Contractor Bookkeeping for Trades and Service Companies
A trade contractor’s books have to answer a question a builder’s do not: is the service side carrying the install side, or the other way round? Most trade P&Ls cannot say, because everything lands in the same column.
Service tickets are not jobs, and the books should know the difference
A plumber who runs twenty calls a week and two bathroom remodels a month has two businesses. The calls are high volume, low value, dispatched and invoiced the same day. The remodels are bid, deposited, staged and closed out. Costing each service call as if it were a construction job is pointless; costing the remodels as if they were service calls hides whether they make money.
Your bookkeeper sets the books up with departments for the service side, usually by service type or by truck, and job costing for anything bid as a project. The monthly P&L then shows service and install as separate columns with their own gross margins, which is the report most trade owners have never seen and most need.
Reconciling the dispatch software
ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, FieldEdge and the rest produce the invoices and take the payments. The accounting file has to agree with them to the dollar, and it rarely does out of the box: card processing fees, refunds, financing payouts and tips land in the bank as net amounts while the software shows gross. Your bookkeeper reconciles the two monthly and chases the differences, which is where fee overcharges and unapplied payments turn up.
Truck inventory and materials
Materials on a service truck are inventory until they are used, and most trade contractors expense them when bought. That is acceptable for tax in many cases and wrong for management: a month in which you restocked four trucks looks like a terrible month, and a month in which you ran the trucks down looks like a great one.
Your bookkeeper will set up whichever treatment fits the size of the business: a periodic count and adjustment for a company with a few trucks, or a tracked inventory account for a larger fleet. Either way, parts bought for a specific install job are coded to the job rather than to the general stock.
Flat-rate pricing and the margin you cannot see
Flat-rate books hide margin in both directions. A $450 repair that took forty minutes and $30 of parts is excellent; the same price on a call that ran three hours with a second trip is not. The books cannot see the hours unless labour is posted by department, and the dispatch software cannot see the burden unless someone tells it. Getting both into the monthly report is what turns "we are busy" into "service is at 58% gross margin and install is at 31%, and here is why".
Payroll with apprentices, techs and commissions
Trade payroll is rarely simple. Hourly techs with overtime, apprentices at scaled rates, performance pay or spiffs on service sales, and a crew that may cross a state line on a Tuesday. Your bookkeeper runs payroll in every state where your people work, registers the state accounts needed, and posts labour cost to the department or job it belongs to so the margin reports above are real.
Permits, inspections and pass-through costs
Permit fees paid on behalf of a customer, inspection re-fees, dumpster and disposal charges: pass-through costs that should hit the job and be billed back. Left in overhead, they quietly lower the company’s apparent margin while the customer never sees the invoice. The books carry them as job costs with a matching billable line, so they are either recovered or consciously absorbed.
What it costs
Engagements start at $250 a month. A service-heavy trade company with one or two trucks usually sits near the lower end; a company with a dispatch system, payroll for a dozen people and an install division sits higher. Books that are behind are quoted as a cleanup first, with a deposit and a monthly retainer until current. The cost guide has worked examples.
Send the company name, which field software you run and how many trucks are out. The reply within a business day says what the setup and the monthly fee would be.
Common questions
I use Housecall Pro / Jobber / ServiceTitan. Do I still need bookkeeping?
Yes. Those tools run the field side and take payments; they are not the books. Payroll, materials, vehicles, loans, taxes and the reconciliation of what the software says against what the bank received all happen in the accounting file.
Can the books show profit per truck?
Yes, if labour and materials are posted by truck or by tech. That is a setup decision made in the first month, and it is one of the more useful reports a service company can have.
My business is half service, half installs. Which page applies?
Both. The service side gets departmental reporting; the install side gets job costing. The monthly P&L shows them as separate columns.
Do they handle sales tax on parts and service?
The books carry whatever treatment applies in your state, and your bookkeeper will raise the question early because it affects coding. The rules themselves are for your tax preparer or state department of revenue to confirm.
What about vehicles and fuel?
Vehicle loans, leases, fuel, repairs and insurance are tracked per vehicle where the fleet is large enough to matter, and the fixed-asset list is kept current for your tax preparer’s depreciation schedule.
How quickly can they take over?
The handover happens at a month-end. If you request now, the first full month your bookkeeper keeps is usually the next one.
Related services
- Construction Bookkeeping Services
- Construction Payroll Services
- Job Costing and WIP Reports for Contractors
- Construction Bookkeeping Cleanup and Catch-Up
Who we work with
Request a quote for trades & service contractors
Tell us about the company and the state of the books. Your bookkeeper replies within one business day with a plain answer: what it would take, and what it would cost. Requests answered within one business day · Calls Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm Eastern Or call (888) 720-4009 if you would rather talk it through first.