Big Dog Mining

Job Cost and Margin, Mining and Heavy Civil Contractors

What one job has really cost you so far, what it has made, what each meter, metric ton or cubic meter costs you against what you bill for it, and whether you are over or under budget for how far along it is. Surface or underground, drilling, development, earthworks or haulage. It runs on your numbers only. No handbook publishes what a contractor's job costs, so there is no industry average on this page.

Step 1 - The work and what you bill

The numbers already in the boxes are an example, not a standard: a drilling job 1,200 meters in, billed at $95 a meter. Replace every one with yours, from your shift reports and your contract.

Work done so far ?

What your contract pays on, done to date. Example: 1,200 meters.

Contract rate ?per m Other billed ?to date

Currency ?

Step 2 - What it has cost you

Only you know these, and they come off your own timesheets, equipment hours and invoices. If you have to guess, the answer is a guess too.

Crew hours ?h Burdened labor rate ?per hour

Equipment working hours ?h Equipment rate ?per hour

Consumables and materials ?to date Subcontract ?to date

Standby you cannot bill ?h Standby cost ?per hour

Overhead you carry on this job ?% of direct cost

Your own allocation. There is no right number, only yours.

Step 3 - Against the budget

Optional. Leave the budget at 0 to skip it. The comparison is the budget for the whole job scaled to how far along it is, so a job half done is held to half its budget.

Budgeted cost, whole job ?total How far along ?% complete

margin to date

of revenue

cost per unit of work

against budget

Step	Value	Where it comes from

Cost per unit, by where it goes

Budget against actual, so far

What this does not count. It counts what you put in and nothing else. It does not know about money you are owed but have not billed, a claim still in dispute, retention the client is holding, or the interest on cash you are waiting for. It does not forecast the rest of the job. It does not split equipment into ownership and running costs; the equipment rate is yours and so is that split. And it cannot tell you whether your hours are right: a job cost is only as good as the shift reports and timesheets it was built from.

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Worked example

Worked with the values this page loads with, so the method can be checked by hand, line by line without entering anything. Change any input above and the calculator recomputes; the numbers below stay as a fixed reference case.

$8,541
7.5%
$87.88 /m
+$959 over

Work done: 1,200 m × $95.00 per m	$114,000	your quantity, your contract rate
+ other billed	$0	your input
= revenue to date	$114,000	work × rate + other billed
Labor: 480 h × $62.00	$29,760	your hours, your burdened rate
Equipment: 440 h × $110.00	$48,400	your hours, your equipment rate
Consumables and materials	$11,500	your input
Subcontract	$0	your input
Unbilled standby: 30 h × $150.00	$4,500	your hours, your standby cost
= direct cost	$94,160	labor + equipment + consumables + subcontract + standby
Overhead: 12.0% of direct cost	$11,299	your allocation
= job cost to date	$105,459	direct cost + overhead
= margin to date	$8,541	revenue − job cost, the headline number
Margin as a share of revenue	7.5%	margin ÷ revenue
Cost per m: job cost ÷ 1,200 m	$87.88	what a unit of work costs you
Billed per m: revenue ÷ 1,200 m	$95.00	what a unit of work earns you
Budget earned: $190,000 × 55.0%	$104,500	your budget, scaled to how far along
= cost against budget (job cost − budget earned)	+$959	over budget if positive, under if negative

See all the calculators

Estimating aid only. The answer is only as good as the numbers you put in. It is not an accounting figure, not an audit and not a quote. Check it against your own books. Full terms and disclaimer.