For remodelers & renovation contractors
The job looked profitable at signing. What did it actually make?
The short answer
Remodeling margins leak in the middle of long jobs — change orders that never get billed, allowances that blow past, deposits mistaken for profit. Job costing tracks every job from contract to close: progress billing done right, change orders caught in the month they happen, allowances measured against actuals. Fixed monthly pricing starting as low as $600, books closed by the 15th.
Founder, Accelerate Business Solutions · Published August 21, 2026 · Last updated September 19, 2026
Sound familiar?
The project finished. The profit didn't.
Deposits mistaken for revenue
A $30k deposit hits the bank and the account looks great — but that money is spoken for. Treating deposits as income is how remodelers spend next month's payroll.
Change orders that vanish
The client asked, the crew did it, the invoice… eventually. Without per-job tracking, extra work gets billed late, underpriced, or not at all.
Allowances that quietly blow up
The client picked the $9k tile against a $4k allowance. If nobody's tracking allowance vs. actual as selections happen, the overrun becomes your margin problem.
Subs paid from texts and stubs
Plumber, electrician, tile crew — tracked in messages and check stubs all year, then a January scramble to figure out who got paid what for 1099s.
Material runs with no home
Three jobs are active and the lumber yard receipt could belong to any of them. When materials aren't coded per job, every estimate is built on fiction.
Cash flow whiplash between draws
Materials and subs go out now; the next draw comes in three weeks. The balance looks fine on Tuesday and terrifying on Friday — and you're never sure which is real.
Trusted by business owners who run on real numbers
How to do bookkeeping for a remodeling company
Remodeling bookkeeping follows the same six steps whether you run three jobs or thirty. Most remodelers get the first two right and lose the value at step four.
1. Split direct job costs from overhead
Labor, materials, subs, and equipment rental sit as direct job costs — separate from insurance, office costs, and your own draw. Without this split, per-job margin is fiction.
2. Set every contract up as a job with cost codes
Each contract becomes its own job in QuickBooks Online, broken into phases. Cost codes are what let you compare this kitchen to the last one instead of two blended totals.
3. Hold deposits and draws as liabilities
Client money sits in a deposit account and moves to revenue only as milestones complete. Your reports then show earned profit — not a bank balance built on the client's cash.
4. Track change orders the day they're approved
Every approved extra gets logged against the job immediately, with its own price. This is the discipline step — unbilled change orders are where remodelers quietly lose the most.
5. Measure allowances against actual selections
When the client picks the $9k tile against a $4k allowance, it's recorded in the month it happens — so the overrun becomes a client conversation, not your margin problem.
6. Grade every closed job against the estimate
Per-job P&L compared cost code by cost code against the bid. Your next estimate gets built on evidence instead of memory — that's the compounding payoff.
The bookkeeping mistakes that cost remodelers the most
- Deposits and draws recorded as income, so early jobs look profitable and late jobs explode
- Change orders discovered at close — billed late, underpriced, or never
- Allowance overruns absorbed into margin instead of billed back
- Sub costs in texts and check stubs instead of coded to jobs
- No estimate-vs-actual review, so the next bid repeats the last loss
Should you outsource your remodeling bookkeeping?
A full-time in-house bookkeeper runs roughly $55,000–$75,000 a year once benefits and payroll taxes are counted, and most remodelers under $5M in revenue don't have forty hours a week of bookkeeping work to hand them. Outsourced bookkeeping gives you per-job reporting at a fixed monthly fee, from someone who already knows deposits, draws, change orders, and allowance tracking. Keep it in-house when daily transaction volume is high and your people already code jobs cleanly.
What you get every month
Bookkeeping built around the job, contract to close.
A generalist bookkeeper categorizes what hits the bank. We run your books the way a remodeler needs them run — deposits handled correctly, every cost tied to a job, every month closed on schedule.
Per-job profit & loss
Every dollar of labor, material, and subs tagged to the project it belongs to — from the day the contract signs to the final invoice.
Progress billing done right
Deposits held as deposits and draws matched to work completed, so your reports show earned revenue — not just cash collected.
Change-order tracking
Approved extras tracked against the job in the month they happen, so nothing gets finished without getting billed.
Allowance variance
Selections measured against allowances as they happen. Overruns become a client conversation, not a surprise at close.
Estimate vs. actual
Each closed job compared against the bid. Your estimating gets sharper every quarter instead of staying a guess.
