lbtcadmin
12-12-2007, 04:41 PM
Job Cost Accounting for Landscapers - Hardscape - Contractors, Builders, Estimators
by Phil Nilsson www.nilssonbooks.com (http://www.nilssonbooks.com/)
The concept of "job cost" has wide application and significance for most contractors. Costs are incurred and introduced into various construction projects every day. Knowingly or unknowingly, the contractor is using costs that are estimated to provide job bids. Later and as the work is begun, costs are introduced into the job. The most obvious costs are those costs that are referred to as direct costs. These direct costs are easily seen and understood by use of materials and through the introduction of labor. The job goes forward, the costs build up and accumulate until there are no more costs for that particular job. The work ends, and a billing is made. The big question at that point is usually "Did I make any money on that job and if so ... how much" ? The answer to that question is usually asked "too late" if the outcome of profit and loss or marginal results is not seen and understood before, and during the production stages of the work. When it's all over, the answer to our question serves only as an educational tool, one that we can learn from. But the real function of knowing and applying costs is done with one and only one thought in mind ... control. Making it happen. Control comes from and control is managed best when we know what to expect failrly accurately in our costs. Otherwise, the profit becomes an unknown and setting the right price becomes a mystery.
Control comes from and control is managed best when we know what to expect.
Cost is a term that contractors should equate with another word ... goal. The goal is to complete the work within the confines of reasonable cost. Reasonable cost, all expense accumulated as the work is begun, carried out and completed, leaves an adequate amount of room for profit. No company except perhaps a non-profit company survives without profit. The amount of profit we earn tells us that we are properly setting a price, controlling the application of materials and labor, and therefore realize that a profit and the amount of profit expected is guaranteed to happen. Price, costs, production and above all management that's effective. Cost is the beginning of that chain of events after a price has been identified. Knowing costs is absolutely essential if (IF) we are to control costs. By that I mean we're not interested in discouraging costs by cutting corners, or trying to overwork our workers to make up the difference in our cost. Controlling costs means that you don't surpass the estimated costs, thus discouraging profitability. Controlling costs is a matter of getting to know costs, using them in labor and materials estimates and actually making them happen during field conditions. In the absence of controlling costs, while in the presence of an adequately priced job, not controlling costs means that profits are being wasted. Pure and simple. When the price is the "right price" and the costs fully known, to then exceed these costs is to give money away as if you were in the business of making contributions, instead of in the business of making money.
The illusive nature of costs is that they are constantly undergoing change. It's not only wage rates rising, or materials being higher, fuel costs changes and the like ... but the level of productivity from the workers on the job can have a great impact on cost. The differences in labor applied happen on every job even though the job itself may be identical in nature. Like building 10 houses exactly the same in a row house construction site. Weather conditions, employee "mix", motivation, who is in charge as foreman, work pace and a variety of variables offer a challenge every time a new project is started. Unlike manufacturing where you may have an assembly line of robots "timed perfectly" to coincide and work together, with products moving down a conveyor belt to completion stages, the "human element" isn't that predictable by comparison. The best you can hope for then when working with changing costs ... is the average cost ... expected when taking into consideration various costs elements and sometimes you are over and sometimes you are under ... but on average you survive and on average you make a profit.
Cost Theory
The theory of costs is important to understand for several reasons. They tell us about the inner workings of our business. Consider these scenarios of cost:
. Costs were far underestimated so all jobs were bid too low. Many of them far below what the average competition would have charged for the exact same work.
. Costs are ignored and jobs are priced on what the competition charges for the same work. Later, it's discovered that while the prices were right (competitive market conditions) no attempt was made to control costs, and know them so that adequate profits could be produced. Since costs were "unknown" no one knew what the "goals" were so that labor and material input targets to reach or maintain were not understood.
. Substantial cost increases are forthcoming for most of the coming year but ignored or not considered by management. Every one of the competition raised prices ... except for you. Now, customers are beating a path to your door because of low price which is good for them, but job cost and profit losses which are bad for you.
