Resources
How the money actually works in a contracting business.
Practical guides on the things that decide whether you know where you stand: job costing, catch-up, year-end, and what your accountant actually needs from you.
The Two-Day Guarantee— Your first month back in two days, or the next month is free.
Still deciding
The questions people ask before they hire anyone.
- When should a contractor hire a bookkeeper?There is no revenue figure at which this becomes necessary, which is why waiting for one is the most common way to leave it too long.7 min
- Should you keep doing your own books?For some owners this is genuinely the right answer for a while. The problem is that it stays the answer long after the arithmetic has stopped supporting it.8 min
- You have QuickBooks. Do you still need a bookkeeper?Software categorises. It does not verify, and it will produce a confident, tidy, completely wrong set of books without ever telling you.8 min
- Hiring a bookkeeper vs outsourcing: which one fits your sizeThe salary is not the cost, and the cost is not the whole question. Both of those get missed, and there is a size at which hiring really is the right answer.8 min
- Do you need a local bookkeeper?Wanting someone local is a reasonable instinct built on a real principle. It is worth working out which parts of that principle distance actually delivers.7 min
- Monthly bookkeeping or once a year at tax time?Doing the books once a year produces a tax return. It does not produce anything you can run a business on, and the difference has a price that never appears on an invoice.7 min
- Is a bookkeeper worth it for a small contracting business?The return does not come from the bookkeeping. It comes from the decisions you can only make once the numbers exist, and that is a figure you can estimate from your own jobs.8 min
- How to switch bookkeepers without losing your historyMost people stay too long because switching sounds like it will be painful. Done in the right order it takes about a week of attention, and most of that is waiting.7 min
Guides
How the money works, subject by subject.
Start here
- Job costing: which contractor jobs actually make moneyA company total tells you the business made money. It does not tell you which work made it.Read
- Why jobs that look profitable still lose you moneyGross margin is not profit. The gap between them is the whole business.Read
- Nine ways to tell whether your bookkeeper is doing a good jobYou are paying someone monthly. Here is how to tell whether it is worth it.Read
69 guides shown
- Aug 2026How to bid a job so it actually makes what you intendedMost jobs are lost in the estimate, not on the job. The crew was fine; the number was wrong.8 min read
- Aug 2026How to read a balance sheet without an accounting degreeThe P&L says whether last month made money. The balance sheet says whether the business is sound.8 min read
- Aug 2026Who needs a 1099? The subcontractor rule, in plain termsEvery January problem with 1099s traces back to the same March failure: paying a sub before collecting a W-9.7 min read
- Aug 2026Rebates and consumer financing: what actually hits your booksA financed job at the same ticket price is a smaller job. Most books never show it.7 min read
- Aug 2026Emergency call-outs or scheduled work: which one actually paysThe premium looks large until you count the hour of driving and the job it pushed.7 min read
- Aug 2026Service work and new construction are two different businessesSame trucks, same crew, completely different cash cycles. The books should say so.8 min read
- Aug 2026Piece rate or hourly: paying roofing crews without losing marginPiece rate makes labour predictable per square and unpredictable everywhere else.8 min read
- Aug 2026What a pest control contract is actually worthWinning accounts faster than you lose them is the whole business. Most operators do not know which is happening.8 min read
- Aug 2026Seven signs a contracting business is in troubleBusinesses rarely fail suddenly. They fail slowly, in ways that were visible.8 min read
- Aug 2026Twelve questions to ask before you hire a bookkeeperEveryone says they do monthly reporting. These questions find out what that means.8 min read
- Aug 2026Supplier terms, early-pay discounts and what they are worthA 2/10 net 30 discount is worth far more annually than it looks. Most contractors never do the arithmetic.7 min read
- Aug 2026A one-page annual budget you will actually useNot a forecast nobody reads. A number to compare each month against.7 min read
- Aug 2026When a customer will not payMost non-payment is process failure, not refusal. Telling the two apart decides what you do about it.8 min read
- Aug 2026What is on your trucks, and what it is costing youEvery van is a small warehouse nobody counts. That is money sitting in traffic.7 min read
- Aug 2026Sales tax for contractors, without the headacheWhether you charge tax depends on your state, the job, and sometimes the customer. Guessing is expensive.8 min read
- Aug 2026Deposits and progress billing done properlyA deposit is not revenue yet. Booking it as though it is makes a profitable month look better than it was.7 min read
- Aug 2026Bookkeeping when it is just you and a truckYou do not need a finance department. You do need four things right.7 min read
- Aug 2026What your books are worth when you sellA buyer pays for provable earnings. Everything you cannot prove is a discount.8 min read
- Aug 2026Prevailing wage and certified payroll, explained plainlyPublic work pays well and the paperwork is where contractors lose the margin back.8 min read
- Aug 2026What callbacks are really costing youThe job is closed, the invoice is paid, and the truck goes back three times for free.7 min read
- Aug 2026Change orders: doing the work and actually getting paid for itThe work always gets done. The billing is what goes missing.7 min read
- Aug 2026Retainage: the money you earned and cannot touchFive or ten percent of every commercial job, held back for months. Most books lose track of it entirely.7 min read
- Aug 2026Quarterly estimated taxes without the April surpriseNobody withholds tax for you any more. That is the part that catches people.8 min read
- Aug 2026Getting bonded: what a surety actually looks atBonding capacity is decided by your balance sheet, not by how good your work is.8 min read
- Aug 2026When can you actually afford another tech?Busy is not the same as ready. One of them is a feeling, the other is arithmetic.7 min read
- Aug 2026A cash flow forecast you will actually keep upProfit and cash are different things. Contractors go under holding a profitable P&L.8 min read
- Aug 2026Separating business and personal money, properlyEveryone knows they should. Here is what it actually costs when you do not.7 min read
- Aug 2026Connecting ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro or Jobber to QuickBooksThe sync is the easy part. Making the two systems agree is where it falls apart.8 min read
- Aug 2026The eight numbers a contractor should look at every monthNot a dashboard with forty widgets. Eight numbers that change decisions.8 min read
- Aug 2026You got a letter from the IRS. What to do firstMost IRS letters are not audits, and almost none of them are emergencies on the day they arrive. But some start a clock, and the ones that do are not obvious from the envelope.7 min read
- Aug 2026You missed a payroll tax depositOf every bill you can be late on, this is the one that follows you personally. Not the company — you. That is the part most owners find out too late.7 min read
- Aug 2026Your bookkeeper just quit. Do these things firstWhether they resigned, went quiet or were let go, the first two days decide how much of this costs you. Access and records first, everything else after.7 min read
- Aug 2026The bank asked for financial statements and you have two weeksA lender asking for financials is not a formality. It is the point at which how you have kept your books stops being an internal matter and starts deciding whether you get the money.8 min read
- Aug 2026The 1099 deadline is close and you are missing W-9sJanuary 31 does not move. What does move is how bad the January before it is, and that is decided by whether you collected W-9s in March.7 min read
- Aug 2026QuickBooks does not match your bank. Finding the differenceThe two numbers should be identical and they are not. There are only about six reasons for that, and working through them in order finds it faster than staring at the screen.8 min read
- Aug 2026A sales tax notice arrived from the stateState revenue departments move faster and less patiently than the IRS. The upside is that most contractor sales tax notices are about a small number of very fixable things.7 min read
- Aug 2026You might not make payroll on FridayThis is survivable and more common than anyone admits. What decides how it ends is the order you do things in over the next few days.8 min read
- Aug 2026Your CPA says the books are not ready to fileIt is not a criticism and it is rarely a delaying tactic. It means the file cannot yet support a return they are willing to sign, and there is a specific list behind it.7 min read
- Aug 2026The tax deadline is here and you are not readyAn extension is a normal, routine thing that buys you months. What it does not buy you is time to pay, and that distinction is where the expensive mistakes live.7 min read