Books closed by the 15th
Every transaction categorized, every account reconciled, 1099s and sales tax handled — reports in your hands on a set date, every month.
Signs your company needs job costing
- You can't name your most profitable job from last quarter
- Deposits and draws blur together with earned revenue
- Change orders get billed late — or discovered at close
- Allowance overruns come out of your margin, not the client's
- Your CPA asks job-level questions you can't answer
Who this fits
- Kitchen, bath, and whole-home remodelers
- Design-build firms and renovation contractors
- Owner-led companies, roughly $250k–$5M in revenue
- Anyone running multiple long jobs at once
- Remodelers bidding the next job from memory of the last
Fixed monthly pricing starting as low as $600, based on transaction volume and active jobs. You'll get an exact number on the first call — not a range that grows later.
Questions remodelers actually ask
We bill in draws and hold deposits. Can you handle that?
Yes — and it's one of the biggest reasons remodelers need a specialist. Customer deposits aren't revenue, and draws need to be matched against the work actually completed. We set up progress billing correctly so your reports show earned revenue, not just cash collected.
Change orders are where we lose money. Can you track them?
Yes. Each change order gets tracked against the job from the day it's approved, so unbilled or underpriced extras surface in the month they happen — not at the end of the job when it's too late to bill them.
How should a remodeler record customer deposits and draws?
Deposits and draws are liabilities, not revenue — the money is spoken for until the work it belongs to is done. In QuickBooks they should land in a customer-deposit or deferred-revenue account, then move to revenue as milestones complete. Treat deposits as income and your reports will tell you a job is profitable in month one and broke by month four — after you've already spent the client's money.
How do you do bookkeeping for a remodeling company?
Six steps, in order: (1) split direct job costs — labor, materials, subs, equipment rental — from overhead like insurance and office costs; (2) set every contract up as its own job in QuickBooks Online with phases and cost codes; (3) hold deposits and draws as liabilities and move them to revenue as work completes; (4) track every change order against the job from the day it's approved; (5) measure allowance selections against actual spending as they happen; (6) close the month with a per-job P&L and grade closed jobs against the estimate. Step 4 is where most remodelers leak.
What does a bookkeeper do for a remodeler?
A remodeling bookkeeper codes every cost to the job it belonged to, handles deposits and draws correctly, tracks change orders and allowance variance in the month they happen, manages subcontractor 1099s and lien waivers, reconciles accounts monthly, and produces a per-job P&L with estimate-vs-actual grading. A generalist bookkeeper does only the reconciling — which is why the job-level numbers stay invisible.
Should I outsource my remodeling company's bookkeeping?
Outsource when the job-level numbers matter more than the hours cost. A full-time in-house bookkeeper runs roughly $55,000–$75,000 a year with benefits and payroll taxes, and most remodelers under $5M don't have 40 hours a week of bookkeeping work. An outsourced specialist gives you per-job reporting at a fixed monthly fee, with progress billing and change-order experience you'd otherwise have to train for. Keep it in-house if daily volume is high and your people already run cost codes cleanly.
My books are months behind. Can you catch me up?
Yes. Catch-up and cleanup is routine work here, quoted as a one-time fixed project after we look at one month of your books — not an hourly meter. Then monthly service keeps you current from there.
What does it cost?
Fixed monthly pricing starting as low as $600, depending on transaction volume and how many active jobs we're tracking. No hourly billing. One caught change order usually pays for months of service.
Keep reading:
- Construction bookkeeping services — job costing, WIP schedules, and retainage for GCs and home builders.
- Bookkeeping & job costing for contractors — the full picture for the trades, all in one place.
- Job costing in QuickBooks: a contractor's guide — the five-step setup that shows which jobs actually make money.
- How much does bookkeeping cost in 2026? — DIY vs. full-time hire vs. fractional, with real numbers.
Client results
What owners say after the books are handled
Shannon got our books cleaned up and finally showed us which jobs were actually making money. We stopped guessing on bids and our margins went up because of it.
Having Shannon handle the bookkeeping took a huge weight off. Everything is closed on time, the numbers make sense, and I get my evenings back instead of fighting QuickBooks.
Shannon helped me clean up a year of QuickBooks financials and get me on the right track to be able to see clean financials after going through a few other bookkeeping companies. Finally found one that does what they say they will, and their end of month reporting analysis is better than any of the others I've used.
Find out which jobs are really paying you.
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