Jobs, Jobbing & Projects in Ostendo Continuum ERP
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Total control from simple service jobs to complex multi-job projects
Ostendo Continuum ERP delivers a fully integrated framework for jobs, jobbing, and projects, enabling businesses to manage everything from quick “do and charge” work through to long-term fixed-price contracts with progress claims, retentions, and consolidated project reporting. Designed for service, contracting, manufacturing, engineering, and project-based organisations, Ostendo provides real-time visibility, financial control, and operational efficiency across the entire job lifecycle.
A Unified Job & Project Lifecycle
At the core of Ostendo Continuum is a flexible job costing engine that supports multiple job styles and accounting treatments. Jobs can operate independently or be grouped under projects, allowing costs, revenues, and progress to be tracked at both detailed and consolidated levels. This structure supports businesses that run multiple discrete jobs as part of a larger customer engagement or contract.
Job Types & Jobbing Flexibility
Ostendo uses user-defined Job Types to control how different categories of work behave operationally and financially. Common examples include:
- Preventive and breakdown maintenance
- Service contracts and warranty work
- Engineering and jobbing
- Capital equipment manufacture and installation
- Contracting, refurbishment, rework, and R&D
- Projects comprising multiple linked jobs
Each Job Type can be configured as Cost Only, Do and Charge, Progress Claim, Customer Asset Service, Company Asset Service, or Rental, with full control over WIP, revenue recognition, and cost of sales. Templates linked to Job Types allow standard labour, materials, overheads, and instructions to be preloaded, ensuring consistency and fast job setup.
Planned vs Actual Costing & Real-Time WIP
Jobs and tasks can be created with planned quantities and costs, forming the baseline for performance measurement. As work is executed, Ostendo maintains real-time Work-In-Progress (WIP), continuously comparing planned versus actual labour, materials, subcontractor costs, and overhead recoveries.
Multiple costing methods are supported, including standard, average, actual, last buy price, and calculated costing, giving finance and operations teams the flexibility to match costing policy with business reality.
Tasks, Budgets & Project Consolidation
For larger engagements, jobs can be broken down into tasks representing phases or sequences of work. This enables granular tracking of progress, costs, and margins while still rolling up to full job and project totals.
Projects consolidate multiple jobs for:
- Budgets vs Actuals reporting
- Consolidated invoicing
- Overall margin and profitability analysis
- Executive-level visibility across complex contracts
User-defined tracking codes and colour-coded statuses further enhance control and reporting across jobs, tasks, and projects.
Quoting, Conversion & Job Invoicing
Ostendo provides a seamless quote-to-job workflow with professional quote layouts, photos, unlimited revisions, and expiry tracking. When quotes convert to jobs, the system highlights any cost or pricing changes that may impact margins.
Invoicing flexibility includes:
- Do and Charge or fixed-price billing
- Multiple invoices per job
- Invoicing multiple jobs per project
- Detailed or summarised invoice presentation
- Invoice notes at job, task, or line level
For long-term contracts, progress claims allow invoicing against milestones or certified values, while retentions support multiple levels and due dates—essential for construction, engineering, and contracting businesses.
Subcontractor & Field Workforce Management
Jobs can be deployed directly to employees, teams, or subcontractors using Ostendo Freeway Mobility. Subcontractors record time, materials, and charges on their devices, with completed datasheets returning to Ostendo for approval. Optional buyer-created invoices allow costs to be posted and customers billed without waiting for supplier invoices.
Key mobility capabilities include:
- Job creation, quoting, and deposits in the field
- GPS-based on/off-site time stamping
- Assignment Board scheduling with live updates
- Team-based pooled job allocation
- Barcode scanning, photos, sketches, audio notes, and signatures
Safety, Compliance & Quality Built In
Ostendo embeds hazard management, instructions, and checklists directly into jobs and job types. Hazards can be defined for inventory, job types, specific jobs, customers, or sites, and are prioritised by risk level. Field staff can add new hazards directly from the mobile app.
Mandatory, optional, and conditional checklists guide staff through consistent processes for compliance, QA, diagnostics, and certification. Statistical quantities allow productivity, progress, and quality data to be captured and analysed over time.
Paperless Manufacturing & Job Execution
For manufacturing-linked jobs and projects, Ostendo’s Order Process Traveler replaces paper work orders with an interactive digital experience. Operators access step-by-step instructions, quality checkpoints, drawings, and documents at the workstation, while managers gain real-time visibility into progress, accountability, and audit trails.
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Warranty, Assets & Full Job History
Jobs can automatically create asset and warranty records when items are issued, ensuring post-job obligations are tracked throughout the warranty lifecycle. Unlimited time-stamped history notes, linked documents, photos, and approvals provide a complete audit trail for every job and project—from quotation through to completion and after-sales support.
Total Control, One Integrated System
From jobbing and service work to multi-job projects, Ostendo Continuum ERP delivers end-to-end visibility, financial control, and operational excellence. By unifying jobs, projects, mobility, costing, compliance, and invoicing in a single system, businesses gain the insight and confidence needed to protect margins, improve productivity, and scale with control.
Reporting & Analysis
Effective management of jobs, jobbing, and projects depends on clear, timely visibility across costs, progress, resources, and outcomes. Ostendo Continuum ERP delivers powerful, real-time reporting tools that unify operational and financial data—so managers, project leaders, and finance teams can make confident, informed decisions at every stage of the job lifecycle.
End-to-End Job Visibility
Gain a single, trusted view of each job or project from quotation through completion. This transparency ensures potential overruns, delays, or scope changes are detected early—while corrective action is still effective:
- Real-time job status – track progress by task, operation, or milestone
- Labour, materials & overheads – captured as they occur, not after the fact
- WIP and committed costs – always visible, always current
- Actual vs budget comparisons – identify variances early, not at close-out
Job Costing & Profitability Analysis
Understand exactly where profit is made (or lost). Whether you manage short-run jobbing or long-term projects, Ostendo ensures profitability is measurable, defensible, and auditable.
- Detailed job costing by phase, cost type, or responsibility
- Gross margin analysis at job, customer, or project level
- Historical comparisons to improve estimating accuracy for future work
- Drill-down reporting from summary KPIs to transaction detail
Resource & Capacity Reporting
Optimise utilisation across people, machines, and subcontractors. These insights help balance workloads, improve delivery reliability, and maximise return on critical resources:
- Labour utilisation and productivity reports
- Machine and work-centre loading visibility
- Planned vs actual time tracking
- Bottleneck identification across concurrent jobs
Project Controls & Management Reporting
For complex or multi-stage projects, Ostendo provides strong governance. Project managers can confidently communicate status to stakeholders—using consistent, real-time data:
- Milestone and stage-based reporting
- Change tracking and cost impact visibility
- Progress billing and revenue recognition support
- Executive dashboards for portfolio-level oversight
By integrating operational activity with financial reporting, Ostendo Continuum ERP eliminates data silos and spreadsheet dependency. The result is clear visibility, accurate reporting, and better decision-making across all jobs and projects—supporting continuous improvement, accountability, and sustainable growth.
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