. Costs are unknown so management doesn't know just how much business must be contracted to cover all costs and produce and adquate level of profit. In the meanwhile, prices are set too high, only a few contracts are signed, the current overhead costs "gobble up" the available cash generated on an inadequate sales volume.
Precautions about "cost" ... being cost savvy ... knowing your numbers and stuff like that.
Most people think that cost is what you spent when you bought something. What you actually paid for it. In accounting we call that an expense ... NOT a cost ! The cash that goes out the door to pay and buy something. Forget that idea ... that's not good enough ... if that's what you are using your cost for estimating and pricing purposes for your business ... and know that real costs for our purposes is not what YOU PAID for something but "what it was supposed to cost you" ... now it gets a little confusing you're saying ?
Cost - It's not what it actually is ... it's what it's supposed to be ... call it an "ideal cost"
What you were "supposed" to pay for something is what we call a "standard cost" (expected average costs based on cost history, adjustments and forecasts) AND a cost that will be competitive and accepted by the market and customer who must be able to afford to absorb them ... even after a profit is added. That standard cost is also an "ideal cost" because we need to come close to making it happen if we're to survive in business. If you don't believe that ... may I drop one name on you ? ... China. So, when you begin to investigate your costs, look beyond those numbers in front of you and ask ... hey wait a minute ... sure the cost I see is ($whatever$) but what should it have costed me ? ... now you're thinking like an accountant ... you're thinking ... what would my costs be if I used the best production method (can't be done faster or better) and had state of the art equipment, materials, tools and "ambitious workers" to help make it happen ? ... well if you're thinking those things ... along those lines now you're talking like a business man. In other words ... it's not what it is ... it's what it's supposed to be ... call it an "ideal cost" ... that's your target to go for ... and you can't go for it if you don't know what it is. What are your ideal costs for what you service or produce ?
For the small business owner who must create his own paycheck running his business, this paycheck comes from two sources in most businesses. One, a salary of check drawn each week which you could say represents a "management cost" to his company, even though he is the management and part two a return on investment of assets employed to carry out the work. Above those amounts and we look for other amounts called bonuses or payouts above normal costs. Why? ... because your job as Boss is only worth just so much. That amount is what it would cost to replace you at what you do in your own company. That's why it's called a management cost to the company. It's what the job is worth in the labor market. In other words, if you were employed by others (doing what you do) that is the amount expected as a paycheck. Remember to keep that in mind when pricing your work because if ... (IF) your own paycheck is excessive then your price may also be excessive since you may have "costed it into your price schedule" and that excess will not help you to compete with others who take a more "realistic" salary in the same industry that you work in.
How long will the job take ?
Accounting For Labor Costs
No matter how difficult it may be to prepare job bid contracts, you should know that it's impossible, absolutely impossible to bid on a contract without knowing time. I don't mean knowing time by looking at your pocket watch, I mean time for every part of the work. This is commonly referred to as knowing the scope of the work. How long does it take to mow grass, dig a ****, plant a tree, prune a shrub, edge a sidewalk, travel to and from the worksite, get the equipment and vehicles ready to roll each morning? And when you take a look at the hundreds of tasks being performed, that alone clues you in to the fact that there are hundreds of times you can be wrong. That's why I said it's impossible to develop a contract bid without knowing time and the scope of the work.
Because of the tedious nature of knowing time, lots of folks just guess at it, and then use those guesses to prepare a job bid. It's not necessary to do that, and it's what I consider a form of "financial suicide". Why? Several reasons. The first is that if you're going to take the time and trouble to bid a job, the outcome should be a price that is not higher or lower than it has to be to produce an adequate profit. Here, we abandon the hit or miss approach by using intelligent work times ... or call them time standards assigned to labor hours and labor tasks. Standards are the average time it takes to perform a task, and to complete the work. The best standards of course are those that are proven because these give you a high level of confidence in the outcomes for pricing and production purposes. Proven time standards come with their own set of high confidence factors that you feel comfortable in using.
