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Construction Site Handbook

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[English | 简体] Cost Control

Costing is different from financial accounting . Financial accounting is a primary historical recording of receivables and payments of cash , assets and liabilities of business and issues like taxation , depreciation , professional fees , bad debts , etc that meeting various requirements demanded by law , it can hardly tell the profit or loss in the first instance . Costing meant the calculation of costs of production at regular intervals including all principal operations and site overhead ; to derive cost data from partially completed works for estimates of forthcoming works ; and finally to provide cost data of completed works to head office for future tendering . Its accuracy all depends on the basic raw information provided by the site staff like storekeeper ( tools , equipment and consumables ) , foreman ( labour and overtime work ) and plant operator ( maintenance and fuels ) .

In fact labour and plant are the key items in a costing system since they will go badly if lack of proper control . While for permanent work materials , there is less likelihood of serious loss as far as precautions are taken against excessive wastage and wrong orders . Alternatively , cost control is also completely different from budget control . Budget control is only a means to govern the expenditure not to exceed the income payments to ease the cashflow and without evaluation of cost effectiveness .

Cost Control Sub-Pages