Bookkeeping for Concrete and Masonry Contractors: Pours, Crews and Subcontracted Work

What concrete and masonry books need to track

A concrete and masonry job is not one line in your books. It is a mix of materials, labor and subcontracted work, all spent on one job before you get paid for it.

Your books need to track all of that by job. When you do, you can see which jobs paid and which ones cost more than they brought in. When you do not, you get one big pile of concrete and one big pile of labor, and no way to tell which job was the good one.

A pour uses concrete, rebar, forms and finish work. A masonry job uses block, brick, mortar and sand. Most jobs use a crew for the labor. Many jobs also bring in a subcontractor for part of the work. Each piece needs its own line on the job.

Here is what a clean job looks like.

When each line ties to the job, your profit per job is real. When the lines sit in one account, you can not tell which job made money.

How pours show up in your books

A pour is the day concrete gets placed on the job. The concrete comes from a batch plant or a mixer truck. You get a bill for the yards, the pump and the fuel. That bill is a job cost.

The clean way is to book each line to the job it was poured for. The concrete goes to job one. The pump goes to job one. The fuel for the mixer goes to job one. When the job is done, you can see what it cost to pour.

The messy way is to book the whole concrete bill to one materials account. Now job one looks cheap, job two looks cheap, and the real cost sits where no one can find it. You can not bid the next job right because you do not know what the last one cost.

Here is a simple way to keep pours straight.

• **Match each concrete bill to the job: ** the bill shows the delivery address or the job name.
• - **Split the pump and the fuel out of the concrete: ** they are separate costs, not part of the yards.
• - **Tag each line with the job number: ** so the total for the job is real at month end.
• - **Reconcile the supplier statement to the bank: ** what you paid should match what cleared.
• - **Add up the pour cost per job at month end: ** that total feeds your profit per job.

How to track crews and crew pay by job

A crew is the group of people on the job. Some are employees. Some are day labor. Some are paid by the hour. Some are paid by the day. All of their pay is a job cost when they work on the job.

The clean way is to tag each crew day to the job. If a crew works job one in the morning and job two in the afternoon, you split the day. Job one gets half the labor cost. Job two gets the other half. When the job is done, the labor line is true.

The messy way is to book all crew pay to one labor account. Now every job looks the same, and the hard jobs do not show their true cost. The job that ran two extra days looks just like the one that did not.

Here is what should be true after a week of crew work.

• **Each crew day ties to a job: ** the time tells you which job it was.
• - **A split day is split: ** no whole day sits on one job when the crew worked two.
• - **Day labor is booked the same way: ** it is labor too, not a misc cost.
• - **Overtime is tagged to the job that caused it: ** so the cost lands where it belongs.

You do not need it to be perfect. You need it to be the same way every month. When crew pay lands on the right job each time, your profit per job is real, not a guess.

How subcontracted work fits in your books

A lot of concrete and masonry jobs use subcontractors. A subcontractor is another business you hire to do part of the job. You might hire one to dig, one to finish, or one to handle the steel. Their bill is a job cost.

The clean way is to book each subcontracted bill to the job it was for. The excavating bill goes to job one. The finishing bill goes to job one. When the job is done, the subcontracted line is part of the job cost.

The messy way is to book all subcontracted bills to one account. Now the job that used a lot of subcontracted help looks cheap, and the job that did not looks expensive. The real story is lost.

Here is how to keep it clean.

How to keep job costs and overhead apart

Job costs are the costs you spent on the job. Concrete, rebar, crew pay and subcontracted bills are job costs. Overhead is the cost of running the business. Truck payments, the shop rent and the office phone are overhead.

The two should stay apart. When you mix them, the job cost looks too high or too low. Your bid on the next job is built on the wrong number. You charge too little or too much, and you can not tell which.

Here is the rule.

• **Job costs go to the job: ** concrete, rebar, crew pay and subcontracted bills.
• - **Overhead goes to the business: ** rent, trucks, tools that serve every job.
• - **A cost that serves two jobs is split: ** not dumped on one job.
• - **A cost that serves no job is overhead: ** not forced onto a job to make it look full.

How the month end close works

At month end, every job needs its costs added up. The concrete, the rebar, the crew pay and the subcontracted bills all pull together into one job total. The income for the job sits next to it. The difference is the profit for the job.

We start with the bank. We match each supplier bill to the bank payment. We match each crew pay run to the bank. We tie each line to the job. Then we add up the job. We send you the profit and loss report and a balance sheet. The job totals sit inside the report.

Here is a simple month end check.

• **Match the concrete supplier statement to the bank: ** every bill cleared.
• - **Confirm each line ties to a job: ** no orphan costs sitting in one materials account.
• - **Add up the job total: ** concrete plus rebar plus crew plus subcontracted bills.
• - **Compare the job total to the income: ** the gap is the profit per job.

A situation we clean up

The materials booked to one account and the jobs with no profit

A concrete contractor runs three jobs in a month. Every concrete bill lands in one materials account. Every crew pay run lands in one labor account. The subcontracted bills land in one more. At the end of the month, the books show one big pile of costs and three jobs with no clear profit. The owner can not tell which job was the good one.

Here is how we handle it. We pull the supplier bills for the month. We tie each one to the job it was poured for. We look at the crew time and split each day across the jobs. We move the subcontracted bills to the job each one was for. When we are done, the owner can see the cost per job and the true profit for the month. The profit per job is real for the first time. We set up a simple rule so the next bill and the next crew day land on the right job from the start.

How we do it

We do monthly bookkeeping and payroll. We work in QuickBooks Online and Xero, and we are QuickBooks Online Accountants, called QBOA. Each client gets one dedicated bookkeeper who learns your business.

We categorize and reconcile in the first week. We send you one list of questions on day 8. We close your books by day 10 and send a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet, and a cash summary. We use read only access, and we never ask for your bank password.

We serve small businesses in Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fontana, San Bernardino, and across the Inland Empire and the country. There is no long contract. It is month to month, with 30 days notice to stop. You can read more about how we work on our bookkeeping service page.

Mistakes we fix

• Concrete bills booked to one materials account with no job tag
• Crew pay booked to one labor account with no job split
• Subcontracted bills mixed into one cost line
• Overhead forced onto a job so the job cost looks too high
• Pump and fuel costs left inside the concrete total
• No reconciliation between the supplier statement and the bank

What we do

We do two things: monthly bookkeeping and payroll. For bookkeeping, we categorize and reconcile in the first week, send one list of questions on day 8, and close the books by day 10. You get a profit and loss report, a balance sheet, and a cash summary. We start with a free 20 minute call and reply with a fixed quote in one business day.

Common questions

How do I track a concrete pour by job? Match each concrete bill to the job it was poured for. The bill shows the delivery address or the job name. Tag the line with the job number so the total for the job is real at month end.

How do I split a crew day across two jobs? Split the day by the hours each job got. Job one gets its share of the labor cost. Job two gets the rest. No whole day sits on one job when the crew worked two.

Is a subcontracted bill a job cost? Yes. A subcontractor is another business you hire to do part of the job. Their bill goes to the job it was for, just like the concrete and the crew pay.

Do you do payroll for my crews? Yes. Payroll is one of our two services, along with monthly bookkeeping.