If you're going to do it often ... time it.
The most common standards to want if you do maintenance is the time it takes to mow lawns. That's because about 50% of the total time spent annually on an average customer account will be for mowing. If you don't know mowing times, that one thing will distort your bid price, your production time planning, and equipment allocations unless you "guess lucky". But why guess? All you need to do is measure for the scope of the work, adjust for worksite variables, assign a level of difficulty factor and then time ... the time ... it takes to mow using various sized equipment. Apply that information? No problem. First, larger areas are best mowed using high production equipment, with lessor productivity as you descend down, down to smaller and smaller lawn areas. When you have the square footage, you have the scope of the work. Using mowing tables depending on machine, then indicates the average mowing time. That's pretty straight forward. You visit the site and divide it into the approriate mowing category, and maybe end up with two or three different sized mowers needed for the job. On almost any site, you're likely to need several sized mowers if you are to produce the job using the fastest and best production method.
For example a site may require a rider to mow 50,000 square feet, a walk behind mower to mow 30,000 square feet, and a trim mower to take care of the smaller, tighter areas of 5,000 square feet. When you measure the site, you simply separate the areas measured into the right mower size category, rather than coming away only knowing that you have a total of 85,000 square to mow. Having that information and using it with a production table tells you how long each sized mower will be needed for the job. From that info you can assign the work, establish time goals, reserve a time block for equipment, decide on the best number of workers to do the mowing, and of course come up with a cost and price for the mowing. This same approach to job measurement can be used for other items found within the work specifications ... not just mowing. All you need is the job criteria from which to measure or putting it differently, when you know quantity, you understand the scope of the work.
How much work is there?
You'll never really know until you count it all. That's the same as saying that if you want to paint a house, to know labor time and the gallons of paint needed, you need to measure the walls, trim,and other surface areas to form the criteria and basis for your estimate. From there you arrive at material costs, labor time, price and have an idea of the tooling needed for the job. Material costs are known, labor time is known, price is known, so the only other cost is the overhead dollars to cover payroll taxes, insurance, equipment depreciation, rent, telephone, and other expenses that you can break down to an hourly basis for convenience sake when bidding jobs. That information can come from your tax return or financial statement which serves as your historical cost record. Using those figures takes much of the guesswork out of the bid process and instills a greator degree of bidding confidence as you get to know and use the numbers year after year. If somebody asks you what it costs to put a man in the field for an hour, you'll know the answer. You'll also know at what rate per hour you must charge to use for your pricing strategy.
In addition to knowing cost and price, when you know job time requirements, while a job is underway, you'll have figures to use to not only check your cost budget for the work, but actual on-site experienced job times to look at and compare. Your job estimate may indicate that the total job was supposed to be completed in let's say 100 man hours, but it took 120 or it took 90. When that happens ... a variation between estimated time and actual time to complete, then you look for the reasons for the variations. You may find that your standard times need to be changed up or down to imporve their accuracy to use on all future bids.
You sell time
The business of most service businesses is that they sell time. So time should be clearly understood and tracked as a vital part of labor, production and profit management. Of course you'll have to make certain that when you assign time to a job task that you use the best production method by selecting the most efficient equipment available.
How To Determine Contract Costs
Material - Labor - Overhead Costs
by Phil Nilsson
www.nilssonbooks.com (http://www.nilssonbooks.com/)
For: Hardscape -Lawn Care - Landscape Construction - Grounds Maintenance - Facility Managers
The better you know costs, the more certain you are of profits. This book clears up confusion about determining costs and controlling them. Step-by-step examples are used and explained so that you can apply them to your business. Examines systems used to bid the work and compare costs upon job completion. How To Determine Job Costs - for commercial Lawn Care Services - Landscaping Business - Grounds Maintenance Contractors is a tool for bidding & estimating, cost & profit improvement and to track business results. Learn how to calculate direct costs, indirect costs, overhead costs and apply an overhead rate to your job bidding & pricing estimates.
