Client: Family-owned remodeling and light commercial contractor
Location: Orange Park, Florida
Size: About $4 million in yearly revenue, 22 employees
Services used: Construction accounting, job costing, bookkeeping cleanup, financial statement preparation
The Short Version
This contractor was busy, booked out for months, and still short on cash almost every payroll week. The problem wasn’t sales. Their books lumped every job together, so nobody could see which projects made money and which ones quietly lost it. After we rebuilt their job costing and started a monthly work-in-progress report, they found the leaks, changed their pricing, and renewed their bank line of credit.
Why the Owner Searched for a “Construction Accounting CPA Firm Near Me”
The owner told us he typed “construction accounting CPA firm near me” into his phone the same afternoon his bank called. The bank wanted a work-in-progress (WIP) schedule before it would renew the company’s credit line. He didn’t have one. His bookkeeper wasn’t sure what it was.
That call exposed a bigger issue. On paper, the company showed a profit. In real life, the owner was moving money between accounts to make payroll. Something didn’t add up, and he knew it.
What We Found
When Tilbrook CPA Firm reviewed the books, three problems stood out:
- All job costs went into one bucket. Materials, labor, and subcontractor bills were recorded by type, not by project. There was no way to see profit per job.
- Billing didn’t match progress. Some jobs were billed well ahead of the work done. Others were far behind. The books treated both the same.
- Retainage was getting lost. The 10% that customers held back until the end of each job wasn’t tracked on its own, so some of it was never collected on time.
None of this was unusual. Construction accounting works differently from regular small business accounting, and many good bookkeepers have never been trained in it.
What We Did
We worked through the fixes over about three months:
- Set up job costing in QuickBooks. Every cost now carries a job number and a cost code for labor, materials, subcontractors, or equipment.
- Built a monthly WIP schedule. For each open job, it compares costs to date, estimated total cost, and billings. That shows which jobs are overbilled or underbilled.
- Tracked retainage separately. Each job’s held-back amount now shows as its own receivable with a follow-up date.
- Trained the office manager. The team at Tilbrook CPA Firm walked her through coding costs correctly, so the system holds up between our visits.
The Results
| Area | Before | After |
| Profit by job | Unknown | Reported every month |
| WIP schedule for the bank | None | Delivered monthly |
| Kitchen and bath remodel margin | Estimated at 28% | Found to be 17%, then repriced |
| Unbilled retainage | About $86,000 | Collected or scheduled for collection |
| Bank line of credit | At risk | Renewed |
The biggest surprise was the remodel work. The owner assumed it was his most profitable line. Once costs were tied to each job, it turned out labor overruns on small remodels were eating most of the margin. He raised prices on smaller jobs and added a change-order step for extra work.
What Other Contractors Can Learn from Choosing a Construction Accounting CPA Firm Near Me
A few lessons apply to almost any builder or trade contractor:
- Profit on the tax return is not the same as cash in the bank. Billing timing and retainage can hide problems for months.
- Your bank and bonding company want a WIP schedule. Having one ready makes renewals and bigger bids much easier.
- Job costing only works if the coding is consistent. A simple system the office actually uses beats a perfect one nobody follows.
- Local matters. A CPA who knows Northeast Florida’s building market, like Tilbrook CPA Firm, can spot what’s normal and what isn’t.
Tilbrook CPA Firm works with general contractors, remodelers, and specialty trades across Jacksonville, Orange Park, St. Augustine, and the beaches. If your jobs are busy but your bank account doesn’t show it, take a look at our construction accounting services. Tilbrook CPA Firm can usually tell within one or two meetings where the money is going.
The Takeaway
This contractor didn’t need more work. He needed to see the work he already had. Clear job costing turned a guessing game into a business he could steer.