By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com A fire protection company runs on a revenue split unlike almost any other trade: new sprinkler and alarm system installs, which behave like a standard construction project, alongside inspection and testing work that isn't optional maintenance a customer might skip — it's required by code, on a schedule, indefinitely. Fire

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com A landscaping and hardscape company is really running two businesses at once: design-build installs that behave like construction projects, and maintenance routes that behave like a subscription service. Add in plant material that can literally die before it gets installed, and a season that swings from fully booked to ne

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com A tree service company runs on some of the most expensive specialized equipment in any trade, some of the highest-risk labor, and a demand pattern that can flip from routine to overwhelmed the moment a storm rolls through. Tree service bookkeeping has to be built around all three of those realities, or a company that look

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com A restoration company doesn't run one business — it runs two, back to back, on the same loss. The emergency call — water, fire, or smoke damage — gets a fast mitigation response, billed on its own logic and often its own timeline. Once the property is dried out, cleaned, or stabilized, the job shifts into reconstruction,

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Framing moves fast — a crew can frame a house in days and be on the next job before the walk-through is even scheduled. That speed is exactly what makes framing contractor bookkeeping easy to get wrong: lumber prices swing, crews get paid on hours or on units framed, waste piles up quietly on every cut, and a callback six

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Like most specialty trades, a plumbing company runs service calls and fixed-bid installs side by side, and those two revenue streams need to be costed separately — that split isn't unique to plumbing, but getting it right still matters. What is genuinely specific to plumbing contractor bookkeeping is what happens once you

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com A pool build looks simple from the outside — dig a hole, spray it, tile it, fill it. In the books, it's closer to running a small development project than a typical remodel: a deposit-heavy draw schedule, mandatory cure times that stretch the calendar, and six or seven specialty trades all billing into one job. Pool and s

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com A solar installation looks finished the day the panels go up — but financially, the job isn't done, and the money isn't final, until an outside party says so. Most residential solar is sold through third-party financing, which means a chunk of the contract price never reaches you at all. And the system can't legally produ

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com QUICK DEFINITION Construction bookkeeping is project-based accounting for contractors. Instead of tracking only overall company revenue, it tracks income, costs, and margins for each individual job — separately. It relies on job costing, a custom chart of accounts built for construction, retainage tracking, and progress b

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Excavation is the trade where the money is made by iron, measured by the yard, and lost in places most books never look. Your biggest cost isn't materials — it's machines: what they cost to own or rent, what they burn in fuel, what it costs to move them to the site, and what they cost sitting idle in the rain. Excavation

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Ask a house flipper how a deal went and you'll get a number — “we made forty on that one.” Ask to see the books behind that number, and things get quiet. Most flippers know their purchase price and their sale price; far fewer know their true all-in cost, because rehab receipts, hard money interest, utilities, and closing

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com A spec builder and a custom builder can frame the same house on the same street — and run on completely different books. When you build on speculation, there's no customer contract during construction. The home is your product: you buy the lot, fund the build, carry it, and only get paid when it sells. That flips the acco

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Most contractors who lose money on a job don't find out until the job is closed — when it's too late to do anything but absorb it. The fix isn't more software or a fancier setup. It's a routine. Construction job costing in QuickBooks Online only protects your margins if you actually run it — week in, week out — catching m

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com The moment a multifamily developer takes outside money, the books take on a second job. It's no longer just tracking the project — it's tracking the investors: who put in what, who's been paid what, and where every dollar stands against the deal's promises. That's the world of capital accounts, contributions, distribution

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com For a roofing contractor doing storm and restoration work, the hardest part of the job isn't the roof — it's getting paid every dollar the insurance claim owes you. Between actual cash value, recoverable depreciation, supplements, and the owner's deductible, an insurance roof pays in pieces over weeks or months. Miss a pi

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Roofing is one of the most financially complex trades a contractor can run — and most of that complexity comes from one thing other trades rarely deal with: insurance work. Between retail re-roofs and storm-restoration jobs paid by an insurance carrier, a roofer is really running two different businesses under one roof, e

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com For a concrete contractor, materials are where the money is made or lost — and they're the hardest cost to keep a grip on. Ready-mix pricing moves, a short load costs more per yard than you planned, an over-pour is money left in the ground, and if the delivery ticket never gets coded to the right job, the whole cost disap

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Concrete is one of the most unforgiving trades to run the books for. Your margins are thin, your material costs move with the market, a short load or an over-pour eats your profit on the spot, and if you touch public work you're likely dealing with prevailing wage on top. Concrete contractor bookkeeping isn't generic book