You didn't start a contracting business because you love accounting. You started it to build things. Whether you’re running an MEP crew, managing a heavy civil project or acting as a general contractor, your day should be spent on the jobsite—not in the back office buried under a pile of paperwork.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), when your business grows, being a great builder is only half of the battle. You also have to become a great business owner. Over time, you find yourself managing more crews, more equipment and more complex projects, and suddenly controlling your finances becomes a painful and confusing task.
The problem isn't you; it’s your accounting software.
If the concept of doing your books makes you want to toss your iPad into the nearest ditch, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll walk you through how you can take the stress and guesswork out of your construction accounting with simple tools to track job costs, stay profitable and grow.
Eliminate the guesswork in your bidding
A profitable project starts long before the first shovel hits the dirt. If you are building proposals based on your best guess job costs, you’re leaving any hopes for profitable projects to chance. An accurate bid requires knowing your exact costs long before the first crew arrives on site.
Professional proposals should be built by the phase and cost type—breaking a job down into labor, equipment, materials and subcontractors, and they should reflect your exact cost of each at every stage. Once you’ve identified your input costs, based on real numbers, not guesses, you’ll have the foundation to create accurate bids with clear pricing that give your clients or prime contractors more transparency and give you peace of mind knowing exactly how much you’ll make on a project before you ever sign the contract.
