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XYZ Limited prepared a costing after every job was completed.

In theory, the manager was able to observe the differences between the quoted prices and the amount the company was able to invoice. However, a stack of these costings sat in the manager’s office a metre high.

What a waste of time. There was little gained in converting times taken into dollars. There was also no point in looking at jobs where the results were similar to those expected.

If you’re quoting for work, compare the quantity of materials used with the amount you allowed in the quote. Compare the actual hours of work on the job with your quoted hours. Study the extremes. Look at the jobs where you did badly and work out how to avoid repeating the mistakes.

Correct your quoting or improve your work methods. Also, look at the jobs where you did well and see if you can work out how to repeat the success more often. Don’t waste time looking at the contracts which worked out reasonably close to your quotes.