Markets are dynamic and continually evolving, so no business can afford to stand still. Many construction business owners have learned that in the last few months as COVID-19 spread around the world. No matter how excellent your products or services, they have a finite lifespan, so they must be developed, improved, or replaced if you're continuing to grow your business.

New products, services, and ways of providing more value to your clients and prospects are the hallmarks of a go-ahead business.

Improvements and extensions

You can lengthen your services' market life through a process of continuous improvement in response to customer feedback. You can also work on extending your range through complementary products or services.

However, there's a limit to the extent you can keep on refining, and in many cases – in the end, you'll need something new. Besides, if you are a trade contractor specializing in a specific skill and service, how can you translate your expertise to show that you have your prospective clients' best interest year-round?

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Thoughts And Inspirations, Systems And Processes, Contractor Tips, Trade Show

There is no better time to reflect and think seriously about your construction business. Excellent organization systems add considerable value to any business because they allow you to spend more time working on your business rather than on it.

Year over year and regardless of the economy, one thing never changes; 20% of the contractors earn and keep 80% of the profits because they have a Business Process Management Strategy like our Contractors Success M.A.P. that tells them how, what, when, where and why to focus their limited resources on the M.A.P. = Marketing / Accounting / Production.

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Construction Marketing, Construction Accounting, MAP vs. PAM, contractors bookkeeping and accounting, Accounting Software for Contractors, Contractor, Construction Productivity

Contractors want to maintain control without making any changes. "Keep doing the same thing but expecting a different result." 

Throwing the receipts in a shoebox (behind or under the seat in the truck) is the favorite way to deal with paperwork. This is "Under Managing" and frustrates everyone around them who is playing "Where's Waldo?" Job costing is nonexistent; bills are usually paid late, customers are unbilled, lost, and forgotten.

On the other hand, micromanaging every detail is an over-reaction from years of doing as little bookkeeping as possible to prepare the tax return. Knowing what to do, however, will stop you from making a big mess of it.

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Topics: How To Lower Your Tax Bill, Construction Profits, Construction Accounting, Reduce Taxes, Contractor, Contractor Tips, Contractor Operating Tips

Keeping track of sales, earnings, expenses, and purchases are fundamental to your construction business's overall health and sustainability. Effective bookkeeping produces the data you need to evaluate your current practices, anticipate challenges, and set attainable future goals. But despite their proven importance, many business owners dread and avoid accounting tasks.

Smart Contractors know their time is more valuable spent meeting prospective clients, putting together bids, managing job sites, and many other things other than bookkeeping. So they find someone else to do it. 

Any bookkeeping and accounting firm that does not know how to calculate complex algorithms that take into account fluctuations in the workload and generate a monthly fee that is fair to you and them they need to go back to school and take those courses on Decision Modeling, Statistical Analysis, and Business Process Management.

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Topics: The Contractors Account, Bookkeeping Services, Construction Accounting, contractors bookkeeping and accounting, outsourced construction accounting and bookkeeping, Accounting Software for Contractors, Contractor

One of the biggest concerns contractors have about outsourcing their bookkeeping to a cloud-based contractor accounting service like ours, is they think it means sending jobs off-shore rather than keeping your dollars in America where they can help other Americans. In too many cases, that is precisely what occurs.

 

Many contractors would like to subcontract out their bookkeeping services, and the two main reasons they don't is - fear of losing control and cost.

 

To paraphrase an old quote and adapt it to the construction industry, "It is not the strongest, toughest, hardest working construction contractor that survives, nor the most intelligent among them. It is the construction contractors that are most adaptable to change."

 

 

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Topics: FAQs, The Contractors Account, Construction Accounting, contractors bookkeeping and accounting, Accounting Software for Contractors, Contractor

Without proper tracking and matching of income and expenses, most construction companies never know if they made a profit until the job is over. Due to your work's nature, as construction contractors provide services on a per-job operation, issuing invoices make it all the more challenging and complicated than it has to be. The good news is that it doesn't have to stay that way. 

 

What should you include on your invoices to get paid faster? Even if you've been running your business for a while, you might be missing other information that you should include. So here is a step-by-step guide on what to include on your invoices.

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Topics: Payment Collect, Invoice With Smart Phone, Invoice With Tablet, QuickBooks Construction Accounting, payment issues

All construction contractors have experienced bad debt's financial pain, which is defined as a customer who refuses to pay no matter what you do.

 

I've been there before, and it will probably happen again in the future. Owning and operating any business, including accounting, means sometimes you provide goods and services and not get paid.

 

When you sat for an exam or a school test and knew the material forwards and backward, it was fast and easy. The exams and tests for the classes you struggled with were the opposite.

 

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Topics: Construction Accounting, Customers, Contractor Challenges, Contractor, payment issues

If you have a task that you don't like to do, there's an app or software program to take care of it for you. It might take a few moments of your time to learn and understand how the software or app works, but doing so will save you valuable time and precious energy. It will also free you up to spend time on the tasks you love to do, not on all the paperwork and record-keeping that go along with running a business.

When you run your own contracting or trade business, your life involves many long days being on job sites while managing projects, staff, and clients. There probably are not enough hours in the week for you to deal with all the issues that arise while keeping your clients happy and taking time out of your schedule to manage your business is probably the last thing you want to do.

Thanks to a variety of online software companies, running your business is now a lot easier. You can efficiently manage your projects, employees, finances, and records all through your computer or tablet, freeing you up to focus on your clients.

 

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Topics: TSheets, TSheets Construction Time Card Calculator, Xero For Construction Companies, KPI, QuickBooks Construction Accounting, Contractor, hubdoc, receipt bank

Bookkeeping embezzlement stems from a feeling of entitlement and the need to get even. Your bookkeeper or accountant will steal if they feel confident they can get away with it and if circumstances allow for it due to weak integrity and a sense of "Redistributing The Wealth, But Not The Work Or The Responsibility."

 

It is estimated that the number of bookkeepers caught embezzling from contractors is less than one percent of the total. In most cases, the ones that are caught are rarely convicted because all too often, it is the contractor who has to spend thousands of dollars on forensic accountants and attorneys to prove the theft occurred.

 

In most cases, it is near impossible to persuade the authorities to prosecute when a contractor bookkeeper embezzles because it is often viewed as a "Victimless Crime."

 

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Topics: New Contractors, Bookkeeper Embezzlement, Embezzlement, Construction Accounting, Contractor Bookkeeper Embezzlement, Construction Bookkeeper Embezzlement, Contractor Challenges, Contractor

Being in your own business can be the best time in your life. Alternatively, the worst time! No one starts a business, especially a contracting business, and have it rolling perfectly with a profit every step of the way. Between regulations, economic uncertainty, and other outside forces; always a learning curve.

Picking a Get-Me-By Contractor's Bookkeeping Solution in many cases is using an Excel Spreadsheet and a shoebox, file folders all dumped into a file box and looking at the Online Banking once in a while. This accounting method is the "I still got money, so I must be okay."

When you use today's Job Deposit To Pay For the material, labor, and subcontractors from the last job, it is also known as "Rob Peter To Pay Paul." Cash flow is never a problem until the sales stop; then it doesn't matter if it is the economy (your customers get laid off), domino effect (their customer didn't pay them), or you are unable to work due to being hurt on the job or get sick (flu or more serious illness).

 

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Topics: QuickBooks Construction Reports, Key Performance Indicators, KPI, QuickBooks Construction Accounting, Contractor, finance