Costing
Know where the cost behind each margin comes from, and who can see it.
Updated 23 September 2026
- Why
- A margin is only real when the cost behind it is measured, not assumed.
- What
- Costs held against products, stock, machines, operators, service steps and delivery runs, each from a real figure.
- How
- Work is timed where it happens and costed at your rates; a job missing a rate shows the gap.
Where it appears
| Area | What you see | Brought by |
|---|---|---|
| Orders | Landed unit cost on goods in against a purchase order | Sales Engineer, Design Engineer, Service Centre, Wizard, Commerce, Route, Source and Machinist |
| Catalogue | A cost on every product, accepted from supplier prices | Sales Engineer, Wizard, Commerce, Source and Stock |
| Stock | A moving average unit cost on every stock line | Stock |
| Servicing | Standard against actual minutes per step, with labour and machine rates | Service Centre |
| Design | A cutting cost from the shop's own cut chart | Design Engineer |
| Machinist | Job cost per machine and operator on the Costs screen | Machinist |
| Route | A run's cost shared across the deliveries it carried | Route |
Who sees cost
Costs and margins in Servicing, Machinist, Stock, Suppliers' prices and purchase orders are shown to the engineer role and above, and operators see neither. A quote line's margin, read from the cost copied onto the line, shows to everyone who can open the quote. See Roles.
The detail lives in Pricing and costing
- Where cost comes from: supplier prices, stock, rates and measured minutes.
- Margin reporting: the margin by line, customer and month.
A missing rate is shown as missing, never costed at zero. Set the rate and the cost appears.
Related
- Where cost comes fromKnow every place a cost enters the platform, what each one costs and what happens when a figure is missing.
- Margin reportingRead margin by line, by service, by job, by customer and by month, from the one definition the whole platform uses.
- PricingKnow where your own prices are set and how a quote line shows the steps that reached its price.
- CostsRead what a finished job cost and where the figure is incomplete.