You cannot tell which jobs made money
The company profit and loss is the only profit number you have.
QuickBooks cleanup · Construction
QuickBooks cleanup for construction companies.
When job costs land on the company instead of the job, retainage hides inside receivables and nobody keeps a WIP schedule, the books can look fine while jobs quietly lose money. We rebuild job costing, WIP and retainage in your own QuickBooks file, on a written fixed-fee scope, and hand you books that show profit job by job.
At review · April statementDoes not tie
Ending balance21,926.57
Cleared balance28,114.99
Difference−6,188.42
The same statement, worked
Same statement · difference found0.00 · not yet finished
Ending balance21,926.57
Cleared balance21,926.57
Difference0.00
What you can check before you sign
- Fixed fee, written first
- Your own QuickBooks file
- No hourly billing
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
§ 01 · TL;DR
§ TL;DR
A construction cleanup reassigns costs to the jobs and cost codes they belong to, separates retainage receivable and payable, rebuilds the work-in-progress schedule with over- and under-billing, ties certified payroll to payroll, and completes subcontractor records.
It is done in your own QuickBooks file on a written fixed-fee scope, and leads into construction accounting services if you want it kept clean. Your CPA confirms the revenue-recognition method and files.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 and QuickBooks Workforce Certification,
§ 02 · The problem
Why contractors’ books drift.
Construction books have to answer a question ordinary books do not: which jobs make money. That needs every cost posted to a job and a cost code, billing tracked against the contract, and retainage held apart until it is released.
When materials go to “supplies”, crews go to “payroll” and progress billings go straight to income, the company total can look healthy while individual jobs run over — and the balance sheet overstates what has been earned or understates what is owed.
§ 03 · What we find
What a construction cleanup turns up.
Costs posted to the company, not the job
Materials, labor and subcontractors in general expense accounts, so job profit is invisible.Retainage inside receivables and payables
Money held back on progress billings mixed into ordinary receivables, overstating what customers owe now.No WIP schedule
Billings never compared with work earned, so over- and under-billing never reach the balance sheet.Certified payroll that does not tie
Prevailing-wage reports that do not match what payroll actually paid on public work.Subcontractor records incomplete
Missing W-9s, vendors not flagged for 1099 reporting, and certificates of insurance nobody tracks.§ 04 · How we clean it up
Job by job, cost code by cost code.
- STEP 1
Map jobs and contracts
Open and recently closed jobs, contract values, change orders and billing to date. - STEP 2
Reassign costs
Materials, labor, equipment and subcontractors reclassified to the right job and cost code. - STEP 3
Separate retainage
Retainage receivable and payable split out and tracked to release. - STEP 4
Rebuild WIP
A work-in-progress schedule with over- and under-billing, tied to the balance sheet. - STEP 5
Tie payroll and subs
Certified payroll to payroll, subcontractor records completed, and the books handed over CPA-ready.
§ 05 · When to call
Three signs it is past a quick fix.
Your bonding agent or lender wants a WIP schedule
And there is nothing in QuickBooks to build one from.
Year-end surprises from your CPA
Adjustments for retainage, over-billing or misclassified costs arrive after the year closes.
§ 06 · Pricing
What a construction cleanup costs.
Construction cleanups are priced as QuickBooks cleanup (published at $1,200–$15,000+), fixed fee against a written scope that names the jobs and the months. The number of active jobs, how far behind the file is, and whether WIP must be rebuilt from scratch set where a cleanup lands.
Whether you report on percentage-of-completion or completed-contract is a tax and accounting-method decision for your CPA; we keep the books ready for either.
§ 08 · Questions
Questions about cleaning up a contractor’s books.
How much does a construction cleanup cost?
It is priced as QuickBooks cleanup, published at $1,200–$15,000+, fixed fee against a written scope that names the jobs and months. The exact figure is in the scope before work starts.
Can you rebuild job costing for jobs that are already finished?
Yes, from invoices, bills, payroll records and contracts. The scope states which jobs and periods are rebuilt.
Do you prepare certified payroll reports?
We support certified payroll for prevailing-wage and public work and tie the reports to payroll. Complex union or multi-state prevailing-wage cases are scoped openly on the discovery call.
Will my bonding agent accept the WIP schedule?
The schedule comes from reconciled books and ties to the balance sheet. What a surety requires is its decision; statements we prepare are unaudited and provide no assurance.
Jobs you cannot see into?
Get job costing, WIP and retainage rebuilt.
Tell us what’s wrong with the books. We’ll tell you whether cleanup, catch-up or monthly bookkeeping fits.
Or send the details instead