Contents
How To Control Costs
Setting Up A Company Cost System
How To Establish a Price Based On Cost
Cost Accounting - What You Should Know
Chart of Accounts - Financials - Cost Reports
How To Develop Cost "Models" for Fast Job Bidding
Standard Costs and How To Use Them To Control Labor
Easy Way To Pinpoint: Direct, Indirect & Overhead Costs
Cost Variables - Track Profits Everyday in Under 15 Minutes
Track Employee Performance Using Predictable Labor Cost Hours
How To Order:
How To Determine Contract Cost
Book # C-25 - Price $39.50 plus S&H $5.00
can be ordered Toll Free by calling 1-866-280-2252
To order by mail or fax using Credit Card, Debit Card - Fax to 1-860-628-0174
Checks Payable To Nilsson Associates
Nilsson Associates
374 Hart Street
Southington, CT 06489
Questions call Toll Free 1-866-280-2252 or email nilsson.assoc@snet.net
About the author:
Business consultant, speaker, nationally recognized best selling landscape business author, Phil Nilsson's articles are published in Lawn & Landscape, PRO Magazine, The Arborist and Landscaper Publications. Nilsson's books are endorsed by national trade organizations and are in use by thousands of landscapers, parks, municipalities, universities and property managers. Nilsson owned and operated a successful Landscape Design-Build-Maintain firm for 15 years, holds an Accounting Degree and has a background in CPA firms and corporate financial management for several NYSE publicly held companies as Divisional Controller in manufacturing, defense and retail industries. Considered an expert on job estimating, management information systems, financial analysis, acquisitions, sales and mergers, business improvement, and business writing. In addition, Nilsson has presented numerous seminars for Green Industry Associations at the state and national level, as well as for contractors, suppliers and educational organizations.
http://www.hardscapingbusinesstrainingcenter.com/forums/images/misc/progress.gif
by Phil Nilsson www.nilssonbooks.com (http://www.nilssonbooks.com/)
The concept of "job cost" has wide application and significance for most contractors. Costs are incurred and introduced into various construction projects every day. Knowingly or unknowingly, the contractor is using costs that are estimated to provide job bids. Later and as the work is begun, costs are introduced into the job. The most obvious costs are those costs that are referred to as direct costs. These direct costs are easily seen and understood by use of materials and through the introduction of labor. The job goes forward, the costs build up and accumulate until there are no more costs for that particular job. The work ends, and a billing is made. The big question at that point is usually "Did I make any money on that job and if so ... how much" ? The answer to that question is usually asked "too late" if the outcome of profit and loss or marginal results is not seen and understood before, and during the production stages of the work. When it's all over, the answer to our question serves only as an educational tool, one that we can learn from. But the real function of knowing and applying costs is done with one and only one thought in mind ... control. Making it happen. Control comes from and control is managed best when we know what to expect failrly accurately in our costs. Otherwise, the profit becomes an unknown and setting the right price becomes a mystery.
Control comes from and control is managed best when we know what to expect.
Cost is a term that contractors should equate with another word ... goal. The goal is to complete the work within the confines of reasonable cost. Reasonable cost, all expense accumulated as the work is begun, carried out and completed, leaves an adequate amount of room for profit. No company except perhaps a non-profit company survives without profit. The amount of profit we earn tells us that we are properly setting a price, controlling the application of materials and labor, and therefore realize that a profit and the amount of profit expected is guaranteed to happen. Price, costs, production and above all management that's effective. Cost is the beginning of that chain of events after a price has been identified. Knowing costs is absolutely essential if (IF) we are to control costs. By that I mean we're not interested in discouraging costs by cutting corners, or trying to overwork our workers to make up the difference in our cost. Controlling costs means that you don't surpass the estimated costs, thus discouraging profitability. Controlling costs is a matter of getting to know costs, using them in labor and materials estimates and actually making them happen during field conditions. In the absence of controlling costs, while in the presence of an adequately priced job, not controlling costs means that profits are being wasted. Pure and simple. When the price is the "right price" and the costs fully known, to then exceed these costs is to give money away as if you were in the business of making contributions, instead of in the business of making money.
