You're running jobs all month. Your books should show profit on every single one. JobCostBooks provides QuickBooks bookkeeping built exclusively for US roofing and restoration contractors — with per-job P&L, retainage tracking, and 1099 compliance included.
Roofing bookkeeping is not the same as bookkeeping for a retail store, a law firm, or even most other contractors. The specific features your business needs — job costing, retainage, subcontractor tracking, WIP schedules — are not part of a generic bookkeeper's workflow.
Your P&L shows total revenue and total costs — but not which jobs made money. A $2M roofer with no job costing is running blind on every bid they make.
Contractors averaging $2M/year typically have $40K–$120K in untracked retainage. It's earned money that never shows up in the books — and often never gets collected.
Generic COA lumps materials, labor, and subs together. You can't see your material margin vs. labor margin vs. subcontractor margin — so you can't fix what's wrong.
Subcontractors paid over $600 need a 1099. Without proper tracking throughout the year, you're filing blind at tax time — and potentially out of compliance with the IRS.
When reports arrive too late to act on, they're just history. You've already made decisions blind. Roofing companies with storm surges and seasonal swings need timely books.
If your CPA only sees your books at year-end, they can't plan around your tax liability. Quarterly planning from accurate books eliminates the annual surprise bill.
Most roofing companies use cash-basis accounting. It's the default in QuickBooks and the easiest to set up. It's also the reason your P&L lies to you every month.
A $60,000 insurance check clears October 31st. Your cash-basis P&L shows a huge October. But the shingles were ordered in September, the subcontractor was paid two weeks ago, and you still owe a permit fee. Your books say you made $60,000 in October. Your actual margin on that job — when costs are matched to revenue — is $18,000. Cash basis made October look three times more profitable than it was. You pay taxes on the inflated number. You make hiring decisions based on the inflated number. And next month looks terrible for no reason you can explain.
| — | Cash Basis | Accrual Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue recorded | When cash hits account | When work is earned |
| Expenses recorded | When cash leaves account | When cost is incurred |
| Insurance job month | Spikes when check clears | Spread across job completion |
| Monthly P&L accuracy | Distorted by timing | Reflects actual performance |
| Bank/bonding requirements | Usually not accepted | Required for lines of credit |
JobCostBooks sets up and maintains accrual-basis bookkeeping for every client — revenue matched to the period it's earned, costs matched to the job they belong to. Your monthly P&L reflects what actually happened in that month, not when checks happened to clear.
Every JobCostBooks plan includes the core services roofing contractors need — not a generic package with construction as an afterthought.
We enable QuickBooks Projects and create a project for every active job. Every invoice, bill, and expense is tagged to the correct job. At month-end, you get a Project Profitability report showing revenue, costs, and gross margin on every roofing job — not just company-wide totals. For solo operators and companies scaling past $1M, this is the single highest-impact change you can make to your financial visibility.
We create a dedicated Retainage Receivable account in QuickBooks. Every job with retained funds is entered correctly — so your balance sheet shows exactly how much retainage is outstanding, how old it is, and which jobs need a follow-up call. We run an AR aging report on retainage monthly and flag balances over 90 days. This one change has recovered $40,000–$80,000 in uncollected cash for contractors we've onboarded.
Each month you receive two reports: a clean Profit & Loss statement for the company, and a Job Profitability Report showing gross margin per job. The job report is what tells you whether your residential re-roof pricing is right, whether storm jobs are more profitable than retail work, and whether any specific crew or subcontractor is consistently hurting your margins. This is the report that drives actual business decisions — not just tax compliance.
We replace generic QuickBooks categories with a roofing-specific chart of accounts: separate accounts for shingles/materials by type, labor vs. subcontractor costs, equipment rental vs. depreciation, retainage receivable, retainage payable, and owner draws tracked correctly as equity. This makes your P&L readable, your margins accurate, and your CPA's job significantly easier at tax time.
Every subcontractor paid over $600 in a calendar year needs a 1099-NEC filed by January 31. We track all sub payments throughout the year, flag vendors who need 1099s, and confirm their W-9 information is on file. At year-end, you have a clean subcontractor list ready for filing — no scramble, no missed subs, no IRS exposure.
Every bank account and credit card is reconciled against actual statements every month — within 5 business days of month-end. This eliminates duplicate entries, catches missing transactions, and ensures your QuickBooks balance matches your real bank balance. Without monthly reconciliation, errors compound and books become unreliable within 60–90 days.
A Work in Progress schedule shows the completion and billing status of every active job — identifying which jobs are overbilled and which are underbilled relative to actual work completed. Required by banks for lines of credit, by bonding companies for surety bonds, and by CPAs for reviewed financials. We produce a WIP schedule monthly using QuickBooks Projects data.
On the Pro plan, we coordinate directly with your CPA at year-end and for quarterly estimates. We prepare the QuickBooks file for handoff, answer CPA questions about transaction categorization, and make any adