Beyond core project billing, BlueCollar supports several specialized workflows. Multi-subsidiary handling and intercompany accounting are covered by native NetSuite — BlueCollar simply makes its project segment available across subsidiaries; this section explains how to configure that, but no purpose-built intercompany engine ships with BlueCollar.
Construction work generally falls into three job types, and BlueCollar handles each differently:
| Job Type | Characteristics | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Fee | Fixed-price contract; price changes only through the change-order process | Progress billing (percentage or dollar amount per application). Lump Sum items bill by percentage; unit projections and unit-quantity change orders aren't allowed. |
| Unit Price | A list of possible units; crews report quantities, which stay fluid. A single job can have hundreds or thousands of line items across departments. | Billed by unit; unit projections allowed; change orders can update quantities. Progress billing typically isn't used. |
| Time & Materials | Bills for actual hours, materials, and other costs | Rule-based T&M billing with Labor, Per Diem, Transaction, and Inventory rules. |
The single most important setting that distinguishes Fixed Fee/Lump Sum from Unit Price behavior is the Lump Sum Unit of Measure in Global Preferences — see Fixed Fee Billing.
Multi-subsidiary behavior is provided by NetSuite itself; BlueCollar's contribution is making its Blue Collar Project custom segment available across subsidiaries so a single project can carry transactions in more than one legal entity.
By default, BlueCollar Projects are not restricted to a single subsidiary. That means all users can see all projects regardless of subsidiary role security, and a project can exist in multiple subsidiaries at once. This is intentional — it's a common need in industries like solar or transmission-line installation where work spans legal entities.
The project's Subsidiary field defaults from the selected Customer.
To restrict project visibility by subsidiary, an administrator enables subsidiary filtering on the custom segment:
Once enabled, you can specify which subsidiary (or subsidiaries) each project should be available in. (This same setting is a prerequisite for the Unlock Budget feature.)