--- title: "Set up your account for project management" slug: "set-up-your-account-for-project-management" updated: 2026-10-15T01:17:54Z published: 2026-10-15T01:17:54Z canonical: "help.servicetitan.com/set-up-your-account-for-project-management" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.servicetitan.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Set up your account for project management ## Overview Accurate project management depends on the proper setup of your ServiceTitan account. Before getting started, make sure your business units, job types, payroll settings, and pricebook are configured correctly. --- ### #### Who uses this feature - Accountants and managers - Primarily for Residential Construction, Commercial Service and Replacement, and Commercial Construction business types - Applies to all trades ## Set up business units ### Create business units ServiceTitan uses business units (BUs) to track and organize different segments of your business. You can assign BUs to pricebook items, jobs, technicians, and more, giving you multiple ways to run business performance reports. > [!NOTE] > **Note:** If your business does service and replacement as well as new construction, create separate BUs for each. For example, for your plumbing installations, create Plumbing Install - SR and Plumbing Install - New Construction. The residential new construction workflow calculates some key performance indicators (KPIs) differently from service and replacement KPIs. For more, see [Add and edit business units](/construction/docs/add-and-edit-business-units-3). ### Assign BUs to business unit categories You can also assign BUs to business unit categories to give you additional ways to report on your business. Job tracking uses categories, *trades,* and *divisions*. For example, you can assign all your HVAC-related BUs to the *HVAC* trade so you can get a broad snapshot of that part of your business. Or, you can create a *New Construction* division for all your BUs that are involved in residential new construction. For more, see [Use business unit categories](/construction/docs/add-and-edit-a-trade-or-division). ## Create job types Project management uses job types to create project milestones. For example, a typical new construction project has three main phases: rough in, trim out, and start up. Create a job type for each project phase. For more, see [Set up and use job types](/construction/docs/set-up-and-use-job-types). ## Set hourly rates When you add hourly pay for your technicians, you can track labor pay in the *Budget vs Actual* table for the project. For more, see [Manage technician payroll settings](/construction/docs/enter-payroll-settings) and [Performance Pay overview](/construction/docs/performance-pay-overview). ## Set labor burden rates When adding burden rates (also known as overhead rates) for your technicians, you can track overhead costs in the project's *Budget vs Actual* table. A burden rate is the hourly cost of an employee that is used to calculate Job Costing, which is an estimation of the total cost of a job. You can configure your burden rate with payroll costs included or excluded. We recommend calculating the burden rate with payroll costs excluded to improve your job costing accuracy, since labor pay captures the cost of labor on an invoice. For more, see [Calculate technician burden rates](/construction/docs/calculate-technician-burden-rates#calculate-burden-rates-without-payroll-costs). > [!TIP] > **Tip:** If you're unsure whether your account includes actual payroll costs in job costing, go to any posted invoice and [view job costing information](/construction/docs/run-the-job-costing-tool). - If performance pay and labor pay are included, your account is configured to include actual payroll costs. - If performance pay and labor pay aren't included, please contact [Technical Support](https://go.servicetitan.com/#/ask) for details. ## Create pricebook service items You can bill customers for specific milestones using *Progress Billing*. To implement progress billing, create a specific pricebook service item you can add to an invoice for that project phase. Create a separate service item for each phase you want to bill for. For example, create two pricebook service items called, *Rough in completion* and *Trim out completion*. For more, see [Add services to your pricebook](/construction/docs/add-services-to-your-pricebook). > [!NOTE] > **Note:** You don't need to set the prices for the items. You can enter prices on the billing invoice. The formula to calculate a job or project's margin is *(Total Revenue) - (Total Cost) = Gross Margin*. See the table below for a further breakdown: | Revenue | Costs | Margin | | --- | --- | --- | | Pricebook tasks linked to income GL accounts - Services - Equipment - Chargeable Material | - Materials - Equipment - Purchase Orders - Labor Pay - Labor Burden - Performance Pay - Payroll Adjustments | Net result of Total Revenue minus Total Cost | ## Want to learn more? - See [Project job costing report template](/construction/docs/project-job-costing-report-template) The calculation of actual costs (labor, materials, overhead) against revenue for each job to determine true profitability. **What it does:** Shows which job types, technicians, or BUs are truly profitable after accounting for all costs, not just top-line revenue. **Also called:** Job profitability, Cost tracking **Tags:** Core [See the full glossary →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/glossary-overview) Invoicing customers in stages as specific milestones of a large project are completed rather than in one lump sum at the end. **What it does:** Improves cash flow on large or multi-day roofing and commercial jobs by collecting partial payments throughout the project. **Also called:** Milestone billing, Staged invoicing **Tags:** Roofing / Exteriors [See the full glossary →](https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/glossary-overview)