Bookkeeping Services for Contractors & Construction Companies
Whether you run a general contracting firm, a roofing company, an electrical contractor, or an HVAC contractor, we handle the bookkeeping the way jobs actually run — job costing, WIP schedules, retainage tracking, and payroll. So you see which jobs make money, not just what's in the bank.
What Usually Goes Wrong
Contractor books break in specific, predictable ways. By the time an owner reaches Datastub, one of these is usually already costing them money.
Lumped-Together Job Costs
Materials, labor, and subcontractors all get coded to one general expense account instead of the job they belong to. You know the business made money this year. You have no idea which jobs made it and which ones quietly lost it.
Untracked Retainage
A general contractor holds back 10% until the job wraps up. If that retainage isn't logged as its own receivable, the money drops off your books entirely — cash you've earned, missing from your numbers and sitting in someone else's account.
Missing Work-in-Progress (WIP) Tracking
A project can be 60% complete but only 30% billed — and standard reporting misses that gap. Without a WIP schedule tying costs to real progress, your financials give you a false picture of the year.
1099 vs. W-2 Mistakes
Crews get paid as 1099 contractors when the IRS would treat them as employees — or the reverse. No one flags it because no one outside payroll is looking. It sits quietly until an audit or a workers' comp claim brings it to the surface — and by then it's expensive to fix.
Why General Accounting Doesn't Work for Contractors (And How We Fix It)
A contracting business rarely runs into financial trouble because its total revenue is wrong. It runs into trouble when that total is the only number it tracks.
If you have five jobs running at once — two profitable, two break-even, and one losing money — a standard Profit and Loss (P&L) statement lumps them all together. The overall business can look fine on paper while specific projects quietly drag down your margins.
At Datastub, we break that single number apart. We cost every job separately, track retainage project by project, and build Work-in-Progress (WIP) schedules that match your actual completion rate.
The result: clear visibility into which jobs drive your profit and which ones cost you money to run.
The Consolidated P&L
What a standard P&L obscures:
- Job A: Profitable, but the exact margin is unknown.
- Job B: Breaking even, but blended into the overall totals.
- Job C: Losing money, but buried within general expense accounts.
- Retainage: Earned but missing from your primary reports.
- WIP: Untracked, creating a disconnect between billing and actual project progress.
One overall number that hides the performance of individual projects.
True Job Costing
Job-level accuracy rolling up into one reliable total:
- Separated Costs: Labor, materials, subcontractors, and equipment are tracked individually for every job.
- Clear Retainage: Retainage is recorded and visible as a distinct line item per project.
- Accurate WIP: Schedules correctly reflect your actual percentage of completion.
- Reliable P&L: A company-wide financial statement built from exact, project-level data rather than a blended average.
Clear, project-by-project margins so you know exactly what type of work to bid on next.
How Our Contractor Bookkeeping Service Works
Discovery Call
A 30-minute call with Nimesh or a senior accountant. We learn your business, how your jobs are tracked today, and what isn't working.
Scope & Books Review
We review your current job costing setup, chart of accounts, and any WIP or retainage tracking already in place. You get back a written scope with fixed pricing.
Onboarding & Setup
We build out job costing by job and phase, set up retainage tracking, and rebuild the WIP schedule if one doesn't already exist. Historical jobs reconciled where needed.
Ongoing Bookkeeping
Every job costed as it runs, WIP updated monthly, retainage tracked job by job. Every output runs through a four-tier review before it reaches you. We thoroughly review your data before delivery, ensuring you get clean, precise financials every single time.
Monthly Financial Review
A walkthrough of your numbers — job by job, not just the total. What's carrying the business, what to watch, and what to bid differently next time.
What We Handle for Contractor Bookkeeping
Contractor bookkeeping services built around how jobs actually run — from bid to close-out, not just month to month.
Job costing
Every cost — labor, materials, subcontractors, and equipment — coded to the job and phase it belongs to, so you see real margin on each project, not just the business as a whole.
WIP Schedules & Percentage-of-Completion
Work-in-progress schedules built and maintained monthly, so over-billing and under-billing surface before they become a cash flow surprise or a bonding problem.
Change Order Tracking
Every change order logged against the original contract, so revised contract value and margin stay accurate — and your WIP and job P&L reflect the job as it's scoped today, not as it was bid.
Retainage Tracking
Retainage held by GCs, or retainage you're holding from subs, tracked as its own line — visible on your books instead of buried in general AR.
AIA & Progress Billing
Draw requests and progress billing are tracked against the schedule of values (AIA G702/G703 where you use it), with AP managed so subcontractors and vendors get paid on schedule.
Payroll, Including Certified Payroll
Multi-state crew payroll, prevailing wage and certified payroll for public jobs, and 1099 tracking for subcontractors — run in Gusto, ADP, or whatever you already use.
Worker Classification Review
A review of how your crews and subcontractors are classified, flagged where 1099 vs. W-2 treatment looks off, before it becomes an audit or workers' comp issue. The classification decision stays with you and your counsel.
Sales & Use Tax on Materials and Labor
State-by-state treatment of materials and labor, since the rules differ by jurisdiction and getting it wrong on a big job adds up fast.
