Is my answer saved or sent anywhere?

Your answers are saved in your own browser so they are still there if you come back, and they are not sent anywhere. The only thing that ever leaves the page is what you choose to type into the optional form at the end.

What is a good bookkeeping health score?

Eighty-five or more means the foundations are in place. Most contracting businesses that do their own books, or have them done once a year, land well below that — usually because accounts are not reconciled monthly and job profit is not visible.

Why does "Not sure" count as zero?

Because if nobody can say whether something is being done, it is usually not being done — or not reliably enough to trust. Finding out is quick: ask whoever keeps the books to show you the reconciliation report or the job profit report for last month.

How do I fix everything on the list?

Each gap links to a guide that explains it. Or we fix them for you: we do your most recent month in full — reconciled, job-costed and reviewed by a US CPA — free, back within 24 hours, and tell you which gaps it closed.

Free tool

Contractor bookkeeping health check

Twelve yes-or-no questions about how your books are kept. You get a score out of 100 and the gaps that matter most, in order, each with the guide that fixes it.

Method reviewed by Darren Lim, US CPALicense CPA.74253602

Free · No email required · Nothing leaves your browser

Every bank and card account was reconciled to its statement last month.

You can see profit by job, not just for the company as a whole.

Business and personal money never go through the same account or card.

Last month was closed within a couple of weeks of month-end.

Payroll liabilities are reconciled — what was withheld matches what was deposited and filed.

Job costs and overhead are kept in separate accounts.

Labor is costed to jobs at the full burdened rate, not just the wage.

Every subcontractor gave you a W-9 before their first payment.

Customer deposits are recorded as money owed in work until the job is done.

Money for taxes is set aside from every deposit, not found in April.

You review who owes you money every month and chase what is overdue.

You look at the P&L and balance sheet every month.

Your books score

—

Answer the twelve questions. It takes about a minute, and nothing you choose leaves this page.

What the twelve questions check

Each question tests one foundation of contractor bookkeeping: whether the accounts are reconciled, whether job-level profit is visible, whether business and personal money are separate, whether the books are current, whether payroll liabilities tie out, whether job costs are kept apart from overhead, whether labor is costed at its real rate, whether subcontractor paperwork is collected before payment, whether deposits are treated as money owed, whether tax money is set aside, whether receivables are chased, and whether anyone reads the results.

None of these is advanced. Together they are the difference between books that describe the business and books that merely record it.

How the score is weighted

The questions are not worth the same. Each is weighted by the damage its gap does, not by how hard it is to fix. Unreconciled bank accounts and invisible job profit carry the most weight, because either one puts every other number in the books in doubt. Payroll liabilities, separate accounts and current books come next. A skipped monthly review carries the least — it costs insight rather than money.

A "Not sure" scores the same as a "No". That is deliberate: in bookkeeping, not knowing whether something is being done is almost always the same as it not being done.

Reading your result

A score of 85 or more means the foundations are in place and what remains is refinement. Between 60 and 84, the basics mostly hold but some gaps are costing money or visibility every month. Below 60, several foundations are missing and the numbers the business is being run on cannot yet be relied on.

The order of the fixes matters more than the score. Start at the top of the list — it is sorted by consequence — and each one links to the guide that explains how to close it.

What it cannot tell you

A self-assessment measures what you believe about your books. The most common finding when someone looks at the actual file is that one or two answers were more optimistic than the records support — an account "reconciled" with a plug entry, or job costs that stopped being coded partway through the year. The only way to be sure is to look at the books themselves.

Common questions

Is my answer saved or sent anywhere?: Your answers are saved in your own browser so they are still there if you come back, and they are not sent anywhere. The only thing that ever leaves the page is what you choose to type into the optional form at the end.
What is a good bookkeeping health score?: Eighty-five or more means the foundations are in place. Most contracting businesses that do their own books, or have them done once a year, land well below that — usually because accounts are not reconciled monthly and job profit is not visible.
Why does "Not sure" count as zero?: Because if nobody can say whether something is being done, it is usually not being done — or not reliably enough to trust. Finding out is quick: ask whoever keeps the books to show you the reconciliation report or the job profit report for last month.
How do I fix everything on the list?: Each gap links to a guide that explains it. Or we fix them for you: we do your most recent month in full — reconciled, job-costed and reviewed by a US CPA — free, back within 24 hours, and tell you which gaps it closed.

What we do about it

Every gap on this list is something we close as a matter of routine: accounts reconciled monthly, job costs and overhead separated, labor costed at the burdened rate, payroll liabilities tied out, subcontractor paperwork tracked from the first payment.