Every fabrication firm we have met already has a way of numbering jobs. It is on the job sheets, on the drawings, on the delivery notes and in everybody’s head. Software that hands out its own numbers instead asks the whole firm to learn a second language for the same jobs. Costworks does not.
One format, never repeated
Every job in Costworks has a number in the form YYYY-NNNN — the year and a four-digit sequence, such as 2026-0156. Each one is unique within your firm, and two people creating jobs at the same moment can never be given the same number: the next number is handed out under a lock, rather than worked out by adding one to the highest so far.
Type the number off the sheet
When you create a job you can let Costworks offer the next number, or type the one already on the paper job sheet. You can also give an existing job a new number. Either way:
- It must be unique within your firm, so a typed number can never collide with another job.
- The counter moves past it. Type a number higher than the counter and the next number Costworks offers carries on from the highest, so the two never meet.
- A renumbering is recorded, with who did it and when.
A firm that keeps a paper register can bring the whole of it across, and the job numbers the shop floor already knows keep meaning the same jobs.
Search the way people say it
Nobody on site says “twenty-twenty-six dash zero one five six”. They say “26 156”, and that is what they type. Costworks reads 26 156 as 2026-0156, both when a number is typed into a job and in every job search — the office’s job lists and the crew’s job picker alike. Searching also finds jobs by their title and by the client’s name.
Every year starts at 0000, by itself
The sequence is kept per year, and each new year starts again at 0000, just as a paper register does. Nobody has to remember to do anything on the first of January: the first job created in 2027 simply starts the 2027 sequence.
Word jobs, for hours that belong to no job
Some hours are real work and belong to no customer’s job: the office, a day tidying the yard, maintenance on the plant. Costworks gives them word jobs, such as 2026-ADMIN and 2026-YARD.
- They have a year, like every job, but a word in place of a sequence number.
- They never move the counter, so they never leave a gap in your numbering.
- They lead their year in every list, where the crew can find them quickly.
So those hours are counted, and banded and paid like any others, without pretending to be a job for anybody.
What a job’s status means
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Set up, not yet live. |
| Active | The crew can record hours and materials against it. |
| On hold | Paused for now. |
| Completed | Finished: it refuses new hours. |
| Archived | Out of the way, and never deleted. |
Every job shows the hours booked to it in the Jobs list, subcontractors’ invoiced hours included, and prints an audit report of who worked on it, when, and what went into it.