- Aug 2026Your general liability premium audit is comingThe second audit most contractors forget about. It is usually based on receipts or payroll rather than hours, and uninsured subs hurt you here too.7 min read
- Aug 2026You have no receipts for last yearA missing receipt is not the same as a lost deduction, and a bank statement is not the same as substantiation. Knowing which is which decides how much of the year you keep.8 min read
- Aug 2026LLC or S-corp? Business structure for contractorsThe saving is real. So is the payroll obligation that comes with it.8 min read
- Aug 2026What contractors can actually deductMost contractors overpay tax not because they miss deductions, but because they cannot prove the ones they took.9 min read
- Aug 2026Mileage or actual expenses? Vehicle costs for contractorsFor most contractors one method is clearly better. Almost nobody checks which.7 min read
- Aug 2026Working out your break-even numberEvery month starts in a hole. Break-even is the number that gets you out of it.7 min read
- Aug 2026Getting a line of credit as a contractorBanks decline contractors for predictable reasons. Most of them are fixable in a quarter.8 min read
- Aug 2026Seven QuickBooks mistakes contractors makeThe software is fine. The way it was set up is the problem.8 min read
- Aug 2026Install or service: which side of your HVAC business pays?The big invoices feel like the business. They are often not the profit.7 min read
- Aug 2026What you should actually charge for a service callMost service rates were set by looking at what the competition charges. That is not pricing, it is copying.8 min read
- Aug 2026Buy, lease or finance? Equipment decisions for contractorsThe monthly payment is the wrong thing to compare. Here is what to compare instead.7 min read
- Aug 2026Getting subcontractor costs under control in roofingYou know what you paid out. You probably cannot say what each job cost you.7 min read
- Jul 2026Surviving your workers comp auditThe audit decides what you pay next year. Most contractors walk in unprepared.7 min read
- Jul 2026How to read your P&L without an accounting degreeYour accountant sends it every month. Here is how to actually read it.8 min read
- Jul 2026Insurance vs retail work: separating roofing marginsTwo revenue streams, two very different margins, reported as one number.6 min read
- Jul 2026Bookkeeper or accountant? What contractors actually needThey are different jobs. Hiring the wrong one is expensive and slow to notice.6 min read
- Jun 2026Are your HVAC maintenance agreements actually profitable?Recurring revenue is only good revenue if you know what it costs to service.6 min read
- Jun 2026Nine ways to tell whether your bookkeeper is doing a good jobYou are paying someone monthly. Here is how to tell whether it is worth it.8 min read
- Jun 2026Cash basis vs accrual accounting for contractorsCash basis matches how most contractors think about money. Here is when that stops being enough.6 min read
- Jun 2026Route profitability and retention for pest control operatorsDensity is the whole business. A stop forty minutes out is not the same stop.7 min read
- May 2026What your CPA needs from you at year end: a contractor checklistTax season is a scramble because nobody closed the months as they went. Here is the full list.8 min read
- May 2026Getting paid faster on commercial electrical workThe work is finished. The money is sixty days out. That gap is where contractors die.7 min read
- Apr 2026Profit per truck: what each plumbing van really earnsYou know what the company made. You probably do not know which truck made it.7 min read
- Apr 2026How far behind is too far behind? Catch-up bookkeeping explainedBeing behind is the most common place we start from. Here is what fixing it actually involves.6 min read
- Apr 2026Surviving the shoulder season: cash flow for HVAC contractorsSummer pays for winter. Most owners have never worked out by how much.7 min read
- Mar 2026Why jobs that look profitable still lose you moneyGross margin is not profit. The gap between them is the whole business.7 min read
- Mar 2026Job costing: which contractor jobs actually make moneyA company total tells you the business made money. It does not tell you which work made it.7 min read
- Feb 20261099 or W-2? Classifying the people who work for youCalling someone a sub does not make them one. The test is control, and the penalties are real.9 min read
- Feb 2026How much should I pay myself? Owner pay for contractorsMost owners pay themselves whatever is left. That is a decision, and usually the wrong one.8 min read
- Jan 2026The chart of accounts a contractor actually needsThe default setup cannot tell you what a job made. Here is what to change.8 min read
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