Practical guidance on construction accounting, tax, and bonding. The same answers we'd give a client across the table.
The AI-native accounting tools are genuinely good, for the businesses they were built for. Here's the specific, verifiable reason they fall down for a bonded contractor, and it isn't the reason you'd guess.
A fair, plain-English tour of the AI-native accounting tools contractors are seeing everywhere right now: what they genuinely do well, who they're built for, and how to think about them without the hype.
The single most useful idea for a contractor picking software: your job-management system and your accounting ledger are two separate layers that do two different jobs. Confusing them is where the trouble starts.
A plain-English comparison of construction ERPs (Sage 100 Contractor, Sage 300 CRE, Foundation, Viewpoint, Sage Intacct, and more) and the honest question of whether you've outgrown QuickBooks yet.
Multi-state payroll is one of the easiest things for a growing contractor to get wrong. Here's what changes when your crews cross state lines, plus certified payroll and the compliance traps to avoid.
A plain-English explanation of construction surety bonds: what they are, the three main types, who the parties are, and why they work differently from insurance.
What bonding capacity means, the difference between single and aggregate limits, and the financial factors a surety weighs when deciding how much work they'll bond.
What to look for in an accountant for your construction business: the construction-specific knowledge that matters, the questions to ask, and the warning signs of a generalist in over their head.
Practical, financial moves that expand how much bonded work a surety will back: strengthening working capital and equity, cleaning up your WIP, upgrading your financial statements, and managing the surety relationship.
How JobTread and QuickBooks Online fit together, what each one should own, and how to set up the connection so your job costs are accurate without double entry.
The specific, expensive mistakes that show up when contractors run multiple entities: intercompany transactions, related-party rules, self-rental, reasonable compensation, controlled groups, and more.
Many contractors run an operating company plus a holding or leasing entity. Here's an honest look at why, the real benefits, the costs and complexity, and who actually needs it.
A plain-English guide to the percentage-of-completion method: how it works, the cost-to-cost calculation, why it matters for your taxes and bonding, and how it differs from completed-contract.
Overtime fatigue, trade stacking, rework, weather, and poor material staging quietly erode job margin. Here's how each one shows up in your financials, often before the field reports a problem.
An honest comparison of QuickBooks Online and Xero for construction businesses: job costing, integrations, pricing structure, and why most US contractors land on one of them.
Before you spend on construction-specific software, an honest look at what a properly configured QuickBooks can actually do, and the specific signs you've genuinely outgrown it.
A construction CPA's honest look at Ramp for contractors: where it helps with cards and AP, why it doesn't replace your accounting system, and the 2026 fee changes to know about.
ServiceTitan runs your service operation, but it isn't your accounting system. Here's how it connects to QuickBooks or Sage Intacct, what it does and doesn't own, and how to keep your books clean.
How project-based contractors should think about their software: the project-management layer, the accounting layer, and when to move from QuickBooks to a construction ERP.
How service-based trade contractors should think about their software stack: the field-service platform layer, the accounting layer underneath, and which tools fit which size of shop.
A line-by-line walk through the work-in-progress schedule: earned revenue, billings, and the over/under columns that decide whether a job looks healthy.
When you can skip percentage-of-completion for tax purposes, what the gross-receipts test looks like now, and why it matters for your cash flow.
Working capital, equity, and the financial-statement quality that moves your bonding limit up instead of holding it down.
