Guides for contractors
Most bookkeeping advice online is written for businesses that sell a thing and get paid for it. Contractors get paid before, during and long after the work, and the books have to be built around that. These guides are.
They are arranged roughly in the order a contractor needs them. If you are working out whether anything is wrong, start with why contractor books go wrong. If you know something is wrong and want to fix the structure yourself, start with the QuickBooks setup and job costing guides. If you want to know what hiring this out costs before you read anything else, start with the cost guide.
Construction Accounting 101 for a Small Contractor
Job costing, percentage of completion, over- and under-billing, retainage and the WIP schedule, explained for an owner rather than an accountant.
QuickBooks for Contractors: A Setup That Does Not Fall Apart
Which QuickBooks to use for a contracting business, how to set up accounts and cost codes, what to connect, and the mistakes that cause a cleanup.
Job Costing in QuickBooks Online, Step by Step
Set up job costing in QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced: Projects as jobs, items as cost codes, burdened labour and the monthly reports.
Progress Billing, Retainage and Deposits: Where Contractor Cash Goes
Why a profitable contractor runs out of cash: deposits that are not income, late progress bills, retainage and pay-when-paid subs.
1099 Subs or W-2 Crew? What It Changes in the Books
What separates a subcontractor from an employee, what each costs with burden, what the books carry for each, and the new $2,000 1099 threshold.
What Construction Bookkeeping Costs (2026)
What contractors pay for monthly bookkeeping, payroll and a cleanup in 2026, what moves the number, and how a catch-up is quoted.
Certified Payroll and Davis-Bacon, Explained for Small Contractors
What certified payroll is, when Davis-Bacon and state prevailing-wage rules apply, what the weekly reports contain and what mistakes cost.
Why Contractor Books Go Wrong: Deposits, Materials and Owner Draws
The seven errors in most contractor bookkeeping files, the symptom that reveals each, and which ones quietly cost money for years.
The WIP Schedule: A Walkthrough With Real Numbers
A WIP schedule built line by line across three jobs, one on track, one over-billed and one under-billed, with where each number comes from in QuickBooks.
Reading because something in the books does not add up? The quickest way to find out whether it is the setup, the data or the business is to have someone who does this all day look at it. The first conversation is free.
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Where to start, depending on your situation
The guides answer different questions and the titles do not always make it obvious which applies to you, so here is the short version.
The P&L says profit and the bank says otherwise
Read why contractor books go wrong, then the progress billing guide. Nine times in ten the gap is deposits booked as income, change orders never billed, or retainage sitting in receivables.
You want to see profit by job
Read construction accounting 101 for the vocabulary, then job costing in QuickBooks Online for the mechanics. Neither assumes you know what a cost code is.
A bank or bonding agent has asked for a WIP schedule
Construction accounting 101 explains what it is and why they want it. If you need one by a date, that is a request rather than a guide.
You pay people and are not sure you are paying them right
The 1099 versus W-2 guide covers classification and what it changes in the books. The certified payroll guide covers the public-works case.
You want to know what this costs
The cost guide gives the ranges, what moves a company from one end to the other, and how a cleanup is quoted: deposit, retainer, then monthly.