Know what every job actually made.
Books and Trucks does ServiceTitan job costing for HVAC, plumbing and electrical companies: real labor and material costs from the books in QuickBooks Online applied to every job, every month, in the ServiceTitan plan from $995 a month.
ServiceTitan tells you what a job billed. Your books tell you what it cost. We put the two together every month, so the margin on every job, every business unit and every technician is a number you can trust.
Checked by the Books and Trucks team.
Three things owners say about their job costing
“Every job looks profitable in ServiceTitan. The bank account says otherwise.”
“I set the labor rate when we went live. Nobody has touched it since.”
“The parts credit came back from the supplier. Which job does it belong to?”
None of this means ServiceTitan is wrong. It means the costs behind it are only as good as the books feeding them.
Job revenue is only as complete as the export behind it. Our guide to ServiceTitan to QuickBooks export errors shows how to find invoices that never reached QuickBooks.
Four places the margin goes wrong
Labor at a standard rate
ServiceTitan costs labor at the hourly rate set in your account. Payroll, overtime and spiffs decide the real number.
Materials by estimate
Parts and equipment are costed when the job is built, not when the supplier bill arrives.
Adjustments outside the job
Returns, restocking fees, rebates and credits land in QuickBooks. They rarely find their way back to the job they belong to.
Two systems, two answers
When ServiceTitan and QuickBooks disagree, so do the margins built on them.
Job costing that starts from the books
- 01
True labor cost
Payroll, by technician, applied to the jobs each one worked.
- 02
Materials and equipment matched to jobs
Supplier invoices, credits and returns tied to the job they belong to.
- 03
Margin by business unit and job type
Service, install, maintenance and commercial, each with its own real margin.
- 04
A monthly call
Thirty minutes with your accountant on which jobs, types and technicians made money, and what to change.
Job costing is part of the full monthly service: bookkeeping, ServiceTitan to QuickBooks reconciliation, your dashboard, payroll, bills, sales tax and the monthly call. See everything the monthly service covers.
See the whole business on one screen
Every figure below is from our HVAC client’s live portal. Read their story
Revenue by business unit
Service, install and maintenance, side by side, straight from ServiceTitan.
Profit per job
What each job billed, what it cost in labor, materials and equipment, and what was left.
Cash and receivables
What is in the bank, what is owed to you, and what is overdue.
Technician performance
Revenue per tech and per truck, so you know who is carrying the month.
What changed for our HVAC client
An HVAC company in the US on ServiceTitan and QuickBooks Online. Bookkeeping, the ServiceTitan to QuickBooks reconciliation and the owner dashboard, run by X INFIN Consultants.
Read their storyFrom $995 a month
Job costing is included in the monthly service. The fee covers bookkeeping, the ServiceTitan reconciliation, your dashboard and the monthly call for a shop of around five trucks. Payroll, bill pay and sales tax filings are added depending on headcount and volume. The fee is fixed each month and agreed in writing before we start. If your books are behind, we clean up all your past books in QuickBooks at no charge when you start.
Compare the plansThree steps, and the first one is free
- 1
A free look at your books
Give us read-only access to QuickBooks and ServiceTitan. Within three business days we tell you how far behind the books are and what it would take to get real job costs out of them. There is no charge and nothing to sign.
- 2
A call with your accountant
We go through what we found and agree what the monthly service should include, and the fee.
- 3
Handover in 30 days
We take over from your current setup, clear any backlog, and your dashboard is live by the end of the first month.
Not ready for a call? Get a free look at your books.
Leave your details and we email you within one business day. You give us read-only access, and within three business days you see what is behind and what it would take to fix.
Free guides
Reference pages for trade shop owners
- Contractor sales tax by stateIs labor on HVAC, plumbing and electrical work taxed, and who pays tax on materials? Every state, linked to the state's own guidance.Open the guide
- Chart of accounts for trade shops75 accounts for QuickBooks Online with the right types and detail types, ready to import, plus what ServiceTitan needs mapped.Open the guide
- ServiceTitan to QuickBooks export errorsWhat the common ServiceTitan to QuickBooks Online export errors mean and how to fix them, plus refunds, sales tax and moving from Desktop.Open the guide
- Why Jobber payouts don't match bank depositsHow Jobber Payments payouts, fees, tips and refunds land in QuickBooks Online, the five usual causes of a mismatch, and a monthly checklist.Open the guide
- Jobber to QuickBooks sync errorsWhat the common Jobber to QuickBooks Online sync errors mean and how to fix each one, in the order the sync runs, plus legacy errors.Open the guide
- Jobber Bookkeeping or an outside bookkeeper?What Jobber's own bookkeeping add-on covers, which shops it suits, and when an outside bookkeeper on QuickBooks Online fits better.Open the guide
- How much does a bookkeeper cost for a trade shop?Hourly, in-house, flat monthly firms, Jobber Bookkeeping, QuickBooks Live and six trade specialists, side by side, each price linked to its source.Open the guide
- Housecall Pro to QuickBooks Online: what syncs and how to clear the alertsWhat the one-way sync sends and leaves out, the settings to check first, and the nine sync alerts with the fix for each, from Housecall Pro's own help pages.Open the guide
- Job costing in QuickBooks Online for contractorsThe plan you need, how Projects, labor cost rates, billable expenses and progress invoicing work, and the six things QuickBooks cannot do, from Intuit's own pages.Open the guide
- QuickBooks for plumbers: how to set it upThe plan, a class and income account for each kind of plumbing work, parts and truck stock, deposits, backflow tests, subcontractor 1099s and the monthly close.Open the guide
Straight answers before you book
How do I get accurate job costing out of ServiceTitan?
Make sure every real cost reaches the job, then check ServiceTitan against QuickBooks each month. ServiceTitan job costing only counts the costs entered in ServiceTitan, such as technician hours and materials on purchase orders. Payroll taxes, benefits, supplier bills paid without a purchase order and card purchases at the supply house often land only in QuickBooks, so the job looks more profitable than it was. Each month we match those costs to the right job, business unit and technician, and reconcile the result to QuickBooks. When both systems agree, the margin on each job is a number you can use to price your work and plan your crews.
We already use ServiceTitan's job costing.
Good. We do not replace it. We make the costs behind it real every month, from payroll and supplier bills, and we reconcile the result to QuickBooks.
Do you need our payroll?
Yes, or at least hours and pay by technician. Without it, labor is a guess.
Our costs are not in QuickBooks by job.
They rarely are at the start. Matching them is part of the handover, and the free look shows you how far there is to go. If the books are behind, we clean up all your past books in QuickBooks at no charge when you start.
Do I have to leave QuickBooks?
No. We work inside your QuickBooks Online file. You keep ownership and full access.
Where is the team?
The accounting team covers your account during US morning hours, and a named bookkeeper is on it every month. Calls are weekdays, 9am to 5pm Eastern.
Is our data safe with you?
Every login our team uses for a client system has two-factor authentication turned on. Access comes through accounts you grant, not shared passwords, and you can switch it off the moment you want.
Do you work with other trades besides HVAC?
Yes. ServiceTitan and QuickBooks work the same way for plumbing, electrical, roofing, septic and drain cleaning companies, and so do we. Our trades client today is an HVAC company.
What if it does not work out?
Month to month, cancel any time. You keep your QuickBooks file, your ServiceTitan account and your data.
Find out what last month’s jobs actually made
Free, three business days, no obligation.
