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

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com If you build homes, your books have a job that a general contractor's don't: tracking a project from raw land through lots, construction, and sale — often with customer deposits, construction loans, and multiple homes moving at once. That's why many builders use the NAHB chart of accounts — a standardized account structur

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Every year it's the same scramble: tax season arrives, your CPA asks for documents, and you realize the books aren't ready. Receipts are missing, accounts haven't been reconciled in months, and nobody's sure if the job numbers are right. It's stressful, it's expensive in CPA cleanup fees, and it's completely avoidable. Go

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Bad bookkeeping rarely sends you a bill. There's no invoice that says "lost this bid because your job costs were wrong" or "declined for bonding because your WIP didn't reconcile." That's exactly why bad construction bookkeeping is so dangerous — the cost is real, ongoing, and almost completely invisible until it shows up

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Before you hire anyone to handle your books, three fair questions deserve straight answers: what do I actually get each month, do they understand my kind of construction business, and how long before I'm up and running? This is the gut-check guide. If you're weighing whether a construction bookkeeper is right for you, t

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com Once a contractor decides their books need real help, the questions get practical fast: what does this cost, am I going to get a surprise invoice, what about cleaning up the mess I already have, and will any of this actually help me get bonded? This guide answers those four head-on. We won't dodge the money question — but

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting (949) 889-3283 | constructioncostaccounting.com If you run a construction business, you've probably wondered whether the financial side really needs to be different from any other company's. It does — and the gap is bigger than most owners realize. Construction bookkeeping isn't regular bookkeeping with a hard hat on. It tracks money in a fundamentally different way, b