JTD Costs is just a bucket of costs for any period for the job = JOB TO DATE.  I think you were expecting MTD Costs (MONTH TO DATE) costs. 

 So yes, it's useless by date.   The Cost Spreadsheet (by date range) appears to be more what you are looking for.

So if the date I use, EOM for example then it should be all the costs in there for that month. My question is that when you total the April and May together it is correct.  So what exactly is the report good for?  Our PM want the report to check where we are against our estimate, but again if the bucket of costs pull ones with an accounting date in the next month, kind of makes the specific date uselss.

Rhonda, thanks I had shared the spreadsheet but we have been using the other for over 10 years and the newbie is not going to get that changed anytime soon.  I just wondered the purpose of an inaccurate report.  Sorry to sound frustrated but not a lover of the Sage world yet. 

Ed, you mentioned that you were a behind in getting months closed.  That could account for your issues.  Job Cost has accumulator buckets for cost and other transaction types. The JTD bucket includes everything through the "Current" month and "Next Month."  It also has a "Last Month" bucket.  Those are significant if you are pulling reports that pull amounts from those accumulated totals.

However, if you are running a report such as "Job Cost as of a specific date", then the source of the data is revealed in the description of the report, i.e., the report is pulling from the JC Transaction file (usually Current.JCT).  This is where your "behind closing a few months" might have led to your confusing results.  

Any transactions with an Accounting Date beyond the "Next Month" end date will not post until you run "Close Month"a sufficient number of times to bring the Current Month to within one month of the "Next Month" to assure that all transactions dated within the month following your current month are posted.  You should always do an Inquiry on Transactions (Entries) against the NEW.JCT file to see if there are unposted entries.  Another good procedure is to always review your posting journals because any entries that do not post to Job Cost will be listed.

Hope this was helpful.

Art Minds
Senior Independent Consultant
Pasadena CA 91101
[email protected]

I think if you select both the JC Transaction file (new) and JC Transacton file (current) you will get all transactions that are posted and unposted. 

I do try to only have the current month, and the prior month Open.  You can check what Accounting Period you are in by going to File/Company Settings/Job Cost Settings in Job Cost.  My Current Month is May, so transactions from May and June will post.  Once we get into July, if I do not close May, then transactions from July will not post until I do so.

Hi,

I had this issue and had to have the Job Cost Summary report redone for me to be able to see the correct end of month amount in the JTD column, otherwise the report was not useful at all and had to go back and forth trying to tie it out.

Jackie, I am curious as to who had to "redo" the Job Cost report.  Please note that I am looking at the Job Cost as of a Specific Date.  Is this a crystal report?  I do not understand the purpose of a report to a specific date that does not go to that specific date. I am finding questions in some reports and I am wondering how they are written. I thought they came as a package, but I am new to the SAGE stage.  thanks, again. 

Correct, I understand the transactions and I have seen this issue when updating revenue.  But this is a report, that even if I run today still using that specific day (APRIL 30), and still has erroneous information.  I understand I cannot run it in the future, but I was in April, closing April and it pulled in May cost numbers in a specific dated report. I checked the entries, all have the correct date and on the cost spread sheet they come out correct. On Cost Entries by Job it comes out correct.     

But you got me to thinking, and it is all about the  Data File Selection.  Thanks, that is the answer. I should not use new, when I am in a current month, and if I want to run an old one I should use History.  The title of Job Cost by specific date is a misnomer, but I get it now. Thanks!

Hi Ed, We used Alliance Solutions to purchase the software. They designed the reports for us. We use a job cost summary report that has detail by cost code, but the JTD column was not right. The had to redo it this past month cause it was too much work for me to carve out the current month transaction. Crazy! Now it works perfectly!

Thanks Jackie!  I found the problem, it is in the Data File Selection. I reran April, now just selecting JC transaction (history) and it was correct.  So when behind it is critical to know the current month is the one that is not closed, the new month is the one after the current month and history is the one before.  Great learning session, but all the input from others really helped.  Thanks again.

Hi Ed,

Do you move transactions to history every month? I am curious see what reports you are running?  Would you be interested in having a remote meeting session?  Please email me at [email protected]