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.
49 guides shown
- 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 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 work vs retail work: separating roofing margins in your booksTwo 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 for contractors: how to know which 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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