BUILDERS’ COSTS AND ESTIMATES.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 8, 1 April 1920, Page 766

BUILDERS’ COSTS AND ESTIMATES.

By R. A. DERRICK.

(Concluded).

The weekly pay rolls are totalled and checked and extended on the morning of pay day, and they should-then be up to date to the evening before payday. This is standard practice, and it will be seen that the keeping of these labour costs does not hold up the work on pay-day, but helps it on immensely. All of the hard work of pay-day is done in small pieces during the week. A word might be said here about the extending of pay sheets. Workmen are rightly very touchy on the question of wages. If errors occur in working out the amounts (as they are very liable to) no end of dissatisfaction is occasioned. It pays handsomely, in time, and in satisfactory relations with’the men, to use a good ready reckoner for wage calculations. A really good and reliable ready reckoner can be obtained from a bookseller for a couple of shillings, and it will save that in time the first day it is used, and be a clear profit-maker thereafter. Just before leaving this question of time sheets, it may be well to restate the advantages to be obtained by'using the daily time sheets here advocated/ It is well known that many builders regard this as impracticable and unnecessary. Their use confers the following advantages:— . (1) Men do not put off making up time sheets — they can’t. (2) Costing is easy if done daily, and a short period of time spent at this work daily is better than . > a long period spent weekly.?' . ■ - (3) Immediate costs are available. (U) The foreman’s supervision of the time sheets is ivorth something, for he has them before he has forgotten the work he had given to the men. Recording of Costs. For the recording of costs nothing is better than the card system, though books specially ruled may give satisfaction. Such books must contain provision for date, cost unit. symbol, name (of firm, article or other facts wanted) , and a money column for costs. As all these columns are narrow ones, there is room in the ordinary book for three or even four sets to the page. All the cost units of one contract ■will often go on one double page, or three or four pages at the most. - • - Cards are, of course, much more elastic. Their use makes for quicker work, greater convenience in working, and economy. As costs units are finished and duly checked up and recorded in the job cost

record, the cost unit card can be removed from the active file, and transferred to another file for reference when determining rates for use : in estimating. Thus, if there are ten jobs in progress,,there will be ten cost unit cards for. the cost unit “G.R.F.” or ' roof framing. When the jobs are finished, these ten cards will have been"transferred, one by one, to the- reference .file, and by looking at them it is possible in a few minutes to see how much each of the. ten roofs cost for labour (or material) in total; how many hundred square feet of area was covered by each, and how they each worked out per 100, or for any other unit of measurement desired. A basis of comparison is thus available, without trouble in hunting through heavy cost ledgers and similar books. The information so gained is, of course, invaluable in making up future estimates, which would be based - on actual costs and not on guesswork. ' ' Costing cards may be ruled with provision for a heading giving name of subdivision and name of cost unit. It is best to adopt a separate colour for each of the five main subdivisions and another for sub-contracts. The three carpenters’ subdivisions may be related colours—as yellow of different shades, etc. The use of colour in this- way greatly facilitates reference and the sorting of cards is made very easy indeed. The body of the cards may be ruled with columns for date, particulars, estimated cost, actual cost, and then two more columns for showing the loss or the gain, as the case may be, on each item in the cost unit that is, loss by cost above estimate, or gain by cost below estimate. . These are facts the contractor must know, for each individual cost unit, before he can know accurately how he is coming out on the' contract as a whole. Provision should also be made for reducing the costs to standard rates, as cost per square foot for joinery, cost.per hundred square feet for flooring, . weatherboarding, etc,, etc, U The size ,of the cards to be used is a matter that will come up very‘early for decision. It must be remembered that the equipment for card systems cabinets, and guide cards, etc.is made in standard sizes, and if,the card adopted does not conform to these standards a good, deal of extra money and de- . lay will be incurred in having fittings and equipment made ,to special order. Cards may, be sin. x Sin. or Gin, x 4in. or Bin. x sin., etc, but for most businesses the most generally useful size is the'.Sin. x Sin. If a cost unit is large, it may occupy both sides of the card, or even two cards, pinned together. This will seldom be necessary, and most cost units will fit easily on on side of a Sin. x Sin. card, the .fittings for which are, of course, a good deal cheaper than those for the larger sizes... On .these matters it is best to consult a firm specialising in card equipment before getting the cards* prepared.: ■ --'V / v- ; The arrangement of the'cards is not difficult. They must, of course, be indexed. Without an in-

