CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERING DESIGN
Bookkeeping for construction companies that speaks your language.
Construction bookkeeping and fractional CFO for contractors and builders doing $3M to $10M. We know job costing, WIP schedules, progress billing, and retainage, so your numbers finally match how you actually make money.
For contractors, builders & specialty trades doing $3–10M
SOUND FAMILIAR?
Your P&L says you're profitable. Your bank account disagrees.
Generalist accountants treat a contractor like a coffee shop. Construction makes money differently, and your books should show it.
Which jobs actually made money?
Costs land in one big bucket: you can't see margin by project until the job's already done and it's too late to fix.
Cash is stuck in retainage
5–10% held back on every job, and no clear picture of how much is owed to you or when it's coming back.
WIP is a guessing game
Over- and under-billing, percentage-of-completion, surprise swings: your WIP schedule is a mystery until year-end.
BUILT FOR CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERING DESIGN
Books that match how the work actually gets billed.
We set every contractor up around the job, so you see true cost and margin per project, in real time, and never get blindsided by a job that looked profitable on paper.
Job costing & real-time margin by job
Progress & AIA-style billing, retainage (AR & AP)
WIP & percentage-of-completion schedules
Monthly close by the 10th & CPA-ready reporting for contractors
WHAT YOU GET
The finance function your jobs deserve.
Cost & margin
Job costing by project, real-time margin by job, plus committed-cost and change-order tracking.
Billing & cash
Progress and AIA-style billing, retainage on AR and AP, cash-flow forecasting by job, and draw-schedule support.
Reporting
WIP and percentage-of-completion schedules, bonding and working-capital reports, monthly close by the 10th, and CPA-ready reporting for contractors.
THE WORK ITSELF
Why construction bookkeeping is different.
A general bookkeeper closes your month. Construction bookkeeping has to answer a harder question: did this job make money, and are we billing ahead of the work or behind it? Here is what that actually takes.
Job costing
Every labour hour, material invoice, subcontractor payment, and piece of equipment time has to land against the job that consumed it. Without that, your P&L tells you the company made money last month but never which jobs made it and which quietly lost it. Most contractors we meet are carrying at least one job type that loses money every time, and nobody can see it because the costs are pooled.
WIP schedules and percentage of completion
Long contracts do not fit a cash-basis view. Revenue gets recognized as the work is completed, which means a work-in-progress schedule tracking costs to date, estimated cost to complete, and how much you have billed against it. That schedule is what surfaces over-billing and under-billing, and it is the first thing a bonding agent or lender asks to see.
Retainage, on both sides
Money held back on your receivables, and money you are holding back from subs. Both need tracking separately from ordinary AR and AP, because retainage can sit outstanding for months after a job closes. Contractors who do not track it properly end up surprised by how much of their profit is technically earned but not yet collectible.
Progress billing and change orders
AIA-style billing, schedules of values, and change orders that get approved verbally on site and documented weeks later. The billing cycle rarely matches the work cycle, which is exactly why profitable contractors still run out of cash. Getting billing tight is usually the fastest cash-flow win available to a construction business.
HOW IT WORKS
From messy job costs to clarity in 30 days.
Week 1
Diagnose
We review your books, job-cost setup, and open WIP, and show you exactly where margin is leaking.
Weeks 2–4
Set up
We rebuild your chart of accounts around the job, wire up WIP and retainage, and connect your project software.
Ongoing
Run
Monthly close by the 10th, live job-cost and cash reporting, and a CFO on call for bids, bonding, and big calls.
WHY A SPECIALIST
A generalist accountant vs a team that speaks construction.
Anyone can categorize your transactions. Very few can tell you which job is bleeding cash before it's finished.
A generalist accountant
✕ All job costs dumped in one bucket
✕ WIP ignored, or rebuilt once a year
✕ Retainage untracked, cash a mystery
✕ Surprised by a cash crunch mid-job
Thrive, built for construction
✓ Margin visible job by job, in real time
✓ WIP schedules done right, every month
✓ Retainage tracked on AR and AP
✓ Cash forecast across your whole pipeline
INTEGRATIONS
We connect with any accounting tool you use.
QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Gusto, Dext, Ramp, and more. We work in your stack, not ours.
PRICING
From
$
/mo
One flat monthly fee: bookkeeping, job-cost reporting, and CFO guidance. No surprises.
✓ Job costing & WIP schedules
✓ Retainage & progress-billing support
✓ Monthly close by the 10th
✓ Cash-flow forecasting by job
✓ Month-to-month, cancel anytime
“
I've always been impressed by their team's professionalism, attention to detail, and deep expertise. Whether it's day-to-day oversight or strategic guidance, Thrive brings clarity and confidence to every decision.
LB
Liana Bertsch
Founder · Minerva Advisory Services
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