A job is a piece of work you do for a customer — a kitchen refit, a contract, a season's maintenance — that you want to know the profit of on its own. You set up the job once, then code invoices, bills and expenses to it; SeroBooks stamps the job on every ledger line those documents post, so the job's income, cost and profit come straight from the same books as your financial statements.
A job is a label, not a container. It does not hide documents from anyone, and closing a job changes nothing in the books: a closed job stays on every report it has ever appeared on and simply stops being offered when you code new documents. Overheads that belong to no single job — rent, insurance, the accountant — are simply left unassigned.
Opening Jobs
- Customers ▸ Jobs opens the jobs screen (its tab is called Projects): every job, with its income, cost, profit and budget, and a profit and loss with one column per job.
- In a customer's ledger, Jobs opens (Customer) — Jobs, the jobs for that customer alone.
Add a job
From the jobs screen:
- Click New Job.
- Type the Job Name.
- Choose the customer the job is for.
- If it is a phase of a bigger job, choose that job in Sub-job of.
- Fill in the Job Info you want to track — status, type, dates — and a budget if you have one.
- Click Create.
From a customer's ledger, click Jobs, then Add Job; the customer is filled in for you.
The New Job / Edit Job form
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Job Name | Required. What you call the job, for example "Kitchen refit". If you leave it empty SeroBooks says A job needs a name. |
| Customer | The customer the job is for. Search by name. A job with a customer shows as Customer:Job everywhere, as QuickBooks writes it (for example "Patel Homes:Kitchen refit"). |
| Sub-job of | Not a sub-job, Directly under (customer), or another of this customer's jobs to make this one a phase of it. A sub-job shows as "Kitchen refit : Electrical". |
| Job Status | Under JOB INFO: None, Pending, Awarded, In progress, Closed or Not awarded. For your own tracking; it appears in the job lists. |
| Job Type | None or a type from your Job Type List, for grouping similar jobs. |
| Start Date / End Date | Optional. Click Start Date: add a date to fill in today, then change it; the × (No date) clears it. |
| Code (optional) | A short job number, for example JOB-104. Shown after the name on pickers. |
| Budget (optional) | What the job is expected to cost or bring in. The jobs screen shows what is Left against it. |
| Job Description | Notes about the job. |
| Active switch | Shown when editing. Active — offered when coding an invoice, a bill or an expense. Turn it off to close the job: Inactive — off the pickers, still on every report it has ever appeared on. |
Click Create (or Save when editing). SeroBooks confirms with a message; any job picker already open picks up the change.
Coding documents to a job
- Invoices: on the invoice form, the JOB tile asks Which job is this for? and offers the invoice customer's jobs (and any job with no customer), or No job — general trading. The sale, its tax and its cost of goods all post against the job you pick. The tile appears only once your company has at least one job. See Create Invoices.
- Bills and expenses: code the bill or expense to the job so its cost lands on the job. See Enter Bills.
- Billable time and costs: charge hours and costs on to the customer and job. See Add Time/Costs to an invoice.
The jobs screen
The header shows the reporting period; Reporting period changes it (it starts at 1 January this year to today).
1 · Jobs
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Customer:Job | The customer and job (and sub-job path). |
| Code | The job's code. |
| Job Status | Pending, Awarded, In progress, Closed or Not awarded, if set. |
| Job Type | The job's type, if set. |
| Status | Active or Closed. Closed jobs are dimmed. |
| Income | Income posted against the job. |
| Cost | Cost of goods and expenses posted against the job. |
| Profit | Income less cost; green when positive, red when negative. |
| Budget | The job's budget, or —. |
| Left | Budget less what has been spent, or — when there is no budget. |
| (actions) | Edit and Delete. |
Show closed includes closed jobs. The figures come straight off the ledger — the same rows the financial statements are built from — so a job's profit and the company's profit can never disagree. The table can be emailed or exported like any list.
2 · Profit and loss, one column each
A profit and loss statement with one column per job (By job) or per store (By store), each account on a row, a Total column, and NET PROFIT at the bottom. If nothing posted in the period carries a job, it says so. Amounts not assigned to any job are explained in a note above the table rather than spread across jobs.
If the comparison cannot be loaded, a red banner says so plainly — an empty table here never means "no activity" unless it says that.
The customer's Jobs window
From a customer's ledger, Jobs lists that customer's jobs, sub-jobs indented under their parent. Each line shows the job name, its job status, type and dates, and its Income and Cost. Click a job to edit it; Add Job starts a new one; Show inactive includes closed jobs. If there are none: No jobs for (customer) yet. Add Job starts one.
Deleting a job
Click Delete on the jobs screen and confirm. A job can be deleted only while nothing has been posted against it. Once a job has documents, deleting it would change every report that has ever grouped by it, so SeroBooks refuses and names what uses it — close the job instead (turn off the Active switch).
Permissions
The jobs screen needs access to Jobs (Projects) under Accounting. New Job, Edit and Delete each need the matching right.
Tips
- Set up the job before you write its first invoice or bill, so everything is coded from the start.
- Use sub-jobs for phases (Framing, Electrical, Finishing) and read the parent job for the total.
- Close finished jobs so they stop cluttering the pickers; their history stays on every report.
Common problems
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| There is no JOB tile on the invoice. | Your company has no active jobs yet. Add one with New Job. |
| A job does not appear on the invoice's job list. | The list shows the invoice customer's jobs and jobs with no customer; another customer's jobs are left out. Check the job belongs to this customer and is active. |
| This server has not been migrated for projects yet. | Jobs are not available on your company's server yet; contact support. |
| A job cannot be deleted. | It has documents posted against it. Close it instead. |
| A job's profit looks too low. | Check bills and expenses for the job were coded to it, and that the reporting period covers them. |