Each service company should efficiently and professionally control the actual costs of work carried out by its employees in the field. Only in this way is it able to guarantee the correct valuation of the services provided, as well as adequately take care of the company's profitability. So let's find out how to measure service costs in an effective and skillful way.
Service costs - field work settlement
Measuring the cost of the service should be carried out fairly, but smoothly. Thanks to this, the service company is able to quickly issue invoices to its customers and receive payment for the services provided. It is worth emphasizing, however, that the manual collection of information on service costs is a considerable challenge for the company and it is most often associated with significant investments in administrative activities. The employees of this unit are forced to constantly collect comprehensive documentation, verify and correct the information visible there, as well as process all data. Such a complicated process not only takes a lot of time but also creates an opportunity for various inaccuracies. That is why more and more companies decide to choose modern and integrated service software - such as Luceos Smart - which enables quick and error-free settlement of service costs. Users have access to the program both through a central system and a mobile application that is used in the field. The main advantage of such a solution is that the flow of information and documents takes place in real-time, and the communication between the field team, service management, customer, and the financial department is significantly accelerated.
Service costs - measurement of expenses and their timely settlement
How to settle service costs with the use of modern software? One of the most important elements that an IT system should offer is the measurement of service costs, which includes key information about its date, place, scope, commercial conditions, the status of planned service works, as well as the team of delegated employees. The software should also allow the automatic recording of the working time spent on travel to and from the place of the order and the execution of the task itself. The system should enable the recording of expenses allocated to the services of external companies and works that have been subcontracted. It is also crucial to take into account the previously agreed settlement terms. Another function concerns the registration of standard services and materials and parts used in the work. Their costs are best settled on the basis of standard catalogs and price lists, which present information about the costs of purchasing individual materials and parts, as well as the implementation of standard services.
Effective settlement of service costs for various clients
A modern IT program is able to help not only in the recording of costs but also in the automatic determination of the value of the services provided. Of course, we should remember that service companies may conclude contracts with their customers that will differ in prices and methods of settling costs. Therefore, this function should allow for the implementation of various business scenarios, depending on the client we are dealing with. For some customers, the system will determine the value of services based on the costs incurred, to which a predefined margin will be added. Of course, the software will take into account any rebates and discounts that have been negotiated individually for a given order or client. Settlement of service costs may also be based on a predetermined price and take into account the automatic calculation of the margin obtained at the end of the order, which is determined based on the actual costs incurred. The third possibility allows you to calculate values that have been flat or predefined in a long-term contract or project. The system will, of course, monitor the margin, revenues, and costs of such a project based on actual cost data.
It is worth emphasizing that a modern IT system for measuring service costs should also offer automatic measurement of key financial indicators in real-time and make it available to the company's management and coordinators. Thanks to this, they will be able to find out the most important numbers that relate to individual projects, customers, contracts, or service teams.