A generic bookkeeper will code your Home Depot run as office supplies and merge every job into one big income bucket. Then March rolls around and nobody can explain the numbers. Contractors need job costing, trade-native categories, sub tracking, and books that reflect what actually happened on the job, not just what cleared the bank.
Contractor bookkeeping is the monthly work of reconciling every bank and credit account, categorizing transactions with a trade-native chart of accounts, tracking job costs by class in QuickBooks, and managing subcontractor 1099s year-round. The result is a profit and loss by job, not one company-wide total. TradeBookkeepingPro does this for you, with an expert-reviewed close delivered every month inside your own QuickBooks Online file.
It usually comes down to three things. Your field tool and your ledger are not talking to each other. Someone ran a cleanup and wiped out your job classes. And the monthly close never touched the contractor-specific items: 1099s, WIP, vehicle splits, materials versus COGS. Fix all three and the picture gets clear fast.
The trades are built on small shops. 82% of U.S. payroll construction firms run fewer than 10 people (U.S. Census Bureau via CPWR). And the numbers back up what you already feel: more than half of small employer firms flag paying operating expenses (56%) and uneven cash flow (51%) as ongoing financial challenges (Federal Reserve, 2025). Revenue hits the field weeks before it hits the bank. When that's your reality, clean books are not a nice-to-have. They're the only place the real picture exists.
A plumber's books look different from a framer's. Different materials, different job structures, different sub patterns. These guides get into the categories, job costing, and 1099 details that actually matter for your trade.
Regular bookkeeping treats the whole business as one bucket. Contractor bookkeeping tracks each job. Your books have to separate materials from tools, tie costs to the right job, handle retainage and progress billing, track subcontractor 1099s year-round, and keep field-service revenue in line with the bank. The result is a profit and loss by job, so you can see which work actually made money instead of one blended number that hides it.
Yes, the two work together. Your CPA handles taxes and advice a few times a year. Monthly bookkeeping is the ongoing work your CPA builds on: reconciling accounts, closing each month, and keeping job costs clean. Most CPAs would rather get clean books every month than a shoebox in March. Your tax relationship stays yours. We make sure the numbers your CPA works from are right.
It depends on your crew size, how many accounts you run, and whether you need job costing, payroll, or field-service sync. We quote a flat monthly rate after a short scope review, usually within one business day of your request. There are no per-transaction fees and no surprise invoices. You can start month to month and cancel anytime.
Yes. We work inside your own QuickBooks Online file and you keep it. We never move your books into a proprietary ledger you cannot take with you. If you are not on QuickBooks Online yet, we help you get set up correctly from the start, with a trade-native chart of accounts built for contractors.
Yes. Catch-up cleanup is one of the most common ways contractors start with us. We reconstruct the missing months, reconcile every account, and get you current, then keep you there with a real monthly close. Prepay six months and the catch-up is on us. You stay on the tools while we dig the books out.
6-month prepaid + catch-up available. You keep your QuickBooks file.