Profit21 NL

Service Orders

Actual vs. Estimate

Compare estimated and actual price and cost for service items on production orders — identify where jobs ran over budget on parts or labor.

What This Report Shows

The Actual vs. Estimate report compares what was quoted or estimated against what was actually charged and cost for each service item on a production order. It covers both parts and labor separately so you can see exactly where jobs went over or under budget.

Estimates are set when the service order is created — based on standard pricing, labor rate cards, and expected hours. Actuals accumulate as parts are issued and technicians log time. The gap between the two reveals your estimating accuracy and operational efficiency.

This report is most useful for identifying patterns: Are certain item types consistently under-estimated? Are specific technicians or locations generating more labor overruns?

Parts: Estimated vs Actual

The parts comparison shows three price layers and two cost layers:

Est Parts Priceest_ext_price_for_parts — the price quoted to the customer for parts when the order was created.
Act Parts Priceactual_price_for_parts — what was actually charged for the parts issued to complete the job.
Total Parts Pricetotal_price_for_parts — may differ if partial completion or multiple invoicing events occurred.
Est Parts Costest_ext_sales_cost_for_parts — your expected cost of the parts at estimate time.
Act Sales Costactual_sales_cost_for_parts — your actual cost for parts issued, at moving average cost.

Comm cost and Other cost fields capture commission and miscellaneous cost components applied to the service item separately from the standard sales cost.

Labor: Estimated vs Actual

Labor variances are often the largest source of cost overruns on service orders. P21 tracks:

Est Labor PriceThe labor charge quoted to the customer — hours × rate at estimate time.
Act Labor PriceThe labor charge actually invoiced — based on Hours Charged × rate.
Total Labor PriceRolled-up total across all labor lines; may include supplemental charges.
Est Labor CostYour internal cost estimate — expected Hours Worked × technician pay rate.
Act Labor CostYour actual internal cost — Hours Worked × pay rate (including overtime/holiday).
Charged Labor CostCost calculated from Hours Charged — what you used to bill the customer.

Reading the Variance Column

The Δ (delta) columns show how actual charges compared to estimates as a percentage:

Red / positiveActual exceeded estimate by >10% — job ran over budget
NeutralWithin ±10% of estimate — normal operating variance
Green / negativeActual came in under estimate by >10% — efficiency gain or under-billing

A consistent pattern of negative labor variance (under-billing) may indicate that technicians are logging fewer hours than actually worked, or that flat-rate billing is not keeping up with job complexity.

A consistent pattern of positive variance on parts suggests your pricing at estimate time is lagging behind actual material cost increases.

Improving Estimate Accuracy

This report feeds directly into estimating improvement. Common actions:

  1. 1Filter to completed items only — open orders have incomplete actuals and will distort variance.
  2. 2Group by item type (item_id) to find which service items are chronically under-estimated.
  3. 3Compare est_labor_cost vs actual_labor_cost by taker (service writer) to identify who writes the most accurate quotes.
  4. 4Update labor rate cards and standard hours in P21 for item types with persistent overruns.

Service Items — Actual vs. Estimate (Last 2 Years)