Contractor Bookkeeping Guides — American Delta Bookkeepers

Getting paid · 6 minRestoration bookkeeping: claims, carriers and deductiblesThe homeowner gets the work. The carrier, the lender and the homeowner all owe part of the bill.Read

Cash flow · 6 minSolar installer bookkeeping: milestones and dealer feesThe install takes a day. The money arrives in pieces over weeks, often from someone other than the homeowner.Read

Setup · 6 minHandyman business bookkeeping: lots of small jobs, done rightNothing about it is complicated. There is just a great deal of it, and it arrives at the end of a long day.Read

Job costing · 6 minExcavation contractor bookkeeping: equipment cost by the hourAn equipment business that happens to sell dirt work. The machine hours decide the margin.Read

Job costing · 6 minFlooring bookkeeping: material, freight and installersMaterial is a large share of every job, and the margin is decided in overage, freight, returns and installer pay.Read

Job costing · 5 minPool company bookkeeping: builds, service routes and chemicalsTwo very different businesses under one name: large builds paid in stages, and routes decided by the cost of each stop.Read

Setup · 6 minStarting a contracting business: the money setup, in orderEvery habit set in the first ninety days either keeps the books easy for years or turns them into a rescue job.Read

Software · 6 minJob costing in QuickBooks Online, step by stepQuickBooks can do solid job costing. It rarely does, because the features that make it work are optional.Read

Job costing · 5 minMasonry bookkeeping: production rates, pallets and scaffoldMasonry is measured in units laid. Whether a job made money comes back to how many a crew really laid.Read

Job costing · 5 minCarpentry and framing bookkeeping: who buys the lumberLabor-only and labor-and-material framing are different businesses, and the revenue line cannot tell them apart.Read

Job costing · 4 minDrywall contractor bookkeeping: hang and finish, costed apartHanging and finishing are two trades in one, and very often only one of them is making money.Read

Job costing · 5 minSiding and gutter bookkeeping: projects, coil and claimsA siding job is a project. A gutter job is often done in a day from a trailer. The books should know the difference.Read

Cash flow · 5 minWindow and door bookkeeping: deposits, lead times, remakesWeeks pass between the deposit and the install. The books have to follow the money through that gap.Read

Job costing · 4 minPaving contractor bookkeeping: tons, equipment and the seasonMost of the year is earned in a window of months. The books have to show what each job in it really used.Read

Payroll · 5 minCleaning and janitorial bookkeeping: hours per accountLabor is almost the whole cost. The only question that matters is whether each account pays for the hours it takes.Read

Job costing · 5 minFence and deck bookkeeping: cost per foot, by product linePriced by the foot and lost in the details: the extra posts, the soft holes, the gate that needed a second trip.Read

Job costing · 5 minSeptic and well bookkeeping: pumping, installs and drillingThree or four businesses from one yard, sharing trucks and people and almost nothing else.Read

Job costing · 4 minTree service bookkeeping: equipment, crews and storm workPriced by the job, paid for by the hour of heavy equipment and one of the most expensive crews to insure.Read

Job costing · 4 minGarage door company bookkeeping: service, installs and leadsTwo businesses sharing a warehouse: same-day service from the truck, and special-order installs weeks later.Read

Job costing · 5 minInsulation contractor bookkeeping: spray foam yield per setMargin is decided by how much material a job actually consumed, and spray foam makes that hard to see.Read

Reporting · 5 minSecurity and low-voltage bookkeeping: recurring revenueThe most valuable thing many of these businesses own is the monthly revenue, and it is the part their books handle worst.Read

Job costing · 5 minAppliance repair bookkeeping: two trips, one jobThe part is rarely on the truck. One repair, two trips, a part in between — and often a third party paying.Read

Job costing · 4 minWelding and fabrication bookkeeping: shop rate and steelThe shop costs the same busy or quiet. Every job has to carry its share at a rate built from your own numbers.Read

Job costing · 4 minDemolition bookkeeping: disposal, scrap and equipmentPaid to take things away, and paid again by the scrap buyer. The margin hides in the parts most books leave out.Read

Setup · 8 minConstruction bookkeeping: how to set it up, step by stepThe unit that matters is the job, not the month. Every step here exists to make that possible.Read

Job costing · 8 minGeneral contractor bookkeeping: subs, draws and marginMost of the money that comes in is not yours. The books have to make the part that is visible.Read

