Today we are featuring one of our favorite industries of all times – construction contractors! We have found that using tracking categories in Xero works well for construction contractors.
What are Tracking Categories?
Tracking categories are used in Xero to see how different areas of your business are performing. Additionally, they allow you to run reports to help you make good business decisions.
You can have up to two active tracking categories and 100 tracking options for each tracking category.
How Do Tracking Categories Work?
Let me show you an example of how you might use it within a construction business.
Rebekah’s Building Company wants to distinguish between commercial and residential jobs in Xero. They have one tracking category – Job Type and two different tracking options – Commercial and Residential.
Let’s see this in action:
While reconciling a spend money expense, you will want to always assign a tracking code (in this case Commercial).
Now let’s see how this will show up on our reports. In Xero go to Reports>All Reports>Financial |Income Statement. Be sure to click on Compare Periods or Show Date Range and click on More options>Filter by [Tracking Category]
We can now see the income statement by each job type, such as in our example between commercial and residential jobs. This can be very helpful for construction contractors who want to see the income, expenses, and profit for each job type or another measure.
If your business manages projects or jobs and would like some help setting them up, contact us today!