Mad Dash To The End Of The Year And I Can’t Remember Last Week

Let Alone January, April, July’s Stuff!

The year is almost over. It is now the (4th) Quarter and year end deadlines are approaching.

Have you given your bookkeeper, wife, partner), accountant or tax accountant the information need to complete your reports. Accountants need good information to be able to create detailed reports and save money on your taxes.

Here is truly where the expression “Garbage In Equals Garbage Out” comes into play.  It is impossible to create Job Costing Reports when all anyone knows is the amount of a deposit on the bank statement.   
 
It’s the Mad Dash To The End Of The Year as a contractor recently described their Year End Madness to get his documents ready for the Tax Accountant.

Are You In This Cycle Of Chaos Too? It’s Preventable!

The First Question You May Ask Yourself Is

Why Doesn’t My Tax Accountant Help Me With Job Costing?

They are Tax Accountants, not Construction Accountants and may not know the answers. You may think they are just keeping it a secret. Sometimes you may think they don’t know what they are doing, and maybe I need to get a new tax accountant.  

My Advice is Stop, take a deep breath. Is your tax accountant doing a good job with your annual taxes? If the answer is YES. Please keep them, they are doing what they are supposed to do.

The First Question You May Ask Yourself Is

Why Doesn’t My Tax Accountant Help Me With Job Costing?

They are Tax Accountants, not Construction Accountants and may not know the answers. You may think they are just keeping it a secret. Sometimes you may think they don’t know what they are doing, and maybe I need to get a new tax accountant.  

My Advice is Stop, take a deep breath. Is your tax accountant doing a good job with your annual taxes? If the answer is YES. Please keep them, they are doing what they are supposed to do.

Experts Have Increased Knowledge And Skills. This is true whether you are talking about general bookkeeping, tax accountants, your mechanic, your doctor or other business professionals.

In the world where most people think everything should be Free, Perfect, Now getting good financials from your Construction Accounting System still takes the old fashioned method of hard work and skill.

Most Contractors would never expect or allow their staff out in the field do sloppy; tacky workmanship except where the office is concerned. Most contractors who do beautiful work on the job tend to be a Little messy in their paperwork.
There is only so many hours in the day and not enough hours to do everything.

Highly successful contractors know they need good reports to know where the their company is going, knowledge on what type of jobs to bid and accept.  If and when to hire additional employees.

Smart contractors know when to hire someone who has the skill sets that they or their office staff does not have. Make no mistake, managing the paperwork in your construction company requires more than just simple QuickBooks skills. You need someone trained in construction accounting with highly developed skill sets in dozens of online and offline software, not just the basics of how to turn on QuickBooks and write a check.

Think of what it takes to manage your household expenses then multiply that by a factor of 10 then add in employees with all the drama and headaches they bring to your company!

What You Should Expect From Your Bookkeeping System

First Important Principle In Construction Accounting:

Everything starts with Cash because Cash Is Fact; Profit Is An Opinion. All transactions in the bank account of your construction accounting system no matter if it is QuickBooks or Xero must be assigned to the proper accounts:

• Income
• Job Deposits
• Payroll
• Taxes
• Cost of Goods Sold (Direct and Indirect Costs including Labor, Material, Other and Subcontractors.
• Other costs including permits, plans, bills from suppliers and purchases on your personal credit cards.
• Overhead

Second Important Principle In Construction Accounting:  

Tracking Income properly, Knowing how, when and where to put Customer Estimates, Customer Invoices, Customer Job Deposits and any Retainage Withheld, Vendor Refunds and Rebates.

Good Construction Accounting Is All About the Details

Let me introduce myself, Hi, I’m Sharie when you call

I’m the voice on the other end of the phone

Calls come from Construction Contractors, Wives,  Mothers, Bookkeepers, Advisors and others all wanting to find someone to reassure them that they are not crazy and what they expect and what’s expected from them is not unreasonable.