Construction bookkeeping means keeping the books by job, not just by month: what each project really cost, what has been billed, what retainage is still out, and which subs need a 1099. Perfectbooks does it every month on QuickBooks, Xero or Digits for contractors in Aurora, Denver and, virtually, anywhere else.
Contractor bookkeeping for construction businesses in Denver, Aurora and beyond: general contractors, remodelers and specialty trades, from a certified bookkeeper who has spent her career inside the construction industry, in flooring, plumbing, painting and cabinets.
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Tell me where your books stand. I read every request myself and reply personally to set a time.
Signs your construction books are costing you money
Nobody calls a bookkeeper because they love clean reports. Something stopped adding up, and it’s usually one of these.
The job “made money,” but the bank says otherwise
You bid it right and the customer paid, yet there’s less cash than there should be. Usually labor ran over, materials landed on the wrong job, or a change order never got billed.
Nobody knows what retainage is still owed
The 5% or 10% held back on last spring’s jobs is sitting in someone else’s account, and nobody has a list of who owes it or since when.
January is a 1099 scramble
You’re texting subs for W-9s and digging through Venmo, Zelle and old checks to figure out who got paid what. The deadline is days away.
Your CPA sends the books back
Tax time brings a stack of questions, an extra bill for cleanup and probably an extension, because the numbers weren’t ready.
A lender asked for financials and you stalled
Equipment loans, credit lines and bonding all start with current, reconciled statements. Take three weeks to pull them together and the timing is gone.
You’re months behind and avoiding it
The longer it sits, the worse it feels. Completely normal. It’s also exactly the kind of mess I clean up, without judgment.
What does a bookkeeper do for a construction company?
Bookkeeping for a construction company means recording every dollar, tying it to the right job and reconciling it to the bank, so you can trust your numbers without doing the work yourself. Monthly bookkeeping with Perfectbooks covers all of this.
Every transaction posted
Bank accounts, credit cards and payment apps, recorded to the right accounts each month before anything piles up.
Bank and card reconciliations
Each account matched to its statement every month, to the penny, so the books and the bank always agree.
Job-level tracking
Labor, materials, subs and equipment tied to the job they belong to, so you can see which projects carry the business.
Retainage and change orders
Holdbacks and scope changes recorded against the right jobs, so you always know what’s still owed to you.
Subcontractor and 1099 support
W-9s on file, sub payments tracked across every payment method, and 1099-NEC totals ready before January 31.
Three monthly reports
Plus journal entries and chart of accounts upkeep. You see where you stand every month instead of once a year.
Need more than the monthly books? I also handle cleanup and catch-up, payroll prep and tax prep. As a full-charge bookkeeper, I take the books all the way to reports your CPA and your lender can use.
How much of last season’s retainage is still out there?
If you can’t answer that off the top of your head, let’s find out together on a free one-hour call.
Get my books looked atWhat do construction bookkeeping services cost?
Monthly bookkeeping is priced per transaction and cleanup is hourly, so you pay for the business you actually have.
Bookkeeping Essentials
Posting, bank and card reconciliations, journal entries, chart of accounts upkeep and three monthly reports.
Full-Service Bookkeeping
Monthly bookkeeping, fully handled. We’ll go through exactly what’s included on your consultation.
Cleanup and Catch-Up
For books that are behind or tangled. Scoped on the free consultation, so you know the number before I start. See cleanup and catch-up.
A transaction is one line on your bank or card statement, so 150 transactions a month on Essentials comes to about $112.50. Payroll is your software’s cost plus $50 and $5 per employee, and tax returns start at $50. See the full price list.
Four steps from messy to current
Built to fit around running jobs.
Free consultation
An hour on your business, how you run jobs, your software and where the books stand. You leave with an honest read and a clear price.
Clean up and set up
If you’re behind, I catch the books up from your statements. Then I set up accounts and job tracking around how a construction business spends money.
Current every month
Transactions posted, accounts reconciled, three reports in your hands. Retainage, change orders and sub payments get recorded as they happen.
Ready when it counts
Tax season, a loan application, a bonding request. The numbers are already done, your CPA gets clean books, and you get your evenings back.
How does job costing work?
Job costing tags every cost to the job that caused it, then compares what the job really cost against its estimate and its contract price. The gap is that job’s gross profit, and a monthly profit and loss report can’t show it to you.
That’s the biggest difference between construction company bookkeeping and the generic kind, which throws everything into a few big buckets like “materials” and “labor.” The totals come out right. What you can’t see is which jobs are carrying the business and which are quietly bleeding it.
Example: a $48,000 kitchen remodel
Illustrative numbers, not a real client.
| Cost | Estimate | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Materials | $14,000 | $15,200 |
| Labor | $12,000 | $15,600 |
| Subcontractors | $8,000 | $8,000 |
| Permits and dumpster | $0 | $900 |
| Total job cost | $34,000 | $39,700 |
| Gross profit | $14,000 (29%) | $8,300 (17%) |
On paper the job still made money, so without job costing it looks fine. With it, two problems jump out: labor ran 30% over, and nobody priced in permits. Both get fixed on the next bid.
For construction clients I set the books up so every job can be tracked this way in your software, and we decide together how much detail is worth tracking at your size.
How do you record progress billing, retainage and change orders?
So the books show three numbers for every job: what you’ve earned, what you’ve billed, and what’s actually been collected. On a long job those drift apart, and the drift is where money goes missing.
Progress billing
Each stage invoice ties back to the contract and the work it covers, often a schedule of values agreed up front. You can see at any point how much is billed and how much is left.
Retainage
Money a customer holds back goes on the books as retainage receivable, its own balance per customer. Retainage you hold from your subs is retainage payable. Kept separate, it’s a list you can collect on.
