Siding and gutter bookkeeping: projects, coil and claims

Siding and gutter companies usually run two kinds of work at very different scales. A siding job is a project: a large contract, material ordered for the house, a crew for days, often a deposit and sometimes financing or an insurance claim. A gutter job is often done in a day from a machine on a trailer, with material cut from coil on site.

Put through the books as one revenue line, the two blur together. Kept apart, they usually tell quite different stories about margin, cash and where the next dollar of marketing should go.

Split siding from gutters

Separate income accounts or classes, with costs following the same split. Gutter guards, repairs and cleaning are worth separating too if you do meaningful volume — they tend to be small tickets with good margin and very different selling costs.

Siding: material by the house

Siding material — panels, trim, soffit, fascia, house wrap, fasteners — is ordered per house and should be coded to the job when it is bought. Three places to watch:

• Overage and returns. Every job orders extra. What comes back to the supplier, and whether the credit is applied back to the job, decides whether the job report is accurate.
• Special colors and profiles that cannot be returned become leftover stock. Treat it as inventory until it is used or written off.
• Delivery and dumpster charges that arrive on their own invoices belong on the job.

Gutters: coil is inventory

Seamless gutter companies buy coil and cut it to length on site. Coil on the shelf and on the trailer is inventory until it goes on a house. Counted periodically, it tells you whether material used matches what was billed — and the machine itself is equipment whose cost belongs in your pricing.

Track gutter jobs by linear foot: price per foot against material and labor per foot. It is the simplest way to see whether your gutter pricing still covers what the work costs.

Storm and insurance work

After hail and wind storms, much siding work becomes insurance work: an adjuster’s scope, a deductible owed by the homeowner, supplements, sometimes a mortgage company on the check, and depreciation held back until completion.

Track receivables per claim and per payer so the deductible and the held-back depreciation do not get lost. The same mechanics apply to roofers — see insurance vs retail work in roofing and restoration bookkeeping.

Financing and dealer fees

Much residential siding is sold with financing, and the lender typically keeps a fee. Record the full contract value as revenue and the fee as a cost, so financed jobs show their real margin and you can see what offering financing costs you. See rebates and consumer financing — the treatment is the same.

Selling costs

Siding is often sold through in-home appointments, lead services or canvassing, and the cost of winning a job can be large. Commissions and lead costs should be recorded so they can be tied back to jobs or at least to channels. The marketing ROI calculator shows what a channel is really returning.

Installers and subs

Many siding companies use subcontracted installers paid by the square. Collect a W-9 and current insurance certificate before the first payment, and track payments by installer. See who needs a 1099 and 1099 or W-2.

Related

• Deposits and progress billing
• Construction bookkeeping, step by step
• What callbacks are really costing you

General information, not tax or legal advice.