The illusive nature of costs is that they are constantly undergoing change. It's not only wage rates rising, or materials being higher, fuel costs changes and the like ... but the level of productivity from the workers on the job can have a great impact on cost. The differences in labor applied happen on every job even though the job itself may be identical in nature. Like building 10 houses exactly the same in a row house construction site. Weather conditions, employee "mix", motivation, who is in charge as foreman, work pace and a variety of variables offer a challenge every time a new project is started. Unlike manufacturing where you may have an assembly line of robots "timed perfectly" to coincide and work together, with products moving down a conveyor belt to completion stages, the "human element" isn't that predictable by comparison. The best you can hope for then when working with changing costs ... is the average cost ... expected when taking into consideration various costs elements and sometimes you are over and sometimes you are under ... but on average you survive and on average you make a profit.
Cost Theory
The theory of costs is important to understand for several reasons. They tell us about the inner workings of our business. Consider these scenarios of cost:
. Costs were far underestimated so all jobs were bid too low. Many of them far below what the average competition would have charged for the exact same work.
. Costs are ignored and jobs are priced on what the competition charges for the same work. Later, it's discovered that while the prices were right (competitive market conditions) no attempt was made to control costs, and know them so that adequate profits could be produced. Since costs were "unknown" no one knew what the "goals" were so that labor and material input targets to reach or maintain were not understood.
. Substantial cost increases are forthcoming for most of the coming year but ignored or not considered by management. Every one of the competition raised prices ... except for you. Now, customers are beating a path to your door because of low price which is good for them, but job cost and profit losses which are bad for you.
. Costs are unknown so management doesn't know just how much business must be contracted to cover all costs and produce and adquate level of profit. In the meanwhile, prices are set too high, only a few contracts are signed, the current overhead costs "gobble up" the available cash generated on an inadequate sales volume.
Precautions about "cost" ... being cost savvy ... knowing your numbers and stuff like that.
Most people think that cost is what you spent when you bought something. What you actually paid for it. In accounting we call that an expense ... NOT a cost ! The cash that goes out the door to pay and buy something. Forget that idea ... that's not good enough ... if that's what you are using your cost for estimating and pricing purposes for your business ... and know that real costs for our purposes is not what YOU PAID for something but "what it was supposed to cost you" ... now it gets a little confusing you're saying ?
Cost - It's not what it actually is ... it's what it's supposed to be ... call it an "ideal cost"
What you were "supposed" to pay for something is what we call a "standard cost" (expected average costs based on cost history, adjustments and forecasts) AND a cost that will be competitive and accepted by the market and customer who must be able to afford to absorb them ... even after a profit is added. That standard cost is also an "ideal cost" because we need to come close to making it happen if we're to survive in business. If you don't believe that ... may I drop one name on you ? ... China. So, when you begin to investigate your costs, look beyond those numbers in front of you and ask ... hey wait a minute ... sure the cost I see is ($whatever$) but what should it have costed me ? ... now you're thinking like an accountant ... you're thinking ... what would my costs be if I used the best production method (can't be done faster or better) and had state of the art equipment, materials, tools and "ambitious workers" to help make it happen ? ... well if you're thinking those things ... along those lines now you're talking like a business man. In other words ... it's not what it is ... it's what it's supposed to be ... call it an "ideal cost" ... that's your target to go for ... and you can't go for it if you don't know what it is. What are your ideal costs for what you service or produce ?
