Compare forecast and actual costs to give you a running profit.
If either of these dials is not visible, it is because the forecast or actual columns on the grid are not being shown. Click on the 'Screen Options' button and make them visible.
Forecast - Copied over from the quotation or when an item is added to the job directly from the 'Add Item' button. These can be overtyped.
Actual - These are from the POs associated with the job, manually entered or copied directly from the forecast cost when the item is added.
Splitting the Actual Cost
There are two ways the cost from PO associated with the job can be calculated. The system can either take the whole cost of the PO for that line item, or it can take just the number of items that match. In the latter case, this is useful where you might have 4 on a client order but want to order 8 and keep the rest in stock. To use this second method to open the Job Settings -> Job Defaults and make sure that the 'Calculate Cost by Whole PO' is unticked. This is a more laborious method so should only be set to this if you regularly do this bundling of client and stock orders together.
Setting the Calculation Method
For Purchase Orders created from a job, there are two ways the cost can be calculated on the job/sales order:
For the whole job - this is the default and easiest to manage
Against a specific item - this enables you to combine orders to suppliers from different jobs and clients
To set the method, click on the Cog -> Financial Settings -> Order Cost Settings:
Note that changing between them will not retrospectively recalculate older jobs, and you may lose historical reporting.