Job costing · 7 minLandscaping bookkeeping: maintenance, installs and snowThree businesses sharing one set of trucks. The books need to know which one is carrying the others.Read

Cash flow · 7 minRemodeling bookkeeping: deposits, allowances and change ordersUsing the next deposit to finish the last job works right up until sales slow for one month.Read

Job costing · 7 minPainting contractor bookkeeping: labor is the whole jobPaint is the small line. The hours are where the margin lives, and where most books look away.Read

Job costing · 6 minConcrete contractor bookkeeping: yards, pours and weatherMost of a concrete job is spent in a few hours. The books have to see that day clearly.Read

Reporting · 8 minWIP schedules: over-billing and under-billing explainedThe report that shows whether the jobs on your books will make what you said they would.Read

Getting paid · 7 minLien waivers explained: conditional, unconditional, finalRoutine paperwork, and one of the easiest ways in construction to give away money you have not been paid.Read

Setup · 6 minContractor bookkeeping checklist: weekly, monthly, yearlyMost bookkeeping problems are not mistakes. They are tasks that did not happen for long enough to become a project.Read

Software · 7 minBest accounting software for contractors: an honest answerThe software that connects to everything else is worth more than the one with the best features.Read

Pricing · 8 minHow 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.Read

Reporting · 8 minHow 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.Read

Compliance · 7 minWho 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.Read

Pricing · 7 minRebates and consumer financing: what actually hits your booksA financed job at the same ticket price is a smaller job. Most books never show it.Read

Pricing · 7 minEmergency call-outs or scheduled work: which one actually paysThe premium looks large until you count the hour of driving and the job it pushed.Read

Job costing · 8 minService work and new construction are two different businessesSame trucks, same crew, completely different cash cycles. The books should say so.Read

Payroll · 8 minPaying roofing crews: piece rate or hourly?Piece rate makes labor predictable per square and unpredictable everywhere else.Read

Reporting · 8 minWhat 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.Read

Reporting · 8 minSeven signs a contracting business is in troubleBusinesses rarely fail suddenly. They fail slowly, in ways that were visible.Read

Hiring a bookkeeper · 8 minTwelve questions to ask before you hire a bookkeeperEveryone says they do monthly reporting. These questions find out what that means.Read

Cash flow · 7 minSupplier 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.Read

Reporting · 7 minA one-page annual budget you will actually useNot a forecast nobody reads. A number to compare each month against.Read

Getting paid · 8 minWhen a customer will not payMost non-payment is process failure, not refusal. Telling the two apart decides what you do about it.Read

Job costing · 7 minWhat is on your trucks, and what it is costing youEvery van is a small warehouse nobody counts. That is money sitting in traffic.Read

Tax · 8 minSales tax for contractors, without the headacheWhether you charge tax depends on your state, the job, and sometimes the customer. Guessing is expensive.Read

Cash flow · 7 minDeposits 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.Read

Setup · 7 minBookkeeping when it is just you and a truckYou do not need a finance department. You do need four things right.Read

Growth · 8 minWhat your books are worth when you sellA buyer pays for provable earnings. Everything you cannot prove is a discount.Read

Payroll · 8 minPrevailing wage and certified payroll, explained plainlyPublic work pays well and the paperwork is where contractors lose the margin back.Read

Job costing · 7 minWhat callbacks are really costing youThe job is closed, the invoice is paid, and the truck goes back three times for free.Read

Getting paid · 7 minChange orders: doing the work and actually getting paid for itThe work always gets done. The billing is what goes missing.Read

Getting paid · 7 minRetainage: 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.Read

Tax · 8 minQuarterly estimated taxes without the April surpriseNobody withholds tax for you any more. That is the part that catches people.Read

Financing · 8 minGetting bonded: what a surety actually looks atBonding capacity is decided by your balance sheet, not by how good your work is.Read

Growth · 7 minWhen can you actually afford another tech?Busy is not the same as ready. One of them is a feeling, the other is arithmetic.Read

Cash flow · 8 minA cash flow forecast you will actually keep upProfit and cash are different things. Contractors go under holding a profitable P&L.Read

Setup · 7 minSeparating business and personal money, properlyEveryone knows they should. Here is what it actually costs when you do not.Read

