00, margin 23.2%, then Cost by type and Accounts](https://booksgpt.ai/help/projects/job-cost-report.png)

The figures match **Profit & loss** with its columns set to **By Project**. A project's costs that sit in an asset account, such as materials still in stock, aren't a cost yet, so they show beside the figures as **On the balance sheet**.

## Finish a project

When the job is over, open it, click **Edit**, set **Status** to **Done** (or **Cancelled** if it never went ahead) and click **Save project**.

- A finished project leaves the project pickers, so nobody puts new costs on it by mistake.
- It stays in every report, with all its figures.
- To reopen it, set its status back to **In progress**.

## Turn an existing Job tag into Projects

If you already track jobs with a dimension named Job or Project, the Projects page offers to use it:

1. On **Projects**, click **Use as Projects** on the card that names your tag, then confirm.
2. Each value of the tag becomes a project, with everything already tagged to it. Values you had archived become **Done** projects.

||| This can't be undone. Afterwards the tag is managed on Projects, it can't be shown on the balance sheet or be required, and tagging with it needs Business Max.

Clicking **New project** on that card instead keeps your tag a regular dimension, and it can't become Projects later. For dimensions in general, see [Track income and expenses by class, location, or property](https://help.booksgpt.ai/en/article/track-properties-projects-and-programs-with-dimensions-1igcvbc/).

## Cancel or lose Business Max

Business Max is its own monthly charge, apart from your plan. To stop it, open [Settings](https://app.booksgpt.ai/go/settings), go to **Plan & billing** and click **Cancel Business Max**.

- It keeps working until the end of the month you've paid for.
- If your plan ends, Business Max ends with it.
- If a payment fails, projects turn read-only. Update your card under **Payment method**, which pays Business Max too, or cancel Business Max to end it now.

When it ends, nothing is deleted. Your projects, the tags on your transactions and every report stay. Only choosing a project for something new, and creating or editing projects, need Business Max again.

## If something goes wrong

**A project isn't in the picker.** It's Done or Cancelled. Open it on Projects, click **Edit** and set it back to **In progress**.

**A project's income or cost looks too low.** Something for the job has no project yet. Click **Income** or **Cost** on the project's page to see what's counted, then add the project to the bill, transaction or invoice that's missing.

**The project picker is locked.** The workspace doesn't have Business Max. Ask the workspace owner to add it. Anything that already has a project keeps it.