Change orders
Approved change orders change the contract value and usually the costs, so both land on the job. The expensive miss is extra work done and never invoiced. A monthly look at open jobs catches it.
Each month I keep retainage and approved change orders recorded against the right jobs, so there’s always a current list of what’s billed and what’s still owed to you.
Why hire a bookkeeper for contractors who has worked inside construction?
Because you’re not paying someone to learn what a draw, a change order or a lien waiver is. I’m Holly Kuehn, born and raised in Aurora. I’ve studied accounting since 1994 and spent my career inside construction-based businesses, in flooring, plumbing, painting and cabinets. I’ve watched supply runs get charged to the wrong job, retainage get forgotten, and busy owners end up a year behind without ever deciding to.
I’m a certified bookkeeper, fully insured and certified in QuickBooks, Xero and Digits. I’m also completing my four-year degree at Purdue, where I’m on the Chancellor’s List, and I’m a member of COCPA and SHE Leads. There’s more about how I work on the Perfectbooks homepage. More about Holly.
How should contractors handle 1099 subcontractors?
Collect a Form W-9 from every sub before you pay them, track what each one is paid all year, and file Form 1099-NEC for any sub you paid $2,000 or more. A 2025 federal tax law raised that threshold from $600, and the IRS says it may be adjusted for inflation starting in 2027.
Get the W-9 at onboarding
It gives you the sub’s legal name and taxpayer ID. Asking before the first check beats chasing it once the job’s done.
Know the deadline
Form 1099-NEC is due by January 31, or the next business day when that falls on a weekend or holiday.
Check who’s a corporation
Payments to corporations, including LLCs taxed as C or S corporations, generally don’t need a 1099. Attorneys are the exception.
Count every payment method
Checks, ACH, Zelle, Venmo and cash all add to a sub’s total. Scattered payments are how year-end totals go wrong.
Keep subs and employees straight
Calling someone a sub doesn’t make them one, and getting it wrong is expensive. Unsure about a worker? Ask your CPA now.
Rules change, so confirm current figures with your CPA or at irs.gov.
Dreading January already?
Sort out sub payments and W-9s now, while there’s still time to do it calmly.
Get my 1099s sortedQuickBooks, Xero or Digits for a construction business?
Good accounting for contractors starts with the right software: pick the one that fits how you run jobs and that you, your bookkeeper and your CPA will all actually use. I’m certified in all three, so I have no reason to push you toward any of them.
QuickBooks Online
What most US contractors use, and most CPAs already work in it. Higher tiers include project tracking for job-level reports, and plenty of construction add-ons plug in.
Xero
Less clutter. Jobs can be tracked with tracking categories or its projects feature, which suits owners who want a tidy system.
Digits
Newer, and leans on automation to keep the books current with less manual work. A good fit if you mostly want to see your numbers fast.
Already on one of these? I’ll work in your existing file, no switching needed. On spreadsheets or nothing at all? We’ll pick one on the consultation. On QuickBooks already? See how job costing works in your file on the QuickBooks bookkeeping page.
| Who does what | DIY software | Bookkeeper | CPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Posts and categorizes transactions | Suggests, you check | Yes, monthly | Usually not |
| Reconciles bank and cards | If you do it | Yes, monthly | At year end, if at all |
| Tracks costs by job | If set up right | Yes | Rarely |
| Sub payments and 1099s | If you track them | Yes | Files them, from your numbers |
| Business tax planning and returns | No | Works with your CPA | Yes |
| Who keeps it current | You, at night | Your bookkeeper | Nobody, until tax time |
Construction bookkeeping, answered
Can software or ChatGPT do my construction bookkeeping?
Not on its own. Software imports bank transactions and guesses at categories, and ChatGPT can explain what retainage is. Neither knows that a payment was the deposit on the Johnson job, that one Home Depot run was split across two projects, or that your framing sub never sent a W-9. Somebody has to make those calls every month. Bring your current setup to the free consultation and we’ll look at what it’s getting wrong.
What is the difference between a bookkeeper and a CPA for a contractor?
Timing, mostly. A bookkeeper keeps the books right all year long, with posting, reconciling, job-level tracking and monthly reports, while a CPA handles tax planning, business returns, and work like audits or reviewed statements. Most contractors need both. Clean monthly books make your CPA faster and usually cheaper, and I’m happy to work alongside the one you already have.
Do you work with contractors outside Colorado?
Yes. I’m based in Aurora but work with clients virtually, so location doesn’t matter as long as your books are in QuickBooks, Xero or Digits, or you’re ready to move them there. Even the consultation happens by phone or video.
My books are a year behind. Is that too far?
Not at all. Cleanup and catch-up starts from your bank and card statements, so even a year or two with nothing entered can be rebuilt, with job costs put back on the right jobs. The further behind, the more hours it takes, which is why we scope it on a free call first. More on cleanup and catch-up.
Do I have to switch software to work with you?
No. If you’re already on QuickBooks, Xero or Digits, I work in your file and fix what needs fixing. We only pick a new one, together on the consultation, if you’re on spreadsheets or nothing yet.
Do you work with a contractor’s CPA?
Yes, and plenty of contractors set it up that way: the CPA keeps tax planning and the return, and the monthly books go to a bookkeeper. Your CPA gets reconciled numbers and clean reports instead of a shoebox, which tends to mean fewer questions and a smaller bill at tax time.
Get your construction books current
Tell me where things stand, from Denver, Aurora or anywhere else. I’ll reply personally to set up a time, and you’ll come away knowing exactly what your books need and what it will cost.
Free one-hour consultation to walk through your jobs and your books.