Knowledge Base

General Job Questions

Q: What’s the difference between fixed-price and do-and-charge (time & materials) jobs?
A: These are the two primary billing models in Gojee.

Fixed-Price Jobs: You produce a quote, the customer approves it, and you invoice the agreed amount regardless of what the job actually costs. Very simple. Actual costs are tracked internally for profitability analysis, but the customer pays the quoted price.
Do-and-Charge (Time & Materials) Jobs: Track actual time and materials as they’re incurred, then invoice the customer based on what was actually spent. Do-and-charge has three pricing options for materials:

1. Markup on actual cost – take the actual cost you paid (via goods receipt or recording staff time) and apply a standard markup percentage.
2. BOM price – use the price set on the BOM
3. Latest catalogue price – use the current price from the inventory catalogue at the time of invoicing

The key difference between the two types is that Fixed-price jobs will invoice exactly what’s on the BOM and support retentions and progress invoicing (via the Retentions add-on). Do-and-charge jobs still benefit from having an accurate BOM (for cost estimation and purchasing), but the invoiced amount is driven by actual consumption rather than the BOM.

Note that for labour on do-and-charge, time is tracked through the system, and the customer is charged based on actual hours worked by the staff. For markup on actual cost, this will be calculated at the profession’s markup on that staff member’s listed hourly rate – which will vary between staff.

Q: Can you create a Fixed Price job and change it to a Do & Charge job later, or visa versa?
A: Yes, the type of job can be changed at a later date – even if a quote or estimate has already been created. It is recommended that quotes or estimates made prior to the job type change be deleted. If invoices already exist for the job, it is still possible to change but not recommended – as invoices are handled in different ways for Do & Charge jobs and Fixed Price jobs.

Q: The price of inventory items was updated, but the items have already been recorded onto the job. How do I update the prices of the items to the latest costs?
A: You can return or record materials used on a job on the Record Consumables page. If you return the items you have consumed, they will return at the price they were when they were consumed. If the price is updated after an item is used, the cost of items already used on this screen does not update unless you remove them and re-add them. New items will always be consumed at the latest cost. If possible, though, we recommend making sure that items are the correct cost before they are consumed.

Q: How does stage-based / progress claim invoicing work?
A: The Progress Claims and Retentions module enables milestone-based invoicing for long-running projects.
How it works:

1. Enable the add-on under Organization Add-ons
2. Set up the job as Fixed Price and tick the Retentions tickbox – this will allow you to set a contract value and retention percentage. This will override the actual price set on the BOM.
3. Create progress claims at each milestone — click “Progress Invoice” on the job

When a progress invoice is created, the system will show the full contract value, the retention amount, what’s been claimed/invoiced or held up to this point. As an example, if the contract is for $10,000 and a progress claim of 50% is made, the actual invoice amount will be $4,500 minus a 10% retention of $500. Subsequent claims automatically track cumulative progress. At project completion, create a final retention invoice to collect the withheld amounts.

The system handles all the calculations automatically — tracking contract value, claimed amounts, retention held, and remaining balance – eliminating the need for external spreadsheets.

Q: How do retentions work?
A: Retentions require specific GL account setup and are managed through the Progress Claims module. You need two accounts configured in Xero and synced to Gojee:

• Retentions Held – Account of type Current Asset. (Note: if you are running a demo company to test this, this will not come pre-configured and you need to set it up yourself.)
• Liability for Defects – Current Liabilities account.

Each progress claim automatically withholds the retention percentage. Withheld amounts are held in the Retentions Held asset account on your balance sheet -At project completion (or defects liability period end), create a retention invoice to collect the held amounts. The retention invoice moves the amount from the balance sheet to revenue. Retention amounts are not recognised as revenue until released via the retention invoice — this is proper accounting treatment for construction and project-based businesses.

Q: How should we handle customer change requests after a quote is approved?
A: Use the Variations module (add-on). Creates variation documents showing additions (green), changes (yellow), and removals (red). Tracks scope changes with approval workflow.

Q: Does unfreezing the BOM / unlocking the job budget affect the approved quote?
A: No, the job budget lock feature is now independent of the quoting system and is an opt-in measure to protect the BOM from unauthorised changes. You can use Variations instead for formal scope change tracking.

The Bill of Materials

Q: What is the BOM and why is it central to everything?
A: The Bill of Materials (BOM) is the central hub of every job in Gojee. It drives the quotes, the invoices, scheduling, purchasing, reserving, picking – the whole thing.
What the BOM drives:

• Quotes – the BOM is what gets converted into a customer quote. Line items, prices, quantities, and sections all flow from BOM to quote.
• Purchase Orders – when creating POs, the system looks at BOM requirements to determine what needs to be ordered and in what quantity.
• Invoices – for both fixed-price and do-and-charge jobs, the BOM determines what gets invoiced.
• Scheduling – professions (labour types) on the BOM determine who gets scheduled for the job and for how long.
• Picking Slips – material picking lists are generated from BOM items that need to be consumed.
• Job Costing – all cost tracking (budgeted, committed, actual) flows through the BOM.

