• Your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet Reports do not conform to financial industry standards
• The financials tell the banker your bookkeeper doesn't understand Construction Accounting
• The preparer's signature on the annual tax returns are not from a qualified tax specialist
• You have no access to a construction accountant, not even for quarterly check-ups
• You don't have a formal documented Business Plan with a budget and projections

If you find you have already raised some or all of these red flags, no worries, we can help you fix most of them.

The Risk Management Association (RMA)

In 1914, The Robert Morris Club (RMA) was formed to help businesses and bankers exchange credit information. It was named after Robert Morris, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and was believed to be the primary financier of the Revolutionary War.

The RMA developed several tools, among them was a system of Ratios that we use today to study financial statements of all companies in all industries.

The banking and lending industry has enormous databases and artificial intelligence software from places like The Risk Management Association that allows them to separate the excellent contractor risks from the bad ones. It generates recommendations based on complex algorithms much more complicated than any gambling casino and with a much higher payoff.

One of the keys to getting a banker, lender, or bonding company to consider your construction company for financing is the way your financial statements are presented. In particular, your construction company Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet.

A banker, lender, or bonding agent logs into their RMA account and fills out electronic forms, answers questions about your construction company, and inputs specific numbers in specific blanks that are taken directly from your construction company Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet. Any construction accountant worth his or her salt knows exactly how to set up QuickBooks correctly for this process to take place. 

If a contractor gives their banker, lender, or bonding agent a set of financial reports that do not conform to the RMA requirements, they may or may not try to extrapolate the numbers need using Excel or some other program.

In most cases, they are very polite and thank you for "applying" before giving you the "We will let you know as soon as we know anything" speech. I know this because I have heard it from many bankers, lenders, and bonding agents who are frustrated because they know you are a good client and they know you are a person of integrity that can be trusted to pay the loan back, on time, with all of the interest.

The RMA and other reports show where your contracting company stands concerning other contracting companies serving similar geographic and demographic markets.

Each major category, Sales, Cost of Goods Sold, Overhead, Other Expenses, and Other Income, are rated on a scale of top 25%, middle 50%, and bottom 25%.

Ideally, all of the numbers on your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet falls somewhere in the middle 50%. Whenever a contractor "forgets" to declare all of their income or "overstate their expenses," it will show up here as a red flag.

Finally, a Z-Score is compiled, which is a formula for predicting bankruptcy. Edward I. Altman published it in 1968. The formula may be used to predict the probability that a firm will go into bankruptcy within two years. Although not 100% accurate, it is a useful tool, similar to a tape measure, not 100% accurate yet still useful.

This is why sometimes a contractor with excellent credit cannot get a loan or line of credit, and yet another contractor with only good credit can get financing.

And finally, here are the top 10 Reasons why construction company owners might have a hard time securing bank loans:

1. Current Ratio

A ratio of cash on hand to accounts payable of less than 1:1. Ideally, this ratio should be 2:1 or 2.5:1.

2. Bill Paying History

Poor payment records, judgments, liens, bankruptcy for the firm, or principals on credit agency reports.

3. Unpaid Taxes

Make sure your payroll taxes, income taxes, sales taxes are paid, and you have cash reserves in a separate bank account.

4.License Issues

Unlicensed contractors and those with expired licenses are a huge red flag! Don't do this!

5. Bonding Issues

Contractors who can't get bonded or if your bonding capacity has been cut or your current bonding company refuses to renew it figure out why and get it resolved quickly.

6. Financial Statements

Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet - not current, formatted wrong or worse yet you feel the need to explain them.

7. Job Status Reports

List of current jobs you are working on with a breakdown of how much you have in job deposits vs. how much you have spent. In other words, are you in competition with the bank by lending your customers and clients money in the form of Labor, Material, and Subcontractors which is precisely what happens when a contractor does not keep getting draw checks against work that has been done and has at least a 10% residual.

8. Customers Vs. Clients

Everybody is your customer, which means you have no clients. 

Bankers and lenders may ask you to describe the people you work for and if you start the conversation talking about your Customers they will presume you are one of those contractors stuck in your "Do-Gooder Phase" where most people enter in their 20's and grow out of in their 30's; doing lots of work for friends and family who are "On a Budget" and persuade you to work for FREE or even less!

Study your Job Profitability Reports and determine who your Prime Client is and begin to understand the Difference Between Customers And Clients. 

9. Working On Jobs Outside Your Area Of Expertise

If you are a residential remodeler and darn good at it, don't fool yourself into thinking, you can just as quickly be a spec home builder or worse yet someone who can work on commercial tenant improvement projects. The skills, tools, specialty contractors, and workflows are different for each of these areas.

10. Working On Jobs Outside Your Geographic Area

Windshield time kills profits! The only people who make money on windshield time are the construction workers. Sharp bankers and lenders will ask about this one. Make sure you have Job Profitability Reports to show why you are working outside your geographic area.

Your geographic area will depend on the contracting work you do. Consult your construction accountant, and your Job Profitability Reports to help you determine what makes sense.

In conclusion