Is efficient bookkeeping difficult to achieve? Is your construction company underutilizing software? Do you have lack of confidence in your QuickBooks financial and Job Costing Reports?
Are you babysitting your bookkeeper who is supposed to be saving you time and money, not causing you to multitask instead of focusing on things that make you money?
Are you a $100 an hour producer being slowed down by a $15 hour bookkeeper who has to be told what to do over, and over and over?
When construction is booming it is hard to find a good bookkeeper who knows what to do and will do it and next to impossible to find someone is skilled in construction accounting because it is 10X harder than regular bookkeeping.
Anyone can be a bookkeeper if QuickBooks setup is done correctly for construction. 95% of regular bookkeeping is simple; only 5% is complex and can cause your bookkeeper to panic.
You could hire a Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.) to be your in house contractor bookkeeping services provider however that could create more problems than it solves. Some C.P.A. firms make a lot of money turning in contractors to the IRS at this website Tax Whistleblowers.
Under any of these scenarios your construction company is doomed to die a slow and painful death because you will never have the Job Costing Reports that can show you exactly where the Top 20% of your clients are that generate 80% of your profit and in most cases they are not the ones you think they are!
This means you will keep rolling the dice until you eventually lose everything; either on one big job or from a series of small jobs that drain your cash and profits until your contracting company is dead!
I know those are harsh words and I know that a few readers may be lost; however, I do not apologize for them because if I can help one contractor stay in business, regardless of whether or not they ever hire our services, it will have been worth it.
Bookkeeping has many levels and just doing regular bookkeeping is near the bottom of the skillsets required to serve your construction company. It is not the regular bookkeeper's fault. We have worked with thousands of bookkeepers and hundreds of C.P.A.'s and they all believed bookkeeping is the same for every industry; but it is not.
We may have an answer that could help you:
If you insist on having an in house bookkeeper or even if you are doing the bookkeeping for your handyman, contractor or construction company please consider investing some serious time and money acquiring the tools and equipment to do the job right. I have outlined the first two steps to helping you achieve that goal.
Here are two of the steps in our extensive bookkeeping services system that we use in our contractors bookkeeping services office here in Lynnwood Washington where we serve the outsourced bookkeeping services needs of many contractors and construction company's just like yours for contractors all across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii with QuickBooks Desktop Version on a cloud server.
Read and get a feel for Dr. W. Edward Deming's 14 Points. He was focused mostly on manufacturing however, we have successfully implemented several of his ideas into our own construction companies in the past and we teach proactive contractors like you how to implement some of them in your contracting company today.
The 14 points seem at first sight to be a rag-bag of radical ideas, but the key to understanding a number of them lies in Deming's thoughts about variation. Variation was seen by Deming as the disease that threatened US manufacturing. The more variation - in the length of parts supposed to be uniform, in delivery times, in prices, in work practices - the more waste, he reasoned.
From this premise, he set out his 14 points for management, which is paraphrased here:
01. Create constancy of purpose towards improvement Replace short-term reaction with long-term planning.
02. Adopt the new philosophy The implication is that management should actually adopt his philosophy, rather than merely expect the workforce to do so.
03. Cease dependence on inspection If variation is reduced, there is no need to inspect manufactured items for defects, because there won't be any.
04. Move towards a single supplier for any one item Multiple suppliers mean variation between feed stocks.
05. Improve constantly and forever Constantly strive to reduce variation.
06. Institute training on the job If people are inadequately trained, they will not all work the same way, and this will introduce variation.
07. Institute leadership Deming makes a distinction between leadership and mere supervision. The latter is quota- and target-based.
08. Drive out fear Deming sees management by fear as counter- productive in the long term, because it prevents workers from acting in the organization’s best interests.
09. Break down barriers between departments Another idea central to TQM is the concept of the 'internal client', that each department serves not the management, but the other departments that use its outputs.
10. Eliminate slogans Another central TQM idea is that it's not people who make most mistakes - it's the process they are working within. Harassing the workforce without improving the processes they use is counter-productive.
11. Eliminate management by objectives Deming saw production targets as encouraging the delivery of poor-quality goods.
12. Remove barriers to pride of workmanship Many of the other problems outlined reduce worker satisfaction.
13. Institute education and self-improvement
14. The transformation is everyone's job
What Is A Professional Construction Bookkeeper?
Someone who has invested the minimum of 10,000 hours that it takes to master the profession
They continue practicing, learning and growing their knowledge and skills
They arrive on time and leave on time
They greet your customers and clients with a smile
They understand their job description is serve your customers
They cares about you as a person
They care about your company
They care about your staff
They care about your suppliers
They are cheerful, thinking, responsible adult
They focus on their job while at work
They leaves home issues at home and work issues at work
They continually learns new skill sets because they take pride in their work
They embraces processes and procedures that allow everyone to succeed
They produce reliable financial and job costing reports that you can use
They take a lunch break away from the office to recharge their minds and bodies
They take reasonable breaks during the day to clear their mind
They are first and foremost team players working to maintain the integrity of your QuickBooks
What Is Required To Find And Keep A Professional Bookkeeper?
A living wage with benefits
Air Conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter
Company paid training to continually update their skill sets
Do not expect them to ANSWER THE PHONE!
Good lighting in their office and the building in general
Kitchenette with free beverages, snacks, frozen foods and a microwave
Library of online knowledge base available only to qualified Bookkeepers
Lots of room to spread out paper and assorted files
Private office with a door so they can work in quiet and think
Provide them with 24-7 technical English speaking U.S. based phone support
The latest in computer hardware and software with lots of power
Two large flat screen dual monitors with DVI inputs and high resolution
Understand and implement as much as possible the following:
Deming’s 14 points
Covey’s 7 Habits
Good To Great
For Construction Company Owners who do not need the full power of QuickBooks for contractors and want 24/7 online access we offer Xero Accounting Online and we have custom setup for construction companies. Click Here For More.
This Is One More Example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners all across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that and a lot more valuable to people like you so stop missing out! Call Sharie 206-361-3950 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.
Profitable Contractors and Construction Company owners have known about the value of outsourced bookkeeping services and contractor coaching services like ours for a long time and now you know about it too!
We Scan Your Receipts And Invoices link the appropriate transactions to QuickBooks or Xero Accounting Online depending on the construction accounting service you are using and provide ongoing Cloud Based Contractors Bookkeeping Services by accountants who understand construction.
About The Author:
Our Co-Founder Randal DeHart - Is a Certified PMP (Project Management Professional) with several years of construction project management experience. His expertise is construction accounting systems engineering and process development. His exhaustive study of several leading experts including the work of Dr. W. Edward Deming, Michael Gerber, Walter A. Shewhart, James Lewis and dozens of others was the foundation upon which our Construction Bookkeeping System is based and continues to evolve and improve. Check out our Contractor Success Map Podcast on iTunes and Follow Randal on Google+