Glossary of Key Jobpac Terms

This glossary explains common terms used in Jobpac, especially for project costing and financial control.

 Use it as a reference when reading other Jobpac articles or working in the system.

Project and structure terms

• Job number – the unique identifier for a project in Jobpac. A job number can be up to six characters long, and is often four or five digits to keep it easy to use in other references such as purchase orders and subcontracts.
• Cost code – a code that represents a specific part of the work breakdown structure, such as a phase, activity or trade. It identifies what work is being done.
• Cost type – a short code that describes the type of cost, such as labour, materials, subcontract or plant. It identifies the nature of the resource or expense.
• Cost centre – the combination of a cost code and a cost type. This is the primary level at which Jobpac tracks budgets, commitments, costs and forecasts.

Budget and contract terms

• Original budget – the budget agreed at the start of the project for each cost centre, before any changes or variations.
• Budget changes – adjustments to the original budget made after the project begins. These may come from transfers between cost centres or from contract variations.
• Current budget – the latest approved budget for a cost centre. It is the original budget plus or minus all budget changes.
• Contract sum – sometimes called contract revenue. It is the agreed value of the head contract for the project, chargeable to the client.
• Contract margin – the difference between the contract sum and the current budget. It represents the expected profit at the time the budget is set.
• Allow costs updates – a flag or status that indicates when a project is ready to accept costs. Until costs are allowed, users cannot post transactions to that job.
• Finalise budget – the action that locks in the original budget and contract margin. After finalisation, all budget changes are controlled and audited.
• Budget adjustments – movements of budget between cost centres or changes arising from head contract variations.

Variation and valuation terms

• Variation – a change to the original contracted scope of works. Variations usually affect both the project budget and the contract revenue.
• Internal variation – a subcontract variation that affects costs but does not have an associated head contract revenue change.
• External variation – a client initiated variation that usually affects both revenue and costs.
• Contract valuation – a term used in business forecasting to describe the financial status of a project at a point in time, often at month end. It brings together cost, revenue and margin information.
• SOR – stands for schedule of rates. It is used for projects or subcontracts where work is billed or paid based on agreed rates for items or activities.
• SPA – stands for subcontract payment authority, a term used for the preparation of a subcontract payment.

Cost status terms

• Committed cost – the value that has been committed to suppliers or subcontractors but not necessarily invoiced yet. It comes from purchase orders and subcontract agreements.
• Committed budget – the portion of the budget allocated to a specific purchase order or subcontract. It often defaults to the committed cost but can be adjusted.
• Actual cost – the value of costs that have been approved and posted to the company ledgers. This includes supplier and subcontractor invoices, payroll costs, journals and internal charges.
• Incurred cost – the value of goods or services that have been received on the project but are not yet reflected as actual cost. This can include delivered materials with no invoice and prepared but unposted subcontract payments.
• Accrued cost – the estimated value of goods or services that have been received but are not yet recorded as incurred or actual costs. These are usually entered manually for reporting.
• Cost of work in progress – often called CWIP. It is the total of actual, incurred and accrued costs and represents the cost of all work done to date on a project, whether invoiced or not.
• Paid cost – the value of approved creditor and subcontractor invoices that have been paid, plus payroll and other costs that are considered paid when processed.

Forecasting and margin terms

• Forecast cost to complete – often abbreviated to FCC. It is the estimated cost required to finish the remaining work on the project.
• Forecast final cost – often abbreviated to FFC. It is the total expected cost of the project at completion, including costs already incurred and the forecast cost to complete.
• Gain or loss – the difference between the forecast final cost and the current budget. A gain means the project is expected to come in under budget; a loss means it is expected to exceed the budget.
• Current contract margin – the margin based on the current contract sum and current budget, including the impact of variations that have been approved and transferred into cost and revenue.
• Current forecast margin – the margin based on forecast final revenue and forecast final cost. It reflects both contractual changes and performance against budget.

Other useful terms

• WorkID – a code representing a company or entity within the Jobpac environment. Multiple WorkIDs can operate within the same system.
• Head contract – the primary contract between the business and the client for a project.
• Subcontract – an agreement with a subcontractor to perform part of the work under the head contract.
• Schedule of rates project – a project where billing or payment is based on pre agreed rates for tasks or items rather than a fixed lump sum.

Using this glossary

This glossary is designed to support new and existing users of Jobpac. Refer back to it whenever you encounter a term in screens, reports or other guides that you want to clarify.

Understanding these terms will make it easier to work with job costing, forecasting and financial reporting across your projects.