Trade guide

You pour the concrete. We pour over the books.

Concrete work lives and dies on the pour. A yardage miscalculation, a weather delay, or a wasted load of ready-mix can erase the margin on a job that looked profitable at bid. Generic bookkeepers lump materials together and miss the per-pour costing that tells you where the money actually went. We track it all, inside your own QuickBooks file, closed every month.

Quick answer
  • Ready-mix, rebar, forms, and sealers are job materials. Durable equipment costs are separate. Merge them and job margins read completely wrong.
  • Per-pour and per-job costing show which work cleared and which yardage overrun quietly buried the profit.
  • Equipment like pumps, power trowels, and skid steers needs depreciation schedules and separate fuel and maintenance tracking. Not a single "equipment" line.
  • We work inside your own QuickBooks Online file, reconcile every account, and deliver an expert-reviewed close every month.

Why concrete books break with a generic bookkeeper

A service business has one main cost: labor. Your shop has ready-mix orders, rebar, wire mesh, forms, gravel base, sealers, curing compounds, and a fleet of equipment that each job chews through. When a generalist drops all of it into "materials" and "equipment," you lose the number that matters: what the pour actually cost versus what you bid.

  • Ready-mix, rebar, and forms separated from durable equipment as job materials flowing into cost of goods
  • Waste yardage and over-orders tracked against the job, not buried in a general supplies line
  • Fuel, maintenance, and repairs split by equipment so you know what each machine really costs to operate
  • Weather delay costs and standby charges captured at the job level, not averaged across the company

Per-pour job costing for concrete work

We set up Class or Location tracking in QuickBooks so every pour or job carries its own ready-mix cost, rebar, labor, subcontractor finishing crews, and equipment usage. That turns a vague "busy season" into a Pour Profit view: the flatwork contract that ran over on yardage and barely broke even, and the decorative pour that held margin because waste was controlled. On the Crew plan and up, that visibility is part of every monthly close.

What most concrete bookkeeping gets wrong

All materials in one bucket

Ready-mix is a job material that belongs in cost of goods. A power trowel or concrete pump is a fixed asset with a depreciation schedule. A sealer is a job supply. Merge them and every job looks less profitable than it really is, your fixed asset register is wrong, and depreciation is off by the cost of the machine.

Yardage waste untracked

Over-ordering concrete is the most common margin leak in the trade. Without a job-level material line, the waste cost disappears into a company-wide average and you never see which jobs are running hot on yardage or why.

Equipment costs averaged across jobs

A pump truck burns fuel, needs maintenance, and depreciates differently than a skid steer. When equipment costs are pooled, you cannot see which machine is dragging profit or whether a job that required the pump was priced right for it.

Seasonal cash flow not modeled

Concrete work is seasonal in most markets. A slow winter with active equipment payments and insurance premiums still running can create a cash crunch that good bookkeeping anticipates. If the books are not current every month, there is no early warning.

Which plan fits a concrete business

  • Truck, solo operator, 1 to 2 accounts, simple job tracking
  • Crew, growing crew, job costing, FSM sync included
  • Shop, payroll, 1099 subs, AR/AP, priority close
  • Builder, multi-entity, high volume, custom mapping

Compare all plans & add-ons →

Concrete bookkeeping FAQ

Do you track job costing for concrete contractors?

Yes. We set up Class or Location tracking so each pour or job carries its own ready-mix, rebar, form costs, labor, and subcontractor finishing crews. You see job-level profit, not just a company-wide number, on the Crew plan and up.

How do you handle ready-mix and material costs versus equipment?

Ready-mix, rebar, wire mesh, and forms are categorized as job materials flowing into cost of goods. Mixers, pumps, power trowels, and skid steers are tracked as fixed assets with depreciation schedules. Fuel and maintenance are split by machine so both your job margins and your equipment economics stay accurate.

Can you track waste yardage and over-orders?

Yes. We code excess material costs at the job level so you can see which pours ran over on yardage and by how much. That turns a pattern of waste into a visible number you can address at estimating, not after the fact.

What about 1099 subcontractors like finishing crews and pump operators?

We collect W-9s, track payments to each sub through the year, and prepare 1099 totals so January is a confirmation rather than a scramble. 1099 prep is included on the Shop plan: we keep W-9s and payment totals filing-ready all year, and your tax preparer files the forms.

How do you handle seasonal slowdowns and cash flow?

We reconcile and close every month so you have a current picture of cash and payables going into slow season. Fixed costs like equipment payments, insurance, and storage do not stop when pours do, and current books let you plan for that gap instead of reacting to it.

Do I keep my QuickBooks file?

Always. We work inside your own QuickBooks Online subscription. If you ever leave, you keep the file and a clean set of workpapers. No proprietary ledger, no hostage data.

My books are months behind. Can you catch up?

Yes. If you're behind, we'll get you current fast. Our 6-month prepaid option includes a catch-up cleanup at no extra charge. We scope the backlog up front so there are no surprises.

Books built for the way concrete work actually works

Trade-native categories, job costing, and an expert-reviewed close every month. You keep your QuickBooks file.

Built for Trades, Not Generic Small BusinessExpert-Reviewed Monthly CloseMonth-to-Month. Cancel Anytime.Your Job Classes Stay YoursYou Own Your QuickBooks File. Always.Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro SyncBuilt for Trades, Not Generic Small BusinessExpert-Reviewed Monthly CloseMonth-to-Month. Cancel Anytime.Your Job Classes Stay YoursYou Own Your QuickBooks File. Always.Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro Sync