dex a card system is a delusion and a snare. With a good index it is the most efficient form of record yet devised. The form of index usually adopted is a set of “guide cards,” which are cards of stout material, cut with a tab projecting above the normal level of the cards, so that a name of subdivision or other index reference may be .printed on it, and be always visible. "

The subdivision of the guides is important. First of all, the cards must be filed under the headings of the main sections of the work, as carpenter, bricklayer, labourer, etc. These then to be subdivided, with guide cards, in the same way as they were in a previous article, for costs units. The individual cards are then filed behind the guides, and it is easy to find any one of them quickly.

Guide cards are cut so that the tabs progress from left to right on successive cards. They may be, for 5 x 3 cards," either “3-cut” or “5-cut,” which means that you may buy guides whose tabs are either one-third of the width of the cards or else one-fifth of the width of the card. It is best to get guides specially cut, for they will hot all be wanted if a set is purchased. In dealing with guide cards we say, that the tabs which are at the extreme left of the file are in the “first position left,” the ones which are next to them are in the second position,, and on on to the right-hand tabs, which are in the fifth position (right) for 5-cut cards, and in the third position (right) for 3-cut cards. Only the first three positions in a 5-cut series will be useful in our cost file. The first position will be used for guides. showing the name of the main section of work represented by the cards behind it. The second position will be used- for guides showing the main sections of each subdivision. Thus, there would be four guides in the second position behind section “C,” carpenters’ work, in framing, floor framing, 'wall framing, roof framing, and sundries. The third position would be used for guides showing the location of the cost cards of each contract. .If there are three contracts running concurrently, there will be three guides behind each of the second position cards. - •• ■ .

With an arrangement of guides such as we have described, it is possible to quickly refer to any cost card files in the cabinet. If the card for fixing window jamb (F.W.J.) is wanted, for contract No. 3 refer to guide card “F” in the first position, guide for windows in the second position, guide for contract 3 in the third position, and there is the card you are looking for. These operations are. of course, much quicker in practice than they sound in description, ,

In front of each subdivision it is well to keep a key card, on which is written the symbols and names of the cost units for that subdivision.. so that it may be referred to should memory fail. Such’ a card may be a distinguishing colour or else, the guide itself may be used for the purpose. •• .

Only cards which are actually in use should be kept in the active file. Cards for cost units not yet started should be filed elsewhere till needed, and cards for cost units which are completed' should be promptly removed, and filed as previously indicated. Nothing so increases the labour of running a card file as the presence of “dead” or inactive cards, each of which must be examined in looking for a card that is wanted. ' ' . Total unit costs may be transferred to a cost summary card, or to a contract cost summary bpok.’ Perhaps the latter is preferable. There should be four money columns— for estimated cost, filed in at the commencement of the job; the second for actual costthis is filled in as each cost unit is completed and the card transferred; the third and fourth money columns are for loss and profit respectively, as previously described. As the actual cost of each cost unit is entered, the difference between it and the estimated cost is entered in one or other of these two columns. To know definitely how the job, is “panning out” the contractor has only to total these two columns, subtract the lesser total from the greater, and then add or subtract the difference and his estimated profit. The columns referred to are easily totalled, for the entries will probably be small amounts (or should be if the estimating has been worth the name). , v / Summing the whole matter up, if the contractor gets his invoices promptly, uses such a system of time sheets as has been described, and posts the figures which these documents, and others like them, give him, regularly, to an adequate cost book or card file, summarising to the cost summary as each cost unit is completed, he will have immediate and reliable information about the cost of his work, and the profits he is making, Having installed the cost system, all that is necessary is regularity of work and accuracy in copying and figuring, and the figures cannot fail to be of the greatest possible value, both at the present.time and for reference in . connection with the estimating of future jobs.