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Home  /  Specialized / Industry-Specific  /  Construction accounting

Job costing that tells you which jobs paid.

Costs tracked to the job, work in progress calculated properly, and retainage tracked so it does not quietly disappear.

Construction accounting and job costing in Cedar Park, TX

Contractors usually find out whether a job made money after it is finished, and by then the same mistake has been priced into two more bids. The problem is not the estimating, it is that costs are never tracked back to the job in a way that closes the loop.

Construction accounting puts every dollar of material, labour, subcontractor, and equipment cost against a specific job, then compares it to what was estimated and billed. Combined with a proper work in progress schedule, it tells you where you stand on every open job right now rather than at completion.

  • Every cost coded to a job

    Materials, labour with burden, subcontractors, equipment, and permits allocated to the job that incurred them, with overhead applied on a stated basis.

  • Work in progress calculated each period

    Costs to date against estimated total cost, with overbilling and underbilling identified. This is the schedule a surety or a lender will ask for first.

  • Retainage tracked on both sides

    Amounts held back on your receivables and amounts you are holding on subcontractor payables, tracked separately so neither gets forgotten.

  • Estimate against actual by job

    Closed jobs compared to their estimates so the pattern of where bids go wrong becomes visible and the next estimate improves.

Contractors this is built for

Any contractor running multiple jobs at once with real material and subcontractor cost.

General contractors and remodellers

Several jobs open at once, overlapping draws, and material bought across jobs that has to be allocated correctly.

Specialty trade subcontractors

Working under general contractors with retainage held and pay-when-paid terms, where cash timing matters as much as job margin.

Contractors approaching bonding

Sureties want a work in progress schedule and consistently prepared financial statements. Neither can be produced retrospectively in a week.

Setting up job-level accounting

  • 1

    Define the job structure and cost codes

    A cost code set detailed enough to be informative and simple enough that the field will actually use it, which is the real constraint.

  • 2

    Wire the systems together

    QuickBooks Online configured for job costing, with time capture and any estimating or project software feeding it rather than being rekeyed.

  • 3

    Establish the work in progress process

    Percentage of completion calculated on an agreed basis each period, with over and under billings reported.

  • 4

    Review job margin monthly

    Open jobs against estimate while there is still time to act, and closed jobs analysed so the next bid is better informed.

Contractors in a busy Austin building market

Construction across Cedar Park, TX, Leander, TX, Georgetown, TX, and the Austin, TX metro has stayed busy, and material and labour prices have moved enough that a bid built on costs from a year ago can lose money without anyone noticing until the job closes. Job costing is what catches that in week three instead of month six. Texas does not impose a state income tax on most small entities, so the accounting focus here is squarely on job margin and cash timing. Filings, including anything to do with sales tax on construction contracts, go to your outside tax partner working from our records.

Job costing questions contractors ask

  • How detailed should cost codes be?

    Detailed enough to show where estimates go wrong, simple enough that crews code time correctly in the field. A code set nobody uses accurately is worse than a coarse one everyone does.

  • What is a work in progress schedule for?

    It shows, for every open job, how far along it is and whether you have billed ahead of or behind the work performed. Sureties, lenders, and any serious reader of contractor financials expect one.

  • Should I use percentage of completion or completed contract?

    Percentage of completion gives a far more useful management picture on jobs spanning more than a month or two, and it is what a bonding company expects. Your tax partner may treat it differently for filing purposes, and the two can coexist.

  • How is retainage handled?

    Receivable retainage is tracked separately from ordinary receivables so aging is not distorted, and retainage you hold on subcontractors is carried as a payable until released. Both are commonly missing from contractor books we take on.

Related services for contractors

Cash flow analysis and forecasting

Draw schedules against payroll and supplier terms.

Read about it →

Financial statement preparation

Statements for a surety, a bank, or a bonding application.

Read about it →

Inventory tracking

Where materials are stocked rather than bought per job.

Read about it →

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Want to know which jobs made money?

Book a consultation and tell us how many jobs you run at once. We will show you what job costing would reveal.

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