Software · 8 minConnecting ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro or Jobber to QuickBooksThe sync is the easy part. Making the two systems agree is where it falls apart.Read

Reporting · 8 minThe eight numbers a contractor should look at every monthNot a dashboard with forty widgets. Eight numbers that change decisions.Read

Tax · 7 minYou 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.Read

Payroll · 7 minYou 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.Read

Hiring a bookkeeper · 7 minYour 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.Read

Financing · 8 minThe 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.Read

Compliance · 7 minThe 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.Read

Software · 8 minQuickBooks 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.Read

Compliance · 7 minA 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.Read

Cash flow · 8 minYou 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.Read

Tax · 7 minYour 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.Read

Tax · 7 minThe 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.Read

Compliance · 7 minYour 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.Read

Tax · 8 minYou 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.Read

Owner pay · 8 minLLC or S-corp? Business structure for contractorsThe saving is real. So is the payroll obligation that comes with it.Read

Tax · 9 minWhat contractors can actually deductMost contractors overpay tax not because they miss deductions, but because they cannot prove the ones they took.Read

Tax · 7 minMileage or actual expenses? Vehicle costs for contractorsFor most contractors one method is clearly better. Almost nobody checks which.Read

Pricing · 7 minWorking out your break-even numberEvery month starts in a hole. Break-even is the number that gets you out of it.Read

Financing · 8 minGetting a line of credit as a contractorBanks decline contractors for predictable reasons. Most of them are fixable in a quarter.Read

Setup · 8 minSeven QuickBooks mistakes contractors makeThe software is fine. The way it was set up is the problem.Read

Job costing · 7 minInstall or service: which side of your HVAC business pays?The big invoices feel like the business. They are often not the profit.Read

Pricing · 8 minWhat 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.Read

Financing · 7 minBuy, lease or finance? Equipment decisions for contractorsThe monthly payment is the wrong thing to compare. Here is what to compare instead.Read

Job costing · 7 minGetting subcontractor costs under control in roofingYou know what you paid out. You probably cannot say what each job cost you.Read

Compliance · 7 minSurviving your workers comp auditThe audit decides what you pay next year. Most contractors walk in unprepared.Read

Reporting · 8 minHow to read your P&L without an accounting degreeYour accountant sends it every month. Here is how to actually read it.Read

Job costing · 6 minInsurance vs retail work: separating roofing marginsTwo revenue streams, two very different margins, reported as one number.Read

Hiring a bookkeeper · 6 minBookkeeper or accountant? What contractors actually needThey are different jobs. Hiring the wrong one is expensive and slow to notice.Read

Job costing · 6 minAre your HVAC maintenance agreements actually profitable?Recurring revenue is only good revenue if you know what it costs to service.Read

Hiring a bookkeeper · 8 minNine 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

Reporting · 6 minCash basis vs accrual accounting for contractorsCash basis matches how most contractors think about money. Here is when that stops being enough.Read

Job costing · 7 minRoute profitability and retention for pest control operatorsDensity is the whole business. A stop forty minutes out is not the same stop.Read

Compliance · 8 minYear-end checklist for contractors: what your CPA needsTax season is a scramble because nobody closed the months as they went. Here is the full list.Read

Getting paid · 7 minGetting paid faster on commercial electrical workThe work is finished. The money is sixty days out. That gap is where contractors die.Read

Job costing · 7 minProfit per truck: what each plumbing van really earnsYou know what the company made. You probably do not know which truck made it.Read

Catch-up · 6 minCatch-up bookkeeping: how far behind is too far behind?Being behind is the most common place we start from. Here is what fixing it actually involves.Read

Cash flow · 7 minSurviving the shoulder season: cash flow for HVAC contractorsSummer pays for winter. Most owners have never worked out by how much.Read

Pricing · 7 minWhy jobs that look profitable still lose you moneyGross margin is not profit. The gap between them is the whole business.Read

Job costing · 7 minJob 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

Compliance · 9 min1099 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.Read

Owner pay · 8 minHow much should I pay myself? Owner pay for contractorsMost owners pay themselves whatever is left. That is a decision, and usually the wrong one.Read

Setup · 8 minThe chart of accounts a contractor actually needsThe default setup cannot tell you what a job made. Here is what to change.Read

How the money actually works in a contracting business.

The questions people ask before they hire anyone.

How the money works, subject by subject.

We'll do last month for free. Then you decide.