Job costing tells you what happened. Benchmarking tells you whether it’s acceptable

In my last post, I talked about why most businesses don’t actually know which jobs make them money.

Job costing gives you visibility.
That’s step one.

But visibility without context still leaves owners stuck. They see the margin — and ask:

“Is that good… or bad?”

This is where most businesses stall.

They compare themselves to:

• Last year
• The job down the road
• Their gut feel

That’s not a benchmark.

At TaxFitness, we benchmark businesses against the Top 20% performers in their industry.
Not average. Not “close enough”.

When you overlay Top 20% benchmarks onto job costing, the conversations change:
• “Your gross margin is 7% below Top 20%,  here’s why”
• “Labour on these jobs is out of line with best practice”
• “You’re busy, but structurally underpriced”

That’s when decisions get made.

I’ve seen owners stop chasing turnover and start protecting margin.

• Same work.
• Same clients.
• Better outcomes.

This is why benchmarking isn’t a report,  it’s a management tool.

Job costing shows the result. Top 20% benchmarking shows the gap. Closing the gap is where profit lives.