The critical implication is that all changes should happen in the BOM first, not in quotes or invoices directly. Any changes made here will propagate to every new quote, invoice, purchase order etc. made for the job.

Q: Can we edit the BOM after a quote has been approved?
A: When a quote is approved, the BOM will not automatically be frozen — you need to manually lock it under BOM Actions via the “Lock Job Budget” action. To make changes after job budget lock, you have two options:

• Option 1: Unlock the BOM temporarily (not recommended for most cases) Go to BOM Actions → Reopen Budget. You can lock it again once you’ve finished making your changes and saved.
• Option 2: Use the Variations module (recommended) The Variations module (add-on) allows you to make formal scope changes while preserving the original approved quote. This is the preferred approach as it provides a better paper trail and the ability to inform customers of changes.

Q: How do we add ad-hoc items not on the BOM?
A: On the BOM screen, click “+ Add New Item or Job Section” when adding a bill of material to the BOM. You can choose between creating a new catalogue item, a job section, or a single-use item.  Single-use items are created on the spot — give them a name, description, cost, and price. They exist only on this job and won’t appear on any other jobs or when purchasing. If you create a single-use item and realise you’ll use it again, you can convert it to a catalogue item. Click the item name on the BOM, select “Edit,” and at the bottom of the edit screen will be an option to “Move to Catalogue.”

Q: Can we create nested sections within the BOM?
A: Yes – Gojee supports multiple levels of nested sections within the BOM, giving full visibility on one single screen. How it works:

1. Add a top-level section via the “+ Add New Item or Job Section” (e.g., “4m Liquid Holding Tank”)
2. Within that section, add sub-sections (e.g., “Top Cone”, “Shell”, “Base”)
   1. If these need further sub-sections, you can continue nesting as deeply as you require.
3. Within each sub-section, add individual line items (materials, labour)

The key benefit is combining detailed internal costing with clean customer-facing quotes. You can track every bolt and weld rod internally, then use the eye icons to show the customer only the section totals. Sections can also be used to represent project stages, milestones, or trade breakdowns depending on your business model.

Q: How do we import a BOM from a CSV or external system (e.g., CAD)?
A: CSV import is available for new jobs. The Import Jobs button on the Customer Jobs list allows you to create one or more new jobs with the BOM populated from your CSV. Please check Importing Job Data for more information. Importing into existing jobs or exporting the BOM to CSV is not currently available.

If your design software (CAD, engineering tools) exports bills of material, you’ll need to reformat the output to match Gojee’s import template. Commonly, this is handled via a custom Excel macro or some other script. Once this is set up, the exported and converted file can be imported straight into Gojee.

Q: How do we control what appears on customer quotes (hide prices, quantities, etc.)?
A: The BOM has eye icons on each line item that control whether the line appears when you generate a quote for the customer. When generating the quote, this is given additional granularity – you have the ability to keep the line description but hide the price for the line and the ability to hide the quantity as well. These will be calculated into a general quote amount if top level items.

You can also control visibility at the section level. Hiding a section’s children means the customer sees only the summary total for that section, not the individual line items underneath. This is useful for showing “Electrical Work — $15,000” without exposing every wire and fitting.

Important: These visibility controls affect the quote PDF only. Internal reports, job profit screens, and all operational data always show full detail.

Point of Sale

Q: When do we use Point of Sale vs. creating a regular job?
A: POS for immediate off-the-shelf sales. Regular jobs for anything requiring labour, customisation, delivery scheduling, or detailed costing. POS doesn’t support labour components.

Q: How do we handle cash sales vs. trade account customers?
A: This is commonly done by creating a “cash customer” contact for counter sales (immediate payment). Trade customers use their account with standard invoicing.

Q: Can we integrate payment systems other than Square?
A: Square is the currently supported card payment integration. Existing EFTPOS terminals are separate. Other payment systems are not integrated with Gojee at this time, but payment to invoices can be recorded through Xero.

Job Review report

Q: My profession is $60/hr, but for some reason the “incurred costs” column on the Job Review page reads $8 for a full day of work.
A: The cost for the profession on the BOM is an estimate, not the real cost. The incurred costs for professions draw from the amount of work recorded to the job, the cost of which is pulled from the individual staff member’s cost per hour. If the assigned staff has a cost per hour of $1 in Gojee, this would for example make 25 hours of work display as $25 for incurred costs.