Xero tells you the Derby shop made money last month, but not which jobs lost it
Custom accounting software for a Derby engineering business handles job and part-level costing, work-in-progress, and long-contract revenue that general ledgers were never built to track. Expect $50k to $120k and 4 to 8 months, usually layered over Xero or QuickBooks rather than replacing them. The win is knowing your true margin per job and per part, with WIP and machining time costed accurately, instead of a P&L that says the month was profitable but cannot tell you which jobs quietly lost money.
You run an engineering operation in Derby, and your accounting tells you the wrong story. QuickBooks, Xero and FreshBooks are excellent general ledgers, but they think in invoices and expenses, not in jobs, parts and machine hours. So you know the business made a profit last month, but you cannot say whether the Rolls-Royce job carried the margin and the rail subcontract lost money, because the costing that would tell you lives nowhere.
The gap costs you on every quote. Without accurate job costing, your estimating is a guess refined by gut feel, you keep winning the jobs you underpriced and losing the ones you padded, and work-in-progress, often your largest asset, is invisible on the balance sheet. A general ledger that cannot cost a job is fine for a shop; for a precision-engineering business it hides exactly the numbers you need to price and plan.
- You cannot tell which jobs made money even though the month was profitable
- Machine time and setup are not costed per job, so quoting is a guess
- Work-in-progress is a major asset that is invisible on your balance sheet
- Estimating never reconciles against actuals, so it never improves
- Your jobs are simple and repeatable with stable, well-known costs
- A packaged costing add-on to Xero genuinely covers your needs
- You do not carry meaningful work-in-progress between quote and invoice
- Standard general-ledger reporting is enough for how you price
- True margin per job and per part, so you know which work actually makes money
- Machine time, setup and material captured per job for accurate costing
- Work-in-progress valued and visible on the balance sheet between quote and invoice
- Estimating that learns from actuals, so quoting stops being a gut-feel guess
- Built for Derby engineering job costing while Xero or QuickBooks keeps the statutory ledger
- This layers over your accounts package, so it is an addition with integration to maintain
- Accurate job costing depends on capturing machine and labour time, which is real discipline
- A custom build costs more than a QuickBooks or Xero subscription alone
- If you run simple, repeatable jobs with stable costs, packaged costing add-ons may suffice
The honest cost picture for Derby
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Job-costing layer over Xero or QuickBooks | $50k to $80k | 4 to 6 months |
| Full system with WIP and long-contract accounting | $80k to $120k | 7 to 8 months |
| Annual support and enhancements | $12k to $28k | ongoing |
Feature priorities for Derby teams
What we build under accounting in Derby
Digital Heroes builds the full accounting stack for Derby teams. Typical engagements cover general ledger, expense management, custom accounting software, QuickBooks integration, Xero integration and invoicing software.
Exactly what you get
You get a costing layer that captures material, machine time, setup and labour per job, values your work-in-progress, and feeds actuals back to estimating so the next quote is grounded in data. Your P&L stops hiding the jobs that lost money. It sits on top of Xero or QuickBooks rather than replacing them, pulls time from your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or shop-floor tools, and surfaces margin by job and prime in business intelligence dashboards.
How to choose a developer in Derby
Choose a team that asks to cost one real job with you before they quote, because an engineering accounting build lives or dies on whether it captures machine time and setup accurately. Insist on WIP valuation, actuals feedback and clean Xero integration. Avoid anyone who proposes ripping out your accounts package or treats job costing as a few extra fields on an invoice.
Timeline: what happens, and when
- !They pitch replacing Xero; ask how they layer job costing over it instead
- !No machine-time capture; ask how true cost per job is built
- !No WIP valuation; ask how work between quote and invoice appears on the balance sheet
- !No actuals feedback; ask how estimating learns from real job cost
- !They quote before seeing a job's cost build-up; ask them to cost one real job first
Teams investing in accounting in Derby usually scope it next to warehouse management, field service management, erp, since these systems share data and budgets.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Why can Xero not cost our jobs?
Xero and QuickBooks are general ledgers that think in invoices and expenses, not jobs, parts and machine hours. They can report overall profit but cannot tell you which job carried the margin and which lost money, because per-job cost capture and WIP valuation are simply outside what a general ledger does.
Do we have to replace our accounting system?
No, and most Derby firms should not. The custom job-costing layer sits on top of Xero or QuickBooks, which keeps doing the statutory ledger, while the layer owns per-job costing, WIP and margin reporting. Integration keeps both in sync.
How does it make our quoting better?
By reconciling actual job cost against the estimate and feeding the result back to estimating. Over time you stop winning underpriced jobs and losing padded ones, because the next quote is grounded in what similar jobs actually cost rather than gut feel.
Can it value work-in-progress?
Yes. It tracks the cost accumulated on a job between quote and invoice and reports it as WIP, so the asset sitting on your shop floor finally appears on the balance sheet instead of being invisible until the job is invoiced.