For the small business owner who must create his own paycheck running his business, this paycheck comes from two sources in most businesses. One, a salary of check drawn each week which you could say represents a "management cost" to his company, even though he is the management and part two a return on investment of assets employed to carry out the work. Above those amounts and we look for other amounts called bonuses or payouts above normal costs. Why? ... because your job as Boss is only worth just so much. That amount is what it would cost to replace you at what you do in your own company. That's why it's called a management cost to the company. It's what the job is worth in the labor market. In other words, if you were employed by others (doing what you do) that is the amount expected as a paycheck. Remember to keep that in mind when pricing your work because if ... (IF) your own paycheck is excessive then your price may also be excessive since you may have "costed it into your price schedule" and that excess will not help you to compete with others who take a more "realistic" salary in the same industry that you work in.
How long will the job take ?
Accounting For Labor Costs
No matter how difficult it may be to prepare job bid contracts, you should know that it's impossible, absolutely impossible to bid on a contract without knowing time. I don't mean knowing time by looking at your pocket watch, I mean time for every part of the work. This is commonly referred to as knowing the scope of the work. How long does it take to mow grass, dig a ****, plant a tree, prune a shrub, edge a sidewalk, travel to and from the worksite, get the equipment and vehicles ready to roll each morning? And when you take a look at the hundreds of tasks being performed, that alone clues you in to the fact that there are hundreds of times you can be wrong. That's why I said it's impossible to develop a contract bid without knowing time and the scope of the work.
Because of the tedious nature of knowing time, lots of folks just guess at it, and then use those guesses to prepare a job bid. It's not necessary to do that, and it's what I consider a form of "financial suicide". Why? Several reasons. The first is that if you're going to take the time and trouble to bid a job, the outcome should be a price that is not higher or lower than it has to be to produce an adequate profit. Here, we abandon the hit or miss approach by using intelligent work times ... or call them time standards assigned to labor hours and labor tasks. Standards are the average time it takes to perform a task, and to complete the work. The best standards of course are those that are proven because these give you a high level of confidence in the outcomes for pricing and production purposes. Proven time standards come with their own set of high confidence factors that you feel comfortable in using.
If you're going to do it often ... time it.
The most common standards to want if you do maintenance is the time it takes to mow lawns. That's because about 50% of the total time spent annually on an average customer account will be for mowing. If you don't know mowing times, that one thing will distort your bid price, your production time planning, and equipment allocations unless you "guess lucky". But why guess? All you need to do is measure for the scope of the work, adjust for worksite variables, assign a level of difficulty factor and then time ... the time ... it takes to mow using various sized equipment. Apply that information? No problem. First, larger areas are best mowed using high production equipment, with lessor productivity as you descend down, down to smaller and smaller lawn areas. When you have the square footage, you have the scope of the work. Using mowing tables depending on machine, then indicates the average mowing time. That's pretty straight forward. You visit the site and divide it into the approriate mowing category, and maybe end up with two or three different sized mowers needed for the job. On almost any site, you're likely to need several sized mowers if you are to produce the job using the fastest and best production method.
For example a site may require a rider to mow 50,000 square feet, a walk behind mower to mow 30,000 square feet, and a trim mower to take care of the smaller, tighter areas of 5,000 square feet. When you measure the site, you simply separate the areas measured into the right mower size category, rather than coming away only knowing that you have a total of 85,000 square to mow. Having that information and using it with a production table tells you how long each sized mower will be needed for the job. From that info you can assign the work, establish time goals, reserve a time block for equipment, decide on the best number of workers to do the mowing, and of course come up with a cost and price for the mowing. This same approach to job measurement can be used for other items found within the work specifications ... not just mowing. All you need is the job criteria from which to measure or putting it differently, when you know quantity, you understand the scope of the work.
How much work is there?
