Home & Property Services
Your crews stay busy and the trucks are rolling. But the profit on each job is a mystery. We track costs by service line so you know what's actually making money.
The Industry
Landscapers, roofers, pest control companies, and pool service operators all look different on the surface but share the same financial DNA. Crews go out to properties every day. Revenue depends on keeping those trucks full and the routes tight. The margins live and die in the small stuff. Fuel, materials, labor, and the drive time between stops all chip away at what looked like a good month.
The tricky part is that many of these businesses run two models at once. A landscaper does weekly maintenance for $150 a yard and then bids a $15,000 hardscape installation. A pool company charges $120 a month for chemical service and then quotes a $40,000 pool build. These are fundamentally different businesses sharing the same bank account. Without separating them in the books, you never really know which side is making money and which side is eating it.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Landscapers, lawn care operators, roofers, pest control companies, pool service and repair, tree services, irrigation specialists, fence installers, and other residential or commercial property service businesses around Long Beach, the South Bay, and Greater LA.
The Friction
The Friction
Revenue comes in different shapes. Monthly maintenance contracts, one-time project payments, progress billing on bigger jobs. Expenses are just as varied. Chemical supplies, sod, roofing materials, equipment rentals, fuel for a fleet of trucks. It all lands in the same bank account and gets tangled fast.
How We Handle It
We separate your books by service line. Maintenance revenue and costs go in one bucket. Project work goes in another. This tells you the actual margin on your recurring routes versus your installation or construction jobs. You might find that the maintenance side keeps the lights on while the project side builds wealth. Or you might find the opposite. Either way, you need to know.
Crew costs get tracked properly. Payroll, workers comp, fuel, and vehicle expenses are allocated so you can see what it costs to run each truck every month. Materials get recorded against the job they were purchased for instead of dumped into a general supply expense. When your CPA gets the books at tax time, everything is organized and nothing gets missed.
Job Costing That Matters
Job Costing That Matters
Every job has a cost. Labor hours, materials, drive time, dump fees, equipment usage. We build your QuickBooks file to capture these costs at the job level. This is the difference between thinking you made money on a project and knowing you made money on a project.
Recurring Revenue Tracking
Recurring Revenue Tracking
Monthly contracts are the backbone of most home service businesses. We track each contract so you can see collection rates, which customers are behind, and what your predictable monthly income actually looks like after accounting for cancellations and seasonal pauses.
Where Things Go Wrong
Seasonality catches people off guard, even in Southern California. Pool service slows in winter. Landscaping installs drop off during the dry months. Roofers might get slammed after a storm and then hit a lull. The money that came in during the busy months gets spent as if the pace will continue forever. By February the account is thin and payroll is stressful. Without a cash flow plan that accounts for the seasonal dip, you are always reacting instead of planning.
The other problem is the “I’ll deal with it later” approach to bookkeeping. Receipts from Home Depot pile up. Material purchases go on a personal card. A subcontractor gets paid in cash with no W-9 on file. None of this seems like a big deal in the moment, but it compounds. By tax time the books are a mess and your CPA is left guessing. Deductions get missed. The tax bill comes in higher than it should.
Mixing Personal and Business
Mixing Personal and Business
It happens constantly in this industry. The truck gets used for personal errands. Materials get bought on a personal credit card. A customer pays cash and it goes straight into the owner’s pocket instead of the business account. We clean this up and put systems in place so it stops happening.
Subcontractor Paperwork
Subcontractor Paperwork
You bring on a guy to help with a big job and pay him without any documentation. The IRS treats that very differently depending on whether he’s a contractor or an employee. Getting this wrong leads to penalties, back taxes, and headaches you do not want. We make sure W-9s are collected and 1099s go out at year end.
What Changes
You know what each service line actually earns. The weekly lawn route generates a reliable 38% margin. The hardscape installs bring in bigger checks but only clear 22% after materials and labor. That kind of clarity changes how you price, how you bid, and where you put your energy. You stop chasing revenue for the sake of staying busy and start focusing on the work that actually builds the business.
Tax time stops being a crisis. Your books are clean all year. Your CPA gets organized financials with every deduction properly categorized. Equipment depreciation, vehicle expenses, material costs, subcontractor payments. All of it is accounted for. The result is a lower tax bill and zero surprises in April.
Confident Growth Decisions
Confident Growth Decisions
Adding a crew means another truck, another trailer, more payroll, more insurance. When you know your numbers, you can calculate exactly how many accounts that new crew needs to cover its cost before it turns a profit. Growth becomes a plan instead of a gamble.
Cash Flow That Works Year-Round
Cash Flow That Works Year-Round
We help you budget for the slow months during the busy months. Quarterly tax estimates are planned for. Equipment purchases are timed to benefit your tax situation. The seasonal stress fades because the cash is set aside when you need it, not scrambled for at the last minute.
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.