When John Doe* (not his real name) opened his residential remodeling company, he did just about everything himself from creating construction proposals to paying the rent, processing payroll, preparing quarterly tax returns, reconciling checking and credit card accounts and paying bills.
As his residential remodeling company grew, however, he began to notice he was spending less time helping customers transform their living space and more time in his downstairs office, which was in the dark corner of the basement in his home late at night and on the weekends entering a pile of data into QuickBooks.
Every successful contractor reaches the point where they need to look for outside help with specific tasks like bookkeeping and accounting. How can a contractor know when you need to hire a professional to help you with your contracting company? Perhaps these events will signal that it is time to seek help.
If you are spending more time crunching numbers than you are running your Contracting Company, you may want to consider outsourcing your accounting. According to Intuit, most small business owners spend 10 hours a week on paperwork.
If you could use those hours for marketing, merchandising or addressing the needs of your customers, if you haven't had a day off in months because you spend your Sundays getting your books up to date, or if you just spent any part of last week trying to coerce insightful reports out of your accounting software program, perhaps you should at least consider outsourced accounting services.
via: Does Your Small Business Need Professional Help? [INFOGRAPHIC]
The hidden cost of hiring a part-time or in house bookkeeper is it actually adds to your workload. In order to save time and money you need to have a clear understanding of the difference between Construction Accounting and Regular Accounting.
You need to manage, train and answer questions and that takes time away from your core business. One of the biggest problems contractors have hiring a part time bookkeeper is they don't know for sure proper recordkeeping and analysis is being performed every day. After all, if you don't understand construction accounting, how can you be sure someone else does and is doing everything correctly?
If your contractors bookkeeping gets even one day behind it may not seem that bad at first, but lose track of a few days of invoices, change orders, payments and you’ll find yourself in a quagmire that only a professional construction accountant can unravel.
If you are constantly falling behind and failing to keep up with all of the paperwork, your contracting company generates your credit could take a hit.
When you outsource to a contractor bookkeeping service that understands construction and construction accounting, you free up your time, and have your figures in the hands of a skilled construction accounting professional.
It is especially important when it comes to calculating payroll, payroll taxes, quarterly tax reports, accounts receivable and accounts payable. If you don't have time to make sure you're getting paid as well as keeping your customers, employees, suppliers and IRS happy, you are sitting on a ticking time bomb.
If you can’t do your own accounting, let alone construction accounting or if you wrestle with paperwork and bookkeeping tasks, our contractors bookkeeping services are a must. You may be missing valuable steps or information, simply because you are not familiar with the construction accounting.
Before signing up for a crash course in QuickBooks or worse yet hiring your friend or neighbor to help with QuickBooks data entry tasks think about everything you do and don't know about what you really need. A Professional contractors Bookkeeping Service knows what information you really need without you even having to give directions or request reporting.
Many contractors overpay or even pay a bill twice because they don't have good records or an accurate bank balance in QuickBooks.
Are you missing important deductions? In many cases, a professional construction accounting service can pay for itself by finding and fixing overpayment and missed items or coming up with innovative solutions to your contractor bookkeeping problems.
For Example:
Invoicing with a smartphone that imports into QuickBooks Desktop (*Invoicing with a smartphone works best with individual sales, not recommended for job deposits and multiple payment contracts)
Cloud Based QuickBooks Desktop Version Works With PC, Mac, Tablets and Smartphones
The Screenshots Below Were Taken In Our Lynnwood Washington Office
QuickBooks Is 1,000+ Miles Away Running On High-Speed Servers
Hiring a contractor bookkeeping service can be a big step for your contracting company, and it is an ideal way to acquire the expertise of a construction accounting professional without spending a lot of money and overwhelming your budget. If you want to find out more about how outsourced bookkeeping services, we can help.
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+