Cost Codes - An Overview

The Cost Codes menu lets you add and manage the categorized list of tasks your company works on, with their cost codes, in line with the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) master format. Linarc also allows you to add tasks with custom codes as per your company's policies/practices, conventions, and requirements.

The cost codes also double as cost codes when creating project schedules, estimates, and budgets.

Budgets - General contractors create the original budget for the entire project and track the expenses. The budget includes the contract-based cost allocations for various divisions of work covered in the scope. Cost tracking and management is a significant and critical function for a general contractor's project manager. Each line item in the budget includes a work item, task, or deliverable with its cost code and the assigned subcontractor.

Estimates: Contractors create estimates containing a list of tasks, subtasks, work packages, and activities, exhaustively covering all items required to complete all the assigned work. In cases where GC is assigning tasks for themselves, they too can add estimates for their work. Each line item in the estimate is defined with details like the task name, required time, and the cost estimated under various cost types like labor, materials, equipment, etc. The task items can be directly imported to the schedule from the estimate, so the details are auto-populated.  

Schedules: Project Managers can use these items to specify tasks, sub-tasks, and activities in successive phases or as elements in the work breakdown structure  (WBS). The cost codes provide an easier way of defining tasks and sub-tasks, which is otherwise complicated to enter definitions and descriptions of each task in the schedule.

You can also add custom tasks and work packages. Each package may define the amount of work done, the labor involved, and the time to provide a deliverable. The task packages are useful for similar tasks, used at different locations with different quantities required. For example, tasks involved in flooring construction are repeated with only minor differences for each floor in a building.

Time &Material (T&M) Tickets: and tracking: Dedicated cost codes for T&M work aid in effectively managing tracking of projects with variable scopes or evolving requirements. By assigning specific cost codes to different T&M work, it is easier to capture and track additional or unforeseen costs. They enhance cost allocation efficiency by streamlining the tracking of labor hours, materials, and equipment usage for each task. Each T&M entry is associated with specific cost codes and work items, ensuring traceability and accuracy.

See the following pages for more information:

• The cost code interface
• Add task items and custom tasks