From a general contractor's perspective, how do you all charge your jobs for indirect expenses, particularly usage of small tools and project manager/engineer time? Being new to the GC world (previously worked for a subcontractor), I'm learning that some owners allow us to include project management/engineer time in our general conditions and others do not. Also, I'm trying to develop a consistent way to charge small tool usage to our jobs. I have ideas on how to do this but I want to see if they are consistent within the industry.
To-date, small tool purchases have been charged directly to the job in most cases. PM and PE salaries have been charged to overhead, but at the end of 2018 I did an allocation to job cost a % of their salaries. Our PMs and PEs also do some estimating, so 100% of their time is not billable to jobs and we do not require them to keep time cards. Our estimators currently do not have a solid way to come up with budgeted amounts for these general condition items.
We are a newer GC company with young professionals, so forgive me if the answer to these questions may seem like a no brainer.
Thank you in advance for any input you can provide regarding indirect expense job allocations and compilation of general condition budgets!
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Krystal Sund, CCIFP
Controller
Perry Reid Construction, Lincoln, NE
(402) 488-1666
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