ForemanFOREMAN

Cost codes

Manage the cost-code list that organizes your project costing, set default cost types and margins, mirror codes to QuickBooks, and import them by CSV.

Cost codes are the backbone of your project costing — the numbered categories (0100 Site Work, 0200 Concrete, and so on) that every budget line, vendor bill, and time entry rolls up into. Set them once for your whole company and they're available on every project.

Open your cost codes

  1. From the sidebar, click Cost Database.
  2. Open the Cost Codes tab. The Cost Types tab sits right next to it.

Don’t see this?

The Cost Codes and Cost Types tabs only appear if your role can view cost codes. Editing them needs the matching write access — ask your organization owner if the buttons below are missing.

Add a cost code

  1. On the Cost Codes tab, click Add Cost Code.
  2. Enter a Number (or leave it blank to auto-assign the next one) and a Name (required).
  3. Optionally pick a Parent — cost codes can be nested one level deep.
  4. Optionally choose a Cost Type (Material, Labor, Subcontractor, etc.). This is the default type for line items using the code — a budget line can override it. Leave it blank on a trade folder whose children carry the real types.
  5. Click Create.

Note

Give a parent code children and it becomes a trade folder: budget lines and cost items can only be filed against leaf codes, so a folder stops appearing in the Cost Code cell. Its children are what you file against.

Note

Cost codes are edited inline too — click any cell in the list to change its Number, Name, Parent, or Cost Type. Parent and Cost Type are pick-one cells: clicking opens the full list, and typing filters it right in the cell.

Set up cost types

Cost types (Material, Labor, Subcontractor, Equipment Rental…) carry defaults that flow onto budget lines.

  1. Open the Cost Types tab and click Add Cost Type.
  2. Enter a Name and a Default margin % — a reference figure for the trade, not a margin Foreman applies on its own. Budget lines fall back to the budget's default margin, which comes from Organization → Settings.
  3. Toggle Time-trackable (visible to crew on clock-in) and Taxable (sales tax on customer invoices) as needed.
  4. Click Create.

Mirror cost codes to QuickBooks

If you've connected QuickBooks Online, each cost code maps to a QuickBooks Product / Service.

  1. In the cost code form, set the QuickBooks Product / Service field — or edit the QBO Product / Service column inline in the list.
  2. Click Refresh QBO in the toolbar to pull the latest products from QuickBooks.

Note

The QuickBooks field, the QBO Product / Service column, and the Refresh QBO button only show once QuickBooks Online is connected.

Import cost codes from a CSV

  1. On the Cost Codes tab, click Import and choose a CSV.
  2. Use the columns Number, Name, Parent Number, and Parent Name. Parent rows import first, then child rows are matched to their parent by number or name.
  3. Use Export any time to download your current cost codes as a CSV.

Note

Need to clean up? Click a row's number in the left-hand # column to select it — Shift-click for a range, ⌘/Ctrl-click to add one at a time — and an Archive N selected button appears in the toolbar to retire them.