Construction & Contractors
Most contractors leave thousands on the table at tax time because the books aren't there. We fix that.
The Reality for Most Contractors
You know how to build. You know how to run a crew, manage a site, and deliver a finished project. But the financial side of the business tends to get pushed aside. Bank statements pile up. Receipts disappear. The only time the numbers get any attention is when your tax preparer needs something by April.
Construction accounting is genuinely complex. You have multiple jobs running at once, each with its own materials, labor, and subcontractor costs. You’re fronting cash for weeks or months before you get paid. Change orders happen mid-project. Retention gets held back. Without a system to track all of this, the financial picture stays blurry and you end up making decisions based on gut feeling instead of real data.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
General contractors, home builders, kitchen and bath remodelers, commercial construction companies. Any contractor in Long Beach, the South Bay, or Greater LA running projects and needing better financial visibility.
The Core Problem
The Core Problem
Revenue looks good but you have no idea what you actually kept after paying your crew, your subs, and your material suppliers. The books are either months behind or nonexistent, and tax time turns into a scramble every single year.
What We Handle
We build your books around your projects. Every material purchase, every labor hour, and every subcontractor invoice gets tagged to a specific job. Instead of one big “Materials” expense line that tells you nothing, you get a clear picture of what each project actually cost. This is how you find out whether that kitchen remodel was a 20% margin job or a 5% margin job.
Because we handle both your bookkeeping and your tax returns, nothing gets lost in the handoff. The deductions we track all year flow directly into your tax preparation. Vehicle expenses, tool purchases, insurance premiums, equipment depreciation. We capture it throughout the year so it’s already there when we prepare your return. And when you call with a question about buying a new truck or bringing on another crew member, we can give you a real answer because we already know your numbers.
Job Costing by Project
Job Costing by Project
Revenue and expenses tracked to each job. You see exactly which projects generated healthy margins and which ones barely broke even. This is the data that makes your next bid accurate instead of a guess.
Subcontractor Management
Subcontractor Management
W-9s collected before the first check goes out. Payments tracked by sub. When January comes around, your 1099 filing is handled cleanly instead of becoming a two-week headache trying to chase down paperwork.
Where It Falls Apart
We see the same story over and over. A contractor comes to us in February with a year of bank statements and a pile of receipts. Their previous tax preparer did the best they could, but without organized books, thousands of dollars in legitimate deductions got missed. Tools purchased with cash. Mileage between job sites. A portion of the phone bill. Insurance premiums that should have been categorized differently. Each one is small on its own, but they add up fast.
The other problem is decision-making. You want to know if you can afford a new truck. You want to know if hiring another crew member makes financial sense. You want to know which types of jobs are actually worth pursuing. But without accurate books, there is no good answer to any of these questions. You end up going with your gut, and sometimes the gut is wrong. That truck payment hits harder than expected. That new hire pushes overhead past what the current project load can support.
Missed Deductions
Missed Deductions
Vehicle expenses, home office, tools, safety equipment, continuing education, fuel, phone bills. Without organized books, these deductions get buried in bank statements and never make it onto your tax return. That is money you earned and gave away.
Bidding in the Dark
Bidding in the Dark
You finished a similar remodel last year, but you don’t actually know what it cost you. So the next bid is a guess. Guess too high and you lose the job. Guess too low and you work for nothing. Accurate job cost history is the only way out of that cycle.
What Changes
Tax time stops being a crisis. Your books are current, your expenses are categorized, and your deductions are documented. When we sit down to prepare your return, everything is already in place. No scrambling. No guessing. And because we’ve been watching your numbers all year, we can have real conversations about tax strategy before December instead of after.
You start running your business with actual data. You look at the last three bathroom remodels and know exactly what your margins were. You can see whether commercial work is more profitable than residential. When a big opportunity comes up, you evaluate it against real numbers instead of hoping it works out. The relationship between your books and your business decisions finally connects.
Confident Bidding
Confident Bidding
Historical job cost data from your books feeds directly into future estimates. You stop underbidding jobs because you finally know what similar work actually cost you. And you stop overbidding out of fear because the numbers give you a floor you can trust.
Year-Round Tax Planning
Year-Round Tax Planning
Clean books all year mean we can plan together. Should you make that equipment purchase in Q4 or wait? Is it time to look at an S-corp election? These conversations happen proactively throughout the year, not in a rush the week before your return is due.
Long Beach's CPA for Contractors and Trades
The Next Step:
A Quick Conversation
Tell us about your business and where you need help. We'll ask a few questions, let you know what we can do, and give you a quick quote.