Construction
You can be profitable on paper and still run out of cash. Job costing, retainage tracking, and WIP reporting give you the real picture of every project.
The Cash Flow Gap
Construction is one of the few industries where you can have a full pipeline of profitable contracts and still struggle to make payroll on Friday. The money is always moving, but it rarely moves on the timeline you need it to.
The problem is structural. You buy materials and pay labor before you bill. You bill before you collect. And when you do collect, the general contractor or owner holds back retainage for months. That gap between spending money and receiving money is where construction businesses get squeezed, and where most financial problems start.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
General contractors, subcontractors, specialty trades, remodelers, and small commercial builders. Any construction business where profitability needs to be measured project by project.
The Friction
The Friction
Your bank balance doesn’t tell you whether you’re profitable. A big draw hits the account and it feels like a good month. But that draw covers work you already paid for weeks ago, and part of the next job’s materials are already on your credit line.
How We Track It
Every expense gets tied to a job. Labor, materials, subcontractor invoices, equipment rental, permits. When costs are tracked at the job level, you can see exactly what each project is earning and what it is costing. No more guessing whether that renovation actually made money or just kept the crew busy.
We also manage the billing side. Progress billing, pay applications, and retainage schedules are reconciled so you always know what has been billed, what has been collected, and what is still outstanding. This is the foundation for managing cash flow in construction, and it is where most contractors lose visibility.
WIP Reporting
WIP Reporting
Work in Progress reports compare what you have billed against how far along the job actually is. This matters for bonding companies, banks, and your own decision-making. Overbilling looks good until the surety flags it. Underbilling means you are financing the project out of your own pocket.
Subcontractor Compliance
Subcontractor Compliance
We track every subcontractor payment, collect W-9s, and prepare 1099s at year end. In the DMV, where government-adjacent work often requires documentation of your entire payment chain, staying on top of this keeps you audit-ready and eligible for future contracts.
Where It Goes Wrong
Retainage is the silent problem. A 10% holdback on every invoice sounds manageable until you realize you have $200,000 sitting across a dozen jobs that you cannot touch. That money is earned but unavailable, and it does not show up in the bank. Many contractors treat billed revenue as collected revenue, and the gap catches up with them at the worst possible time.
The other common mistake is bidding without real cost data. If you do not know your true labor burden (wages plus taxes, insurance, workers comp, and benefits), you are underpricing every job. Add in material waste, callback costs, and the downtime between projects, and the actual cost to complete a job is almost always higher than the estimate assumed.
Change Order Gaps
Change Order Gaps
Change orders that do not get properly documented and billed are pure profit loss. The work gets done, the cost gets absorbed, but nobody sends the invoice. We flag unbilled change orders as part of the monthly review so earned revenue does not slip through the cracks.
Certified Payroll
Certified Payroll
Government and prevailing wage jobs require certified payroll reports with accurate wage rates, fringe benefits, and trade classifications. Errors can result in penalties or losing eligibility for future public work. We make sure your payroll data supports clean certified payroll reporting.
What Changes
You start bidding with confidence. When you know your actual cost history on similar jobs, your estimates are grounded in real numbers instead of rough guesses. You stop leaving money on the table and stop taking jobs that look busy but lose money. Every bid reflects what the work truly costs.
Bonding capacity grows. Surety companies want clean financial statements, accurate WIP schedules, and evidence that you manage cash well. When your books reflect all of that, you qualify for larger bonds and bigger projects. Growth becomes a financial decision, not a leap of faith.
Cash Flow Visibility
Cash Flow Visibility
You know exactly when draws are due, when retainage releases, and when subcontractor payments hit. This turns cash flow from a constant source of stress into something you can plan around and manage proactively, week by week.
Tax Readiness
Tax Readiness
Construction businesses have significant tax planning opportunities around equipment depreciation, the Section 199A deduction, and job cost timing. Clean books throughout the year mean your tax preparer can find and apply those strategies instead of spending all their time reconstructing the numbers.
Northern Virginia's Bookkeeping & Advisory Firm
First Step:
Tell Us About Your Business
Every engagement starts with a conversation. Tell us what's going on with your books and we'll give you our honest assessment.
