Job costing that shows the true profit on every job
Volca brings your ServiceTitan jobs, payroll, vendor invoices, card spend, and GL into one place, then reports profit by business unit, job type, technician, and job every week. No waiting for month-end close.
For HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies running
Profitability
Week of Oct 13Labor from payroll, materials from vendor invoices, card spend and GL included.
Flagged this week
3 newJob #48213 · HVAC install
Invoiced $14,200 and recorded a $1,860 loss. Labor ran 50% over plan with a lead installer and two helpers.
Ferguson · Lennox equipment
Unit cost up 30% since August. Pricebook still at the old price on 14 items.
Invoice for PO-22817
$3,412 vendor invoice references a PO that isn't in ServiceTitan. Cost not on a job yet.
Sent to managers Monday 7:00 AM by email and Slack
Month-end job costing is a month too late
Most shops find out what a job made weeks after the crew left. The costs are spread across ServiceTitan, the payroll provider, vendor invoices, card statements, and the GL, so someone rebuilds the picture in spreadsheets after close.
By then the install that lost money has been repeated. The vendor price increase has been sold at the old price for a month. The PO that never got attached is still sitting in someone's inbox.
Home services has shifted from chasing top-line growth to protecting margin. That only works when you can see margin while there's still time to act on it.
“If you have to wait until month-end close to do job costing, you're already a month behind.”
Every cost that touches a job, on the job
Volca connects to the systems you already use and reads the ones that don't have an API. Data comes in by API, webhook, a forwarding inbox, or a file you drop in.
Data sources
8 connected
- ServiceTitanJobs, invoices, master job reportsAPISynced 6:02 AM
- Payroll and time clockPaylocity, ADP, Paycom, ServiceTitan timesheetsAPISynced 6:05 AM
- Vendor invoicesFerguson, Lennox, Carrier, and every other supplierForwarding inboxRead 24/7
- AccountingQuickBooks or Sage GL entriesAPISynced 6:10 AM
- Card spendRamp and company card transactionsAPISynced daily
- Financing feesGoodLeap, GreenSkyFile uploadWeekly
- PermitsCity and county permit fees by jobEmail or uploadAs received
- Marketing spendFacebook, Angi, ThumbtackAPI or uploadWeekly
Labor
Hours, commissions, and overtime from payroll land on the jobs that earned them.
Payroll AutomationMaterials and equipment
Vendor invoices are read line by line and matched to the PO and job, even when they arrive after the job closes.
AP AutomationEverything else
Card spend, permits, financing fees, and the marketing that produced the lead, allocated to business units and jobs.
Profit by business unit, job type, technician, and job
The same costs, four ways. Target margins are set by job type and business unit when you start, so every number on the report already tells you whether it's good.
Which kinds of work make money, so you know what to sell harder and what to reprice.
Find the leaks before they repeat
Volca's accounting agents run the checks your controller would run if they had the time, every day or every week. Each manager gets only the flags that belong to them, by email, Slack, or Teams.
This week's flags
7 openChecked across 1,284 jobs · Mon 6:30 AM
Revenue job recorded a loss
#48213 · Furnace and AC replacement
Labor ran 50% over plan. The lead installer pulled two helpers for a second day that wasn't in the estimate.
- Revenue
- $14,200
- Equipment and materials
- $8,940
- Labor, planned
- $4,750
- Labor, actual
- $7,120
- Job profit
- -$1,860
Sent to the HVAC install manager in Slack
Vendor raised prices
14 items
Lennox equipment from Ferguson is up 30%. HVAC install margin dropped about 20% on jobs sold at the old price.
Routed to Purchasing
Cost not attached to a job
$3,412
Invoice for PO-22817 references a PO that doesn't exist in ServiceTitan.
Routed to AP
Material sold below cost
-$38 / job
A 50-gallon water heater is priced $38 under what you paid on your last three invoices.
Routed to Plumbing manager
Duplicate pricebook entries
6 jobs
Two entries for the same condenser with different prices. Techs picked the lower one on 6 jobs.
Routed to Pricebook admin
Marketing into a losing unit
$20,000 / mo
$20,000 a month in Facebook spend is producing leads for the business unit with the lowest margin.
Routed to Owner
Technician trend
2 techs
Two install leads who were profitable through summer have dropped below target since September.
Routed to Install manager
Ask your numbers anything
Type a question the way you'd ask your controller. Volca answers from your costed jobs and shows the jobs behind the answer.
Three of 22 HVAC install jobs closed below zero, for a combined loss of $4,120. Two ran long on labor with extra helpers. One used Lennox equipment billed at the new Ferguson price but sold from the old pricebook.
Built around how your shop already does it
Volca's team sets up your job costing side by side with your controller. You keep your definitions, your business units, and your targets.
