ABSTRACT
This chapter describes field costs which are often divided into two categories defined as direct costs and indirect costs. Direct costs are then subdivided into various accounting codes to reflect the actual work and this breakdown is often referred to as a work breakdown structure. Both direct and indirect expenditures can result from labor costs, material purchases or subcontracts. Field labor costs are controlled by controlling the hours of work. Whether services are purchased through a subcontract or are performed by labor hired directly, expenditures should be tracked using tracking curves. Labor productivity, or effectiveness, should be tracked for each of the direct labor accounts. In the case of unit price or fixed price subcontracts, the subcontractor is primarily responsible for controlling labor hour expenditures since, in theory; the subcontractor has assumed that risk. Therefore for the construction manager, field subcontract cost control takes on a different emphasis.
