Septic and well bookkeeping: pumping, installs and drilling

Septic and well businesses often run three or four very different lines of work from one yard: pumping on a recurring schedule, inspections for real estate sales, repairs and installs that are really excavation projects, and, for some, well drilling and pump service. They share trucks and people, and almost nothing else.

Books that combine them into one revenue number cannot say which line is carrying the business. Separating them is the first and most useful thing to do.

Split the work

Separate income accounts or classes for pumping, inspections, repairs and installs, and well work, with costs following the same split. The margins, the equipment, the cash timing and the selling cost of each are different enough that a blended margin hides nearly everything worth knowing.

Pumping: disposal is a direct cost

Every load pumped has to go somewhere, and treatment plants and disposal sites usually charge by volume. Disposal fees are a direct cost of pumping — not general overhead — and they can move when a facility changes its rates.

Track pumping by job: gallons pumped, disposal cost, truck time and drive time against the price. It is the only way to see whether your pumping price still covers what the work costs, and which service areas pay.

Recurring pumping customers on reminder schedules are the steadiest revenue in the business. Knowing how many there are, and how many are lost each year, is worth tracking like any recurring service — see what a recurring contract is actually worth.

Inspections for real estate sales

Inspections tied to property sales are often fast, well-paid and time-sensitive — and paid at closing, sometimes through a title company. Track them as their own line, with receivables by closing date. An inspection paid “at closing” that never closed is a receivable that needs chasing.

Installs and repairs: run them like construction

A system install or major repair is an excavation project: permits, design or engineering fees, soil testing, excavation equipment, tanks and materials, inspections. Cost it like one — every material, sub and equipment hour coded to the job. See excavation bookkeeping for costing equipment by the hour.

Permit and engineering fees are often paid up front, before the job is certain to go ahead. Code them to the job, and record them as billable where your contract allows, so they do not disappear into overhead.

Well drilling: footage and uncertainty

Drilling is priced by the foot, and nobody knows exactly how deep the water is until the rig finds it. Contracts usually handle that with a per-foot price beyond an estimate. The books should record, per well, estimated footage against actual footage, and whether the extra was billed.

Rigs, pumps and casing are expensive; rig hours, fuel and wear belong on each job through an hourly equipment charge.

Trucks and equipment

Pump trucks, excavators and drilling rigs are most of the capital. Give each an hourly cost — ownership plus operating — and charge it to jobs. The truck cost per mile calculator and equipment buy, lease or finance guide help put numbers on it.

Emergency calls

Backups and failed pumps do not wait for business hours. After-hours work should be priced and tracked separately, so you can see whether the premium covers the overtime and disruption. See emergency or scheduled work — the same economics.

Related

• Construction bookkeeping, step by step
• What you should charge for a service call
• When a customer will not pay

General information, not tax or legal advice. Permit and disposal requirements vary by state and county.