Show us how you do it today
Record yourself or your controller running job costing the way you do now, spreadsheets and all. Volca's team builds your process from that recording, not from a template.
Match your past months first
Volca runs the process against your last few months of jobs and checks the results against your own reference numbers before anything goes live.
Set targets and start with core reports
Target gross margins go in by job type and business unit. Most shops start with a handful of core reports and add more once the numbers are trusted.
Let it run on schedule
Saved reports run daily, weekly, or monthly. Volca does the middle 80% of the work and your team reviews the exceptions in minutes instead of days.
Shops that run job costing on Volca
Payroll and job costing run on the same ServiceTitan data, so the labor on every job is the labor you actually paid.
10 min
or less of weekly payroll review, with profitability by business unit, job type, job, and employee
Monkey WrenchGroup-wide
rollout of Volca for payroll and job costing across its brands
Flint Group
$500M+
in payroll calculated, the labor side of every costed job
Volca customers
1M+
vendor invoices reconciled, the material side of every costed job
Volca customers
“Volca removed the entire data entry piece for us and saves me hours every week. I don't worry about it anymore.”
Kevin Carvajal, General Manager, Monkey WrenchRead the storyWho Volca is for
Volca works only with home services companies on ServiceTitan, from single-branch shops to groups running many brands. That focus is why it already understands your business units, job types, pay plans, and vendors.
You're a fit if
- You run ServiceTitan as your system of record
- HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or another home services trade
- One shop or a group of branches and brands
- QuickBooks or Sage on the accounting side
- Owners and GMs
- Know which business units, job types, and technicians make money while there's still time to change course.
- CFOs and controllers
- Stop rebuilding job costing in spreadsheets after close. Review exceptions instead of building reports.
- Operations managers
- See which jobs ran over on labor or materials while the crew still remembers why.
- Group and PE operators
- Compare margin across brands and branches on one consistent definition of job cost.
One platform for the whole back office
Job costing is only as accurate as the labor and material costs feeding it. Payroll Automation and AP Automation put both on the right job automatically.
Job Costing
You're hereTrue profit on every job, every week.
Weekly job costing and profitability by business unit, job type, employee, and job, built from ServiceTitan, payroll, vendor invoices, card spend, and GL data.
Every commission calculated for you.
Custom payroll engines that calculate commissions, spiffs, performance pay, hourly, and overtime from ServiceTitan, then send every employee a pay pack before payroll runs.
Vendor invoices matched to jobs 24/7.
Reads every vendor invoice line by line, matches materials and equipment to ServiceTitan POs and jobs, updates the pricebook when vendor prices change, and syncs bills to QuickBooks or Sage.
Job costing questions
What is job costing for a home services company?
Job costing adds up everything a job actually cost (technician labor, materials, equipment, permits, financing fees, and the marketing that produced it) and compares it to what the job brought in. Done well, it tells you which business units, job types, technicians, and individual jobs make money and which quietly lose it.
What data does Volca use to cost a job?
Volca starts with your ServiceTitan jobs and invoices, then adds labor from your payroll or time clock (such as Paylocity, ADP, or Paycom), vendor invoices forwarded to a Volca inbox, card spend, QuickBooks or Sage GL entries, financing fees, permits, and marketing spend. Data arrives by API, webhook, email forwarding, or a simple file upload.
How is this different from the job costing reports in ServiceTitan?
ServiceTitan holds the job, the invoice, and the work that was done. Much of the cost lives elsewhere: payroll, vendor invoices that arrive after the job closes, POs that never got attached, card purchases, and GL entries. Volca brings those costs onto the right job so the profit number reflects what the job really cost.
How often is my job costing updated?
Volca runs your job costing on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule you choose, so you see last week's margins this week instead of waiting for month-end close. Managers get a short summary by email, Slack, or Teams with only the numbers and flags that matter to them.
Do I need Volca payroll or AP to use job costing?
No. Job costing works with your current payroll provider and AP process. Many shops add Volca Payroll Automation and AP Automation later because they put accurate labor and material costs on every job automatically, which makes job costing more complete with less cleanup.
How does onboarding work?
You record yourself or your controller doing job costing the way you do it today. Volca rebuilds that process, runs it against the last few months of your jobs, and checks the results against your own reference numbers. Most shops start with their core reports, set target gross margins by job type and business unit, and add reports from there.
What does Volca cost?
Volca is month-to-month, with nothing annual and nothing upfront. Pricing depends on your shops and the reports you need, so talk to us for a quote.
Who is Volca built for?
Volca works only with home services companies that run ServiceTitan: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other trades. Customers range from single-branch shops to groups that run many brands and branches.
Stop waiting for month-end to learn what a job made
Walk us through how you job cost today, and we'll show you how Volca would run it every week for your shops.