Job costing that you can actually read.

Every dollar of labor, material, subcontractor cost, and equipment gets tagged to the job it belongs to. You get profit by job, not just profit for the month. When you're deciding whether to bid the next one like the last one, that's the number you need.

Progress billing and retainage.

Draw schedules tracked against the contract. Retainage held by a general contractor or an owner recorded as a receivable so it stops disappearing from your books — and so you notice when nobody has released it.

Change orders that get billed.

Change orders are where contractor margin goes to die. I track approved change orders against what's been invoiced and flag the gap while you can still collect.

Indiana sales and use tax on materials.

Whether you collect sales tax from your customer or pay it on purchase depends on how your contract is written. Under Indiana Department of Revenue guidance, a contractor working under a time-and-material contract is generally treated as a retail merchant selling the materials it installs and must register and collect sales tax on the material portion, while a lump-sum contractor generally pays sales or use tax on its own materials and doesn't collect from the customer. Get that backwards on either side and it's expensive. I make sure your books match the contracts you're actually signing, and that Form ST-105 exemption certificates are on file where they belong on exempt work.

Equipment and vehicles recorded as assets.

Trucks, trailers, skid steers, and tools capitalized and depreciated correctly, with loan principal and interest split — not dumped into expenses where they wreck your profit picture and your tax return.

Customer deposits handled correctly.

Money collected before work starts is a liability, not revenue. Recording deposits as income inflates your profit, overstates what you owe in taxes, and makes a good month look like a great one. I keep deposits in the right place until the work is earned.

Work in progress, tracked honestly.

For fixed-price jobs, over- and under-billing get reviewed so your P&L reflects the work you've actually completed. This is the single biggest reason contractor financials look great in one month and terrible in the next.

Subcontractor compliance, all year instead of every January.

W-9 collected before the first check goes out. Certificates of insurance tracked. 1099-NEC totals accurate all year long, so January is a printing job and not an emergency.

Payroll set up for Allen County reality.

Allen County's local income tax rate is 1.59%, confirmed for 2026 in the Department of Revenue's county rate notice. If you have crew living across the Ohio or Michigan line, Indiana has reciprocity agreements with Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and those employees file Form WH-47, Certificate of Residence so Indiana state tax isn't withheld — but that form doesn't exempt them from county tax. I set withholding up so it's right the first time rather than fixed in a W-2 correction.