What is construction accounting, and why do contractors need it?
Because a builder does not run one business. You run one per job, and ordinary books cannot tell them apart.
It tracks money job by job, not just company-wide.
Construction accounting adds job costing, work-in-progress reporting, percentage-of-completion revenue, retainage, progress billing, and change-order tracking on top of ordinary bookkeeping. Regular accounting tells you whether the company made money last month. Construction accounting tells you whether the Henderson job is making money right now, while you can still do something about it.
That difference is why a profitable-looking P&L and a nervous bank balance can both be true at the same time.
What does construction accounting actually cover?
Job costing
Every dollar of labor, material, and sub cost tagged to the job that caused it, separated from overhead. Without it you have one blended margin and no idea which job earned it.
How job costing works →WIP and percentage of completion
A work-in-progress schedule showing earned revenue against billings, so over and under billings surface while you can still act. This is the report lenders and sureties ask for.
How WIP reporting works →Retainage and change orders
Retainage tracked separately from ordinary AR so it stops aging out, and change orders captured the day they are approved instead of the day someone remembers.
How retainage tracking works →Forward cash, not just history
A rolling 13-week forecast, because a P&L tells you what happened and says nothing about whether Friday's payroll clears.
How cash forecasting works →All of it runs inside the software you already have. See QuickBooks for contractors for the setup, and our system for how the whole engagement runs.
What happens, and how often?
We review your open jobs and update your cash. You get a short read on which jobs are printing cash and which are bleeding, and anything that needs a decision. Answers on your phone, not homework.
We close the books and hand you a board-grade package: job-by-job margin, a live 13-week cash forecast, and a WIP schedule your bank and bonding agent will trust.
We sit down on the numbers: where the money went, what to bid next, and how to fund it. You walk in as a businessman, not a guy with a truck.
Three easy steps to real numbers.
Book a free call
We look at your situation together and scope the work. You leave with a plain-English list of where cash is likely hiding, and the exact number for your engagement in writing.
Get your 14-Day Financial X-Ray
We plug into QuickBooks and hand you the truth in 14 days: a financial snapshot, your real cash position, your top profit and cash leaks, and a 90-day roadmap.
We run it for you
We fix the leaks and build your job costing, WIP, and cash forecast, then run your numbers every week. The money-brain comes out of your truck cab.
Construction accounting, answered
- What is construction accounting?
- Construction accounting tracks profit and cash job by job instead of company-wide. It adds job costing, work-in-progress reporting, percentage-of-completion revenue, retainage, progress billing, and change-order tracking on top of ordinary bookkeeping. Every job is effectively its own small business, and construction accounting is how you see each one clearly.
- How is construction accounting different from regular accounting?
- Regular accounting answers whether the company made money last month. Construction accounting answers whether this job is making money right now, while you can still change the outcome. The difference shows up in the chart of accounts, in revenue recognition, and in reports a generalist never builds: WIP schedules, job margin, and a forward cash forecast.
- What does a construction accountant do?
- A construction accountant sets up the books the way construction money moves, codes costs to jobs, produces the WIP schedule, tracks retainage and change orders, and keeps reporting in a shape banks and sureties accept. A fractional CFO adds the forward-looking layer: what the numbers mean for your next bid and whether you can fund it.
- Do I need a construction CPA or a bookkeeper?
- Most contractors need three roles, and they are not interchangeable. A bookkeeper records what happened. A CPA files taxes and keeps you compliant. A fractional CFO looks forward and turns the numbers into decisions. We handle the books and the CFO layer inside one engagement and work alongside your CPA, who keeps their seat.
- How do I find a construction accountant near me?
- Location matters far less than whether the firm actually knows construction. The work happens inside QuickBooks and your project management tool, so the right question is whether they build WIP schedules, track retainage, and understand percentage of completion. We are based in Utah and work with builders across the country, remote-first.
- What size contractor needs construction accounting?
- Usually once you are running several jobs at once, which for most builders starts somewhere around $500K to $1M in revenue. Below that a good bookkeeper and a clean chart of accounts may be enough. Above roughly $2M, the cash swings between mobilization and the first draw get large enough that guessing becomes expensive.
- Can you fix books that are already behind?
- Yes, and it is where most engagements start. Nobody is judging your file. The 14-Day Financial X-Ray is the cleanup and the diagnosis at the same time: we rebuild the chart of accounts, recode the jobs, and show you what each job actually earned.
- What does construction accounting cost?
- It is scoped to your revenue and workload rather than sold off a public menu, because a $1.5M remodeler and an $8M general contractor do not need the same work. You get the exact number in writing on a free call before anything starts, and the engagement is backed by our guarantee: we find at least 3x our fee in recoverable cash, margin, or tax within 90 days, or you do not pay.
Based in Utah? Construction bookkeeping in Utah. Want the CFO layer? Fractional CFO for construction companies.
You'll meet with
Cory Salisbury
Book a 30-minute profit-leak review with Cory.
You walk away with a written list of the leaks in your books - a straight, honest read.
What we'll cover
- A 10-minute look at where your numbers are today.
- 3 specific profit leaks I'd chase first for a business your size.
- Whether we're a fit - honest yes or no, no pressure either way.
Pick a date
Weekdays, 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM MT