You'll never really know until you count it all. That's the same as saying that if you want to paint a house, to know labor time and the gallons of paint needed, you need to measure the walls, trim,and other surface areas to form the criteria and basis for your estimate. From there you arrive at material costs, labor time, price and have an idea of the tooling needed for the job. Material costs are known, labor time is known, price is known, so the only other cost is the overhead dollars to cover payroll taxes, insurance, equipment depreciation, rent, telephone, and other expenses that you can break down to an hourly basis for convenience sake when bidding jobs. That information can come from your tax return or financial statement which serves as your historical cost record. Using those figures takes much of the guesswork out of the bid process and instills a greator degree of bidding confidence as you get to know and use the numbers year after year. If somebody asks you what it costs to put a man in the field for an hour, you'll know the answer. You'll also know at what rate per hour you must charge to use for your pricing strategy.
In addition to knowing cost and price, when you know job time requirements, while a job is underway, you'll have figures to use to not only check your cost budget for the work, but actual on-site experienced job times to look at and compare. Your job estimate may indicate that the total job was supposed to be completed in let's say 100 man hours, but it took 120 or it took 90. When that happens ... a variation between estimated time and actual time to complete, then you look for the reasons for the variations. You may find that your standard times need to be changed up or down to imporve their accuracy to use on all future bids.
You sell time
The business of most service businesses is that they sell time. So time should be clearly understood and tracked as a vital part of labor, production and profit management. Of course you'll have to make certain that when you assign time to a job task that you use the best production method by selecting the most efficient equipment available.
How To Determine Contract Costs
Material - Labor - Overhead Costs
by Phil Nilsson
www.nilssonbooks.com (http://www.nilssonbooks.com/)
For: Hardscape -Lawn Care - Landscape Construction - Grounds Maintenance - Facility Managers
The better you know costs, the more certain you are of profits. This book clears up confusion about determining costs and controlling them. Step-by-step examples are used and explained so that you can apply them to your business. Examines systems used to bid the work and compare costs upon job completion. How To Determine Job Costs - for commercial Lawn Care Services - Landscaping Business - Grounds Maintenance Contractors is a tool for bidding & estimating, cost & profit improvement and to track business results. Learn how to calculate direct costs, indirect costs, overhead costs and apply an overhead rate to your job bidding & pricing estimates.
Contents
How To Control Costs
Setting Up A Company Cost System
How To Establish a Price Based On Cost
Cost Accounting - What You Should Know
Chart of Accounts - Financials - Cost Reports
How To Develop Cost "Models" for Fast Job Bidding
Standard Costs and How To Use Them To Control Labor
Easy Way To Pinpoint: Direct, Indirect & Overhead Costs
Cost Variables - Track Profits Everyday in Under 15 Minutes
Track Employee Performance Using Predictable Labor Cost Hours
How To Order:
How To Determine Contract Cost
Book # C-25 - Price $39.50 plus S&H $5.00
can be ordered Toll Free by calling 1-866-280-2252
To order by mail or fax using Credit Card, Debit Card - Fax to 1-860-628-0174
Checks Payable To Nilsson Associates
Nilsson Associates
374 Hart Street
Southington, CT 06489
Questions call Toll Free 1-866-280-2252 or email nilsson.assoc@snet.net
About the author:
Business consultant, speaker, nationally recognized best selling landscape business author, Phil Nilsson's articles are published in Lawn & Landscape, PRO Magazine, The Arborist and Landscaper Publications. Nilsson's books are endorsed by national trade organizations and are in use by thousands of landscapers, parks, municipalities, universities and property managers. Nilsson owned and operated a successful Landscape Design-Build-Maintain firm for 15 years, holds an Accounting Degree and has a background in CPA firms and corporate financial management for several NYSE publicly held companies as Divisional Controller in manufacturing, defense and retail industries. Considered an expert on job estimating, management information systems, financial analysis, acquisitions, sales and mergers, business improvement, and business writing. In addition, Nilsson has presented numerous seminars for Green Industry Associations at the state and national level, as well as for contractors, suppliers and educational organizations.
http://www.hardscapingbusinesstrainingcenter.com/forums/images/misc/progress.gif