Bookkeeping for Construction
Construction Bookkeeping
1099 reporting. Sub W-9 collection. Progress billing. We have seen the lot.
- AIPB Certified
- QuickBooks ProAdvisor
- Xero Partner
- US-based team
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A construction company's books rarely move at the speed of the calendar. One job wraps in six weeks, another drags on for eighteen months with three change orders and a retainage clause nobody quite remembers signing off on. A framing crew shows up for a fortnight, invoices, and moves on to the next site before their first check even clears. Materials get bought on a job account, then again on a personal card when the supply house is closed, then again as a cash pickup from a smaller yard across town. All of it has to land in the right job, the right account, and the right tax bucket.
We work with general contractors juggling five or six live jobs, remodelers running two crews and a stack of subs, and specialty builders who bill a GC on a fixed schedule and manage their own sub chain underneath. The shape changes. What holds constant is the paperwork: a W-9 collected before a subcontractor's first check clears, 1099-NEC filed clean at year end, retainage tracked separately so the profit and loss tells the truth, and certified payroll ready to go the moment a public job requires it.
Once we are running your books, the parts that used to eat a Friday night start to disappear. No more digging through a truck console for a missing receipt. No more guessing which sub crossed six hundred dollars for the year. No more scrambling because a bonding company or a public agency wants a certified payroll report by Monday morning. What is left is running the jobs and watching the margin, instead of chasing the paperwork behind it.
Where construction bookkeeping actually helps
- I'm paying a dozen subs across three jobs and I couldn't tell you which ones I owe a 1099-NECA W-9 collected before the first check goes out, every sub tracked against the $600 threshold all year, so January is a formality instead of a scramble.
- Retainage is sitting in my revenue and it makes my margin look better than it actually isRetainage held in its own liability or receivable account until it's actually released, so the P&L reflects cash you can spend, not cash you're still waiting on.
- Progress billing and change orders keep getting tangled and I've lost track of what's actually been invoicedEach draw tied to the schedule of values, change orders coded separately, so you always know what's billed, what's paid, and what's still owed.
- One of my jobs is prevailing wage and I have no idea how to produce certified payrollDavis-Bacon wage determinations loaded against your crew, with certified payroll reports produced on whatever cycle the contract requires.
- I bought two skid steers and a truck this year and I'm not sure what to expense versus depreciateSection 179 and bonus depreciation applied where it makes sense, larger equipment scheduled correctly so your year-end numbers hold up.
What's different about construction bookkeeping
- 1099-NEC subcontractor reporting, with W-9 collection built into the payment process from the first check
- Retainage tracked in its own account, separate from revenue, until release or forfeiture
- Progress billing tied to the schedule of values, so draws match the contract
- Certified payroll support for prevailing-wage and public jobs under the Davis-Bacon Act
- Job costing that separates labor, materials, and sub costs by project
- Equipment depreciation and Section 179 expensing handled at year end
- Quarterly books kept tax-ready ahead of the estimated tax deadline
Where construction books usually come apart
Most construction files we take over share a handful of the same problems. Retainage booked straight into revenue instead of held back, which makes a job look more profitable than it is until the retainage gets paid late or disputed. Subs paid without a W-9 on file, which turns January into a scramble to track down tax ID numbers for people who've already moved on to another job. Progress billing that doesn't map to the schedule of values, so nobody can say with confidence what's actually been invoiced against a contract. And a prevailing-wage job that lands on the desk with a certified payroll requirement nobody prepared for.
Each of those gets fixed at onboarding, and the fix sticks because the rhythm changes going forward. Retainage moves into its own account the moment a draw is invoiced. Subs get a W-9 request built into the very first payment, not chased down later. Draws are tied to the schedule of values so billing and the contract stay in sync. If a job needs certified payroll, wage determinations are loaded against your crew before the first pay period on that job runs.
The result is unglamorous in the best way: a January that doesn't involve chasing missing tax IDs, a P&L that shows real per-job margin instead of an inflated number waiting to be corrected, and a certified payroll report that goes out the same day it's requested instead of three days late.
"We took on a big job last year and the 1099 subcontractor payments nearly broke me, tracking who I paid, chasing W-9s, all of it. I called three bookkeepers and they were all 'we'll get back to you with a quote.' These guys came back the next morning with a number, started the following Monday."
What's included
- Bank and credit card reconciliation across every job and operating account
- Job costing by project: labor, materials, subs, and equipment
- W-9 collection and 1099-NEC prep for every subcontractor paid $600 or more
- Retainage tracked separately until release
- Progress billing matched to the schedule of values
- Certified payroll support for Davis-Bacon and state prevailing-wage jobs
- Monthly profit and loss with per-job breakdown
- Year-end handover to your CPA or EA
Why construction companies pick us
We run construction books every week
Schedule of values, draws, retainage, change orders. The vocabulary is familiar because it's what we work in, not something we learned on your file.
1099-NEC without the January scramble
W-9s collected up front, sub payments tracked all year against the threshold. The filing pulls cleanly because the data was clean from the first check.
Retainage that doesn't lie to your P&L
Held in its own account until released or forfeited. Your margin stays honest month to month, not just at project close.
Certified payroll, ready on the contract's cycle
Davis-Bacon wage determinations loaded against your crew ahead of time, so a request from a public agency gets a same-day answer.
Job costing that shows real margin
Labor, materials, and subs broken out per project, so you know which jobs are carrying the business and which are quietly eating it.
Payroll for crews, not just the office
W-2 tracking for employees, coordination with workers comp, correct treatment for apprentices and lead hands.
Get job-cost numbers you can actually trust
Tell us how many jobs are live and how many subs you're paying. Quote in writing the same business day.
Three construction company shapes
GC running five or six jobs at once
Multiple active jobs, a rotating list of subs, materials bought across several suppliers. Job costing matters here more than almost anywhere else, because the difference between a good job and a bad one is easy to lose in a single combined P&L.
What changes
- Job costing by project in QuickBooks or Xero
- 1099-NEC tracked from the first sub payment
- Retainage held separately across every open job
- Monthly per-job profitability report
How construction companies typically run their books
Owner + shoebox Small operation, DIY books | Office manager Part-time, generalist help | Construction-focused (us) Job costing, retainage, certified payroll | |
|---|---|---|---|
1099-NEC filed on time | Partial | Partial | Yes |
Retainage held separately from revenue | No | Partial | Yes |
Progress billing matches schedule of values | Partial | Partial | Yes |
Certified payroll ready on request | No | Partial | Yes |
Per-job profitability visible | No | No | Yes |
Books reviewed by an AIPB-certified bookkeeper | No | No | Yes |
Coverage when the owner is on a job site all day | No | Partial | Yes |
How we price construction bookkeeping
Construction bookkeeping pricing depends on how many jobs are live, how many subs you pay in a given month, and whether certified payroll or job costing by project needs to be part of the setup. A sole operator with a couple of subs and a GC running six jobs with fifteen subs are very different workloads, even if the revenue is similar.
Fill in the quote form, tell us roughly the size of the business and how many jobs and subs you're typically running, and we'll come back with a written number the same business day. If there's cleanup needed before we go live, that gets quoted separately so you can see both figures clearly.
What clients say
"We took on a big job last year and the 1099 subcontractor payments nearly broke me, tracking who I paid, chasing W-9s, all of it. I called three bookkeepers and they were all 'we'll get back to you with a quote.' These guys came back the next morning with a number, started the following Monday."
Construction bookkeeping FAQ
Two things to remember
Every account is reconciled and kept tax-ready by an AIPB-certified bookkeeper. Every account is run inside the US. Those two anchors shape how we handle compliance for construction companies specifically.
Services we provide
Service
Outsourced Bookkeeping
Full delegation, compliance-heavy. Contractors, hospitality, construction, allied health. AIPB certified.
Service
Quarterly Tax-Ready Bookkeeping
Books reconciled ahead of every quarterly deadline. AIPB certified.
Service
Payroll Bookkeeping
W-2, 1099, deposit deadlines. Payroll without the panic.
Lock in the books before the next draw.
Tell us how many jobs are running and how big the crew is. We'll quote your retainer the same day.