Right now, if you are like most construction company owners, your construction accounting records are in an unlocked file cabinet, or worse, sitting on someone's desk. As an accounting firm, our client's privacy and security remain our top priorities and are continually looking at ways to develop and evaluate our system to prevent breach and network holes. We utilize 128-bit Secure Socket Layer encryption which ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. There are two levels of restrictions and passwords must be entered before you can get your data file.

At some point, we probably had similar situations having employees we wonder why we hired them.

No one feels worse about a bad fit than the contractor when an employee needs to be let go gently or immediately fired. Other times anger is the first emotion when fraud, side jobs or other forms of theft has occurred.

For the contractor business owner, the work must go on. Schedules need to be kept, and the additional workload falls on someone. That someone could be you, your spouse and/or both of you (who are already overloaded with tasks). Frustration comes from trying to discover quickly and easily what was left undone, what is the most critical, when can it get done, how to get it done and who is the best person to do it (yesterday). 

Although not intentional, this could be considered a part 2 of last Friday’s blog/podcast episode or a continuation post dedicated to all brand-new contractors who just started their own company, to trade professionals who would like to restart their bookkeeping system, or simply to all our valued email subscribers – old and new.

The time, effort, and money you’ve put through in running your construction business is a testament of your commitment to this industry. So, let me start this guide by telling you to do what you do best and outsource the rest. The “rest” as you know, is where your cash flow and profit depend – construction bookkeeping and accounting.

Would you like to start a construction company but can’t seem to move forward with your plans? There are a number of people who pass advice on how to start a profitable construction company, however, very few have actually done it. Hardly any of the ones that had done so had a clear understanding of where they were making or losing money, some have never gotten past the point of owning a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) into a real company with employees who actually generated more money than they cost starting up.

I am one of the few that has done it all and hopefully, this article will be of use to you. First, make sure you are open to a Paradigm Shift. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a paradigm shift is an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way.

Construction Bookkeeping is something you need to understand first, then learn. Over the years, hundreds of people have told us how easy QuickBooks is to use and how hard QuickBooks For Contractors is to use, and that is so true.

Here is what I see repeated many times among construction companies: You usually hire an “office admin with experience in QuickBooks," ask your spouse or significant other to do it for you, or you try your best and do it yourself. Some would take the time to hire an in-house bookkeeper – not knowing what they need is a Construction Bookkeeper/Accountant.

You started your service business doing what you love thinking all you had to do was get good jobs, finish the work promptly, and make a lot of money. Then one day you get a rude awakening that getting jobs done and doing the work was only a small part of being in the home service industry. What started as an adventure turned into something not as fun as you thought it would be. You are now experiencing the challenges of being self-employed: How can I generate more leads? How much should I charge for this job? What can I do to be more productive and increase my profits?

The secret is in thinking patterns and habits.

• Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every day
• Failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day

Which goes to show you that almost any home improvement contractor can generate enough cash flow and profits from their business to turn their contracting company from a people-dependent money pit into a process-dependent cash cow, and have the freedom they dreamed of when they started contracting.

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.