The problem
Your materials cost is easy to see. What's harder to track is the soft stuff — fuel for three supply runs, truck wear, time driving back to the shop because you forgot a part. These costs are real but you never write them down because there's no obvious place to put them.
They add up. The job that looks like $400 profit is $240 profit once you count the soft costs.
Why we built it
We built the hard/soft cost split because the two categories are driven by different problems. Hard costs spike when you miscalculate materials. Soft costs creep up through inefficiency. You can only fix what you can see separately.
How it works
- 1
When adding a cost to a job, tag it as hard (direct materials, labor, subs) or soft (fuel, wear, overhead slice).
- 2
DIRT shows both totals in the job detail — not combined into one ambiguous number.
- 3
Compare hard vs. soft across jobs to see where your real margin leaks are.
What changes for your business
Before
One cost total. Can't tell if the problem is materials or overhead.
After
Hard and soft split. You see exactly which category is causing the problem.
Common questions
What is the best accounting software for independent contractors?
QuickBooks Online is the standard at around $35–115/month depending on tier (mid-2026 pricing). Xero starts at $5–25/month (mid-2026 pricing). Both are general business accounting tools — they track expenses and income but do not tie costs to specific jobs automatically. DIRT is trade-specific: every cost you log attaches to a job and goes into that job's profit math, not just your general ledger.
What is the difference between hard costs and soft costs in contracting?
Hard costs are direct — materials, subcontractors, permit fees. Soft costs are indirect — fuel for supply runs, vehicle wear, time driving, overhead allocation. Both eat your margin, but they come from different problems. Hard cost overruns usually mean a materials miscalculation. Soft cost overruns usually mean inefficiency — too many trips, too much drive time on a job that was too far away.
How do contractors track expenses per job?
The most common method is a spreadsheet or a QuickBooks report built after the fact. The problem is that costs logged from memory are always incomplete — the second supply run, the dump fee, the thirty miles of mileage. DIRT lets you tag each expense to a job the moment it happens, so the job total is accurate, not estimated.
What should a contractor track for job costs?
At minimum: materials cost, labor hours at your effective rate, subcontractor payments, and mileage. More complete tracking adds overhead allocation (truck, insurance, tools spread per hour) and any fees. DIRT splits these into hard costs (direct) and soft costs (indirect) so you can see which category is causing the problem on any given job.
How do I separate hard and soft costs on a job?
In DIRT, when you add a cost line to a job, you tag it as hard (materials, subs, labor) or soft (fuel, wear, overhead slice). Both appear in the job detail — not combined into one number that hides the breakdown. Over time you can see whether your margin problem is on the materials side or the overhead side.
Why does my job profit look fine but my bank account doesn't add up?
Usually because soft costs never made it into the profit calculation. You counted materials and labor but not the three supply runs, the mileage, or the per-job overhead slice for your truck and insurance. A job that clears $400 profit on paper might clear $200 in reality once the soft costs show up.
What is a good profit margin for a contractor?
Net profit margins vary widely by trade and market, but most solo contractors aim for 15–30% net after all costs. The number that matters more for day-to-day decisions is your effective hourly rate — what you actually made per hour of work. DIRT surfaces both per job so you can track them over time.
Start free
Try it free.
Every DIRT plan includes this feature — Solo included. No credit card, no trial that expires. Set up in minutes and use it on your next job from the truck.