InsightTrack Bookkeeping gives contractors full-service monthly bookkeeping in QuickBooks Online — transaction coding, bank reconciliations, AR/AP, and monthly financial statements — on flat-rate packages starting at $300 per month. One bookkeeper on your file every month. See package pricing or book a free consultation.
Who This Is For
Most contractor books fail the same way: the company P&L looks fine, but nobody can say which jobs made money and which ones ate the profit. Materials get coded to a generic expense account, subcontractor draws pile into one line, and by the time the CPA sorts it out in March the information is a year old and useless for bidding.
InsightTrack sets up and maintains job costing from day one. Every transaction is tagged to a customer and job, labor is burdened with payroll taxes and workers' comp, and we track what has been billed against what has been earned so your balance sheet reflects reality — not just the invoices that happened to go out that month.
This service is built for general contractors, remodelers, framers, concrete and excavation crews, roofers, painters, and specialty subs across Arkansas and remotely nationwide. Whether you run two crews out of a pickup or a $5M operation with a project manager, the setup is the same: clean books, current job reports, and a bookkeeper who can answer a question about a specific job without digging.
What Makes Bookkeeping for Contractors Different
Job costing that actually gets used
Every bill, timesheet, and receipt needs a job on it, or the job-profit report is fiction. We enforce the tagging monthly and chase down the uncoded items so the report you see reflects every dollar.
Progress billing, retainage, and WIP
Billing 30% up front and holding 10% retainage breaks a simple cash P&L. We track retainage receivable separately, maintain a work-in-progress schedule, and record over- and under-billings so revenue matches the work performed.
Subcontractors, 1099s, and lien exposure
Sub payments are tracked by vendor with W-9s and certificates of insurance on file, so 1099-NEC filing in January is a report, not a scramble — and you can show a lender or owner who was paid on which job.
Materials, sales tax, and equipment
In Arkansas, contractors generally pay sales tax on materials at purchase rather than charging it on the finished job. We code materials to jobs at the taxed cost, track tool and equipment purchases as assets where appropriate, and hand your CPA a clean depreciation list.
How We Set Up Your Books
Contractor books start with a chart of accounts built around cost of revenue, not a generic small-business template. Your P&L separates direct job costs — materials, subcontractors, direct labor, equipment rental, permits — from overhead like office, insurance, trucks, and owner pay, so gross margin means something.
- Customer:Job structure in QuickBooks Online — every job is its own sub-customer, with estimates entered so actual vs. estimate reports work
- Labor burden — payroll taxes, workers' comp, and benefits allocated to jobs, not left in overhead
- WIP schedule and retainage — contract value, costs to date, billed to date, and over/under billings maintained monthly
- Vendor compliance — W-9s, certificates of insurance, and 1099 tracking on every subcontractor
- Integrations — Buildertrend, JobTread, Housecall Pro, and Gusto or ADP payroll synced or reconciled to the books
Cleanup is common for contractors switching from a spreadsheet or a bookkeeper who never set up jobs. We quote cleanup after a review of the file, then move you onto a flat monthly rate.
The Numbers We Track for Contractors
Every client gets a monthly P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. For contractors we also report the operating numbers that drive decisions, and can build them into a dashboard that updates as the books close.
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Gross margin by job
Revenue earned less direct costs on each job, compared against the estimate, so you know which job types and which estimators are making money.
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Over/under billings
Whether you are ahead of or behind the work on cash — the number that explains why a busy month can still feel broke.
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Backlog and AR aging with retainage
Contracted work not yet performed, plus who owes you what and how old it is, with retainage shown separately from ordinary receivables.
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Labor cost as a percent of revenue
Fully burdened crew cost against revenue by month, so you see the drift before it shows up in a bad year.
Serving Contractors in Arkansas and Nationwide
InsightTrack is based in Conway, Arkansas, and works with contractors in Little Rock, Conway, Maumelle, and across Central Arkansas, plus Fayetteville, Rogers, Bentonville, and Springdale in Northwest Arkansas.
The work is done in QuickBooks Online with documents shared through a secure portal, so location doesn't limit who we can help. We also serve contractors in Texas and nationwide. See all locations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you do job costing for contractors?
Yes. Every job is set up as its own customer:job in QuickBooks Online, direct costs (materials, subcontractors, burdened labor, equipment, permits) are coded to the job, and you get a job profitability report each month alongside your P&L and balance sheet.
Can you handle retainage and progress billing?
Yes. We track retainage receivable separately from regular accounts receivable, record progress billings against contract value, and maintain a work-in-progress schedule so revenue is recognized as work is performed rather than as invoices go out.
How much does contractor bookkeeping cost?
Flat-rate packages start at $300 per month and a contractor with several active jobs and payroll would usually run around $1,200 per month depending on transaction volume, number of active jobs, and whether AR/AP management is included. Cleanup of prior months is quoted separately after we review the file.
Which construction software do you work with?
We work in QuickBooks Online and reconcile it against whatever you use to run jobs — Buildertrend, JobTread, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, or a spreadsheet. If your job management tool syncs to QuickBooks, we manage the sync; if it doesn't, we record the job data monthly.
Do you serve contractors in Little Rock and Central Arkansas?
Yes. InsightTrack is based in Conway and works with contractors in Little Rock, Conway, Maumelle, and across Central and Northwest Arkansas. The work is done remotely in QuickBooks Online, so we also serve contractors nationwide.
Get In Touch
Bring your current setup — QuickBooks file, spreadsheet, or shoebox — and we'll tell you what the monthly close would cost and what a cleanup would involve. Call (501) 697-1919 or email marcus@insighttrackbookkeeping.com.