Who we work with
Bookkeeping for Plumbers
Most plumbing companies are two businesses sharing a name. Service calls: high volume, same-day, flat-rate. Construction: rough-in and trim on new builds, bid and billed in stages. Put them in one column and the P&L cannot tell you which one is paying for the other.
Service and construction, in separate columns
Your bookkeeper sets the books up with a service department and job costing for construction work, so the monthly P&L shows two gross margins instead of one. The usual discovery is that service runs at a far higher margin than the owner assumed and construction far lower, because the construction side carries the callbacks, the warranty trips and the material overruns that never got billed. Knowing that changes what you bid for.
Flat-rate pricing hides the hours
A flat-rate book sets the price; the books have to supply the cost. A $380 water heater swap is a good job at ninety minutes and a poor one at four hours with a parts run. Labour posted by department at the burdened rate, alongside the revenue the dispatch software reports, is what shows whether the flat-rate book is priced right. Without it, the only signal is the bank balance, and that arrives late.
Truck stock
Parts on the truck are inventory until they go into a customer’s wall. Expensing every supply-house run as it happens makes a restock month look like a loss and a run-down month look like a windfall. For a company with a few trucks your bookkeeper uses a periodic count and adjustment; for a larger fleet, a tracked stock account. Parts bought for a construction job go to that job, not to the truck.
Reconciling the dispatch software
Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, Jobber and the rest take the payments and show gross sales. The bank receives net of card fees, financing holdbacks and refunds. The firm reconciles the two every month; the differences are where fee errors, unapplied payments and duplicated invoices live, and it is normal to find money there in the first few months.
Payroll: techs, apprentices and the state line
Hourly techs with overtime, apprentices at scaled rates, spiffs on service sales, and a company near a border whose trucks cross it. Payroll is run in every state where your people work, with labour posted to service or to the job so the margin columns above are real rather than estimated.
Permits and inspection fees
Fees paid on the customer’s behalf belong on the job as a billable cost, not in overhead where they lower the company’s apparent margin while the customer never sees them. The books carry them with a matching billable line.
Send the company name, how many trucks run service and whether you do new-construction work. The reply says what a two-column P&L would cost to set up for you.
Plumbers: common questions
Do I need bookkeeping if I use Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan?
Yes. Those tools run the field and take payment. Payroll, trucks, loans, stock, taxes and the reconciliation of what the software says against what the bank received all live in the accounting file.
Can the books show profit per truck?
Yes, if labour and parts are posted by truck or tech. It is set up in the first month and is one of the most useful reports a service plumber can have.
What about sales tax on parts?
Treatment varies by state and by how the invoice is written. Your bookkeeper raises it early because it affects coding; the rule itself is confirmed with your tax preparer or state department of revenue.
Water heater and fixture sales on finance plans?
Third-party consumer financing pays you net of a dealer fee. The books record the gross sale, the fee and the net receipt, so the margin on financed jobs is visible.
What your bookkeeper handles
- Construction Bookkeeping Services
- Contractor Bookkeeping for Trades and Service Companies
- Construction Payroll Services
- Job Costing and WIP Reports for Contractors
- Construction Bookkeeping Cleanup and Catch-Up
Also written for General Contractors, HVAC Companies, Electrical Contractors, Landscapers, Roofers, Painters, Remodelers, Pool Builders, Handyman Businesses and Concrete & Excavation.
Request a quote for your plumbing company
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.