Construction & Trades
Accounting built for construction & trades
Construction accounting is not standard bookkeeping. Job costing, progress billing, prevailing wage compliance, bonding requirements: your financials demand expertise a general accountant simply cannot provide.
What general accountants miss
The financial complexities unique to construction
Every job carries a different cost profile, every contract bills differently, and every piece of equipment changes your tax position. Generic bookkeeping cannot keep up.
Everything Pooled Into One Number
Service, installs, maintenance, and warranty all land in the same P&L. One blended margin hides the work that pays and the work the rest of the business is carrying. You cannot fix what the books will not separate.
Progress Billing & Revenue Recognition
Percentage-of-completion accounting, AIA billing, and retainage tracking create revenue recognition headaches. Mismanaged progress billing leads to cash flow gaps that can stall active projects and strain vendor relationships.
Prevailing Wage Compliance
Government contracts require certified payroll and prevailing wage rates that differ by trade and locality. Non-compliance results in back-pay penalties, contract debarment, and even criminal liability for willful violations.
Equipment Depreciation
Heavy equipment is a major capital commitment, and how you deduct it moves your tax position materially. Bonus depreciation, a Section 179 election, and cost segregation each apply differently depending on the purchase and your income, and the timing against your tax year decides what the deduction is actually worth.
Subcontractor Management
Managing dozens of subcontractors means tracking 1099s, lien waivers, insurance certificates, and payment schedules. Misclassifying employees as subcontractors exposes you to back taxes, penalties, and potential audits.
How we help
Construction-specific services that protect your bottom line
Margin by Work Type
Revenue and direct cost split across service, installs, maintenance, and warranty, so each kind of work carries its own margin instead of hiding inside a blended number. This is category level. Job-by-job costing is available as an add-on when your install volume justifies it.
WIP Reporting
Work-in-progress schedules that give you and your bonding company a clear picture of over-billed and under-billed positions across all active jobs. Essential for maintaining bonding capacity and accurate financial statements.
Contractor 1099 Management
We handle subcontractor onboarding paperwork, W-9 collection, payment tracking, and year-end 1099 filing. We also review your worker classifications to protect you from misclassification penalties and IRS scrutiny.
Bonding Support
Clean financials formatted specifically for surety companies. We prepare the CPA-reviewed or audited statements your bonding agent needs, and help you present your financial position in the strongest possible light to increase bonding capacity.
Equipment Depreciation Strategies
Bonus depreciation, Section 179 elections, and cost segregation applied to your actual equipment purchases. We plan the timing of acquisitions against your income and your tax year, so the deduction lands where it does the most good.
Cash Flow Forecasting
Project-based cash flow forecasting that accounts for retainage schedules, progress billing timelines, and seasonal work fluctuations. Never get caught short on payroll or material payments due to billing lags.
What arrives every month
The Job Margin Page
One page, by the eighth business day, every month. Four numbers that between them tell you where your money is actually going. Plus a quarterly call with the person who builds it, walking you through what moved and why.
Revenue and gross margin by work type
Service, installs, maintenance, and warranty separated rather than pooled, so each kind of work carries its own margin.
Labor recovery
Hours paid against hours billed, shown in percent and in dollars. This is usually the first number that stings.
Overhead recovery rate
What your billable hour has to cover, against what you actually charge. Flags any work type running below.
Cash against profit
Profit for the month, the movement in your account, and the reconciliation between the two.
This is category level. It answers which kind of work makes money. If you need to know what one specific job cost you, that is job-by-job costing, and it is a priced add-on rather than something we quietly imply is included.
Where you are now
Four stages, and the question each one asks
The number of people on your payroll changes which problem is the expensive one. All four numbers show up on your Job Margin Page at every stage. What changes is which one leads, and what we work on with you alongside it.
Owner on the Tools
Am I paying myself right, and is this better than a job?
- S-corp election review and maintenance
- Reasonable compensation, determined and documented so it survives an exam
- Accountable plan setup and maintenance
- Owner pay and distribution planning against actual cash
First Crew
I'm paying for hours I'm not billing and I can't tell how many.
- Labor recovery build
- A time capture routine the crew will actually follow, plus the approval step
- Workers comp class code review, because misclassed techs cost real money at audit
- Overtime exposure check
- Hiring cost model: what a new tech must bill to pay for himself
Off the Tools
Which work actually makes money, and are my rates right?
- Work-type P&L
- Overhead recovery rate derived from your own overhead
- Billable rate derivation and change modeling
- Field service software reconciliation, ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro tied to the books
- Crew, truck, or department margin
Beyond the stages
Crossing Over
At sixteen or more on payroll, or the first time any one of these shows up, you are not at a bigger version of the same problem. You are in a different business, asking whether you can carry the bond and the retainage. That is our commercial engagement rather than a larger trades package, and we will tell you when you have got there.
- First bonded or bid project
- Retainage on any contract
- Progress billing or AIA
- Prevailing wage
- A second entity
- A second payroll state
Not sure which stage you are in, or whether you have crossed into commercial work already? Six questions will tell you, and they take about a minute.
Referring a contractor to us? Start here
Talk through your numbers
The numbers you are missing
Four numbers most contractors have never seen for their own business.
These are your numbers, not ours. They arrive on one page every month, and we walk you through them quarterly.
Why Today CFO
Why contractors choose us
Construction industry expertise
We understand percentage-of-completion vs. completed-contract methods, retainage accounting, change orders, and everything else that makes construction bookkeeping unique. No learning curve on your dime.
Aggressive tax savings
Contractors often overpay because their accountant does not understand construction-specific deductions. We proactively identify equipment depreciation, home office, vehicle, and retirement plan strategies that reduce your burden.
Bonding & bank ready
Our financial statements are formatted and presented specifically for surety companies and lenders. We help you build the financial track record needed to increase bonding capacity and secure project financing.
Trades we specialize in
Find your trade
HVAC & Mechanical
Seasonality, install versus service margins, and equipment depreciation timed to your tax year.
Plumbing
Emergency and service-call mix, truck stock, and the cash flow behind same-day work.
Electrical
Service against project work, progress billing on longer jobs, and retainage that ties up your cash.
Roofing
Material cost swings, crew scale, and margins that move with every load of shingles.
See what proactive financial management means for your construction business
Our calculator gives you a personalized estimate based on your revenue, entity type, and business complexity. Find out how much you could save with construction-specific tax strategies in under two minutes.
Calculate your savings