Construction accounting built around the job, not the calendar
Know which jobs make money while you can still do something about it — with costs coded to the job, retainage tracked, and books your lender and bonding company won’t argue with.
Profit shows up per job, not per month
A monthly P&L tells a contractor almost nothing. One good month can be three jobs quietly losing money while a fourth pays for all of them, and you won’t know which is which until everything closes out. By then the estimate that caused it has already been reused on the next bid.
We build job costing into the books from the start. Labor, materials, equipment, subs and permits get coded to the job — and to the phase or cost code when you want that detail — so you can compare estimated to actual while the work is still in the field. That’s how a bad job becomes a change order instead of a write-off.
Progress billing and retainage, tracked correctly
Progress billing has its own rhythm: you bill a percentage, the GC or owner approves some of it, and a slice gets held back until the very end. Retainage is money you earned and haven’t received, and it belongs on your balance sheet as a receivable — not lost inside an invoice total or, worse, never recorded at all.
We track retainage receivable by job and by customer so you always know how much is sitting out there, and we track retainage you’re holding from your own subs on the other side. When a project closes, collecting what’s owed is a phone call, not an archaeology project.
Work in progress, so profit isn’t a surprise
The uncomfortable question on any long project is simple: have you billed ahead of the work, or has the work run ahead of the billing? Overbilled and underbilled positions are the two ways a job’s profit gets distorted, and both are invisible unless someone is actually watching costs against the contract value.
We keep that picture current — costs to date, billings to date, and where each open job stands — so the number you see mid-project resembles the number you finish with.
Method matters, and it’s a decision to make on purpose
Percentage-of-completion or completed-contract isn’t a preference; it shapes how your income is reported and when. It’s a decision to make deliberately with your tax advisor, and our tax team can walk through it with you — or coordinate with the CPA you already use. Either way, we set the books up to support the method you choose so you’re not rebuilding history later.
A bookkeeper on the books, a controller over them
Every bookkeeper at Duban Accounting passes the Duban Skills Test before touching a client file — and only 15% of candidates pass, even though each one already holds a QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification and an accounting degree. Then a controller reviews every close, so job cost allocations and retainage balances get a second set of expert eyes before you rely on them.
When you’re weighing a bigger project, a line of credit or an equipment purchase against a lumpy cash cycle, fractional CFO support picks up where the monthly bookkeeping leaves off.
The parts of construction accounting that decide your margin.
Labor, materials, equipment and subs coded to the job and cost code, with estimate against actual you can read mid-project.
Draws and applications recorded as billed, so revenue follows the schedule of values instead of whatever cleared the bank.
Held-back amounts carried as receivables by job and customer — and tracked on what you hold from your subs.
Costs to date against billings to date on every open job, so overbilled and underbilled positions surface early.
Subs and suppliers tracked through the year with W-9s and insurance certificates on file, so January is routine.
Statements packaged the way banks and sureties expect — consistent, current and reviewed before they leave our hands.
From a pile of receipts to job-by-job clarity.
Talk with us
A consultation about your jobs, your billing cycle, your subs and what your books can’t currently tell you.
Meet your team
You’re matched with a skills-tested bookkeeper who has run job-costed books, plus the controller reviewing them.
We get you current
Job cost structure set up, open jobs reconstructed, retainage identified and prior periods cleaned up and caught up.
Close, every month
Accounts reconciled, job-level reporting delivered, and a controller’s review behind every number.
Construction accounting, answered.
Do you do job costing in QuickBooks?
Yes. Every Duban bookkeeper is QuickBooks ProAdvisor certified, and we set up jobs, cost codes and item lists so labor, materials, equipment and subcontractor costs land on the right job automatically. You get estimate-versus-actual reporting by job without exporting everything to a spreadsheet.
How is retainage handled in the books?
Retainage held from your billings is recorded as a separate receivable by job and customer, so it never disappears into an invoice balance and never looks like it was paid. Retainage you hold back from your subs is tracked as a payable on the other side. At closeout, you know exactly what to chase and what to release.
Can you clean up our books in the middle of a project?
Yes, and it’s common. We reconstruct costs on open jobs, get them coded properly, sort out what was billed versus what was collected, and bring prior periods current — then keep it that way with a monthly close. You don’t have to wait for a job to finish to start over.
What do bonding companies and lenders want to see?
Consistency and current numbers: financials that arrive on time, a balance sheet where receivables and retainage are stated properly, and job-level detail that supports what the statements say. We keep the books in that condition year-round and a controller reviews them, so a bonding or loan request doesn’t turn into a month of scrambling.
What does it cost?
A flat monthly fee, quoted after a free consultation. What drives it is transaction volume, how many jobs you run at once, payroll and subcontractor activity, and the current state of your books — so we look before we quote. No hourly surprises.
Ready to know which jobs actually make money?
Book a free consultation and we’ll determine the best way to help your business reach its full potential. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll point you to a resource that is.