Business Tax Filing & Planning
Federal and state returns prepared in-house, plus year-round planning — contractor deductions, Section 179 and depreciation on equipment, and percentage-of-completion tax strategy.
We Work In The Software Your Jobs Already Run On
Your accounting platform, your PM tool, your payroll system — we work in all three, so nothing gets switched and there's no new tool to learn.
Accounting software
QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Enterprise, Sage Intacct. Caption: Job costing, cost-code tracking, and WIP set up correctly in whichever platform you run — no forced migrations.
Construction project management
CONFIRM: Placeholder — needs confirmation. Listed based on common industry usage, not confirmed Datastub client software. Procore · Buildertrend · CoConstruct · Autodesk Construction Cloud Caption: If your job-cost data lives in a PM platform, we pull it into your books instead of asking you to re-enter it.
Payroll
ADP · Gusto · Paychex · OnPay · Rippling Caption: Including certified payroll and prevailing wage reporting for public jobs.
Why Contractors Choose Datastub
Outsourcing your books raises real questions. Here's where we stand on the six that matter most.
Quality Control
Will I be able to control quality across an outsourced team?
- Every output passes through a four-tier review: accountant → senior → lead → manager.
- One assigned account manager who owns your engagement end to end.
Data Security
Will my data be safe?
- US-hosted Microsoft security stack, encrypted at every level.
- Role-based, office-only access — and covered by E&O and cyber insurance.
Point of Contact
Who's my point of contact?
- You get a dedicated account manager assigned to your engagement — and a 24-business-hour response on every question.
- A monthly meeting to walk through your numbers — not just send them.
Industry Knowledge
Have you worked with my industry?
- Deep expertise across 7 industries, including contractors — job costing, WIP, and retainage are daily work for us.
- We serve others too — and we'll be upfront if yours is new to us.
Transition
How will the transition work?
- Onboarding starts within 48 Hours of signing.
- We review whatever's already in place — job costs, WIP, retainage — and take it from there.
Flexibility
What if it doesn't work out?
- 60 days' notice — no long-term contracts.
- A clean handover with all your documents, ready for your next firm.
Real Results From Our Contractor Bookkeeping Engagements
Three real contractor engagements — what we found, what we did, and what it meant for the client.
Fixing $200K in Unallocated Expenses
A painting contractor came to us for routine bookkeeping with zero job costing and roughly $200K of expenses lumped into a single general account. We scoped a full cleanup and rebuilt a year of financials from scratch in 30 days — every cost allocated to the job it belonged to, with clean expense tracking the owner could finally read job by job.
$50K in Retainage, Now Tracked
A general contractor running five active jobs at once had roughly $50,000 in retainage held back across those jobs — none of it tracked anywhere in the books. We set up dedicated retainage tracking by job, rebuilt the WIP schedule to reflect actual percentage of completion, and gave the owner a clear view of cash that was earned but not yet collectible.
$150K in Cash, Freed Up
A $1.5M roofing contractor was running out of cash — paying for heavy materials upfront, then waiting too long to bill for them. We set up a disciplined invoicing schedule so billing tracked costs as they went out, freeing up roughly $150,000 in working capital and steadying the business.
Reviews from Real Businesses
Real Google reviews from clients we've worked with. Nothing edited, nothing curated.
Questions Owners ask First
The things people want to know before they pick up the phone. Still unsure?
How do you charge – flat fee, hourly, or per project? +
Flat monthly fee for ongoing work, so you know exactly what you’re paying every month – no surprises. Cleanup engagements and one-time projects (catch-up, software setup like QuickBooks Online or Xero) are scoped and quoted separately as fixed-fee. We don’t bill hourly for ongoing bookkeeping.
What software do you work in? Do I need to switch from QuickBooks? +
We work in QuickBooks (Online and Desktop Enterprise), Xero, NetSuite, Sage, Zoho Books, and most major accounting platforms. If you’re already on one of these, you stay on it. If you’re on something that’s holding you back, we’ll help you choose the most appropriate one – and migrate you cleanly if it makes sense. We don’t require you to switch tools.
How do you keep my financial data secure? +
We work on Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure infrastructure. All client data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Every account uses two-factor authentication, role-based access, and audit trails – so only the team members assigned to your engagement can see your data, and every change is logged. Every team member signs an NDA before touching a client account.
Do you only do bookkeeping, or also tax and payroll? +
Both. Most clients start with bookkeeping and add tax, payroll, sales tax, or virtual CFO as the business grows. Everything stays under one team, so the bookkeeper who knows your transactions also briefs the accountant who files your taxes. No handoff loss, no repeated explanations.
How quickly can you get started? +
We schedule a discovery call within 24–48 hours of your request. Once the scope is finalized, we send the proposal within 1-3 business days, along with the NDA and engagement agreement for signature. Once signed, onboarding starts within 7 days – account manager assigned, software access set up, documents handed off.
What happens if it doesn’t work out? +
60 days’ notice, either side. You get full access to your data, files, and software – they’re yours, not ours. We’ll spend the transition period briefing your next bookkeeper or tax preparer so nothing falls through the cracks. No exit fees, no friction – clean transition, clean handover.
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Let's look at your books.
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