I'm curious about something - since we're talking on a "job cost strategy" level here. How does inventory relate to job cost accounting? On a fundamental level, goods in inventory are generally items you've bought and paid for that haven't been used on a job yet, and hence are not yet part of any job's cost.
I once worked for a large Los Angeles area contractor who also ran 30 or 40 service trucks around town. They had a warehouse larger than most wholesale houses, mainly to support their service business, but contract jobs would frequently receive materials from the shop warehouse also. The shop warehouse was set up like a vendor, and the contract job would have the book price for materials delivered out of the shop warehouse posted against the job.
I recall that materials from the shop warehouse cost more than materials from the wholesale house - so the shop warehouse made money at the expense of the contract job. This was somewhat irritating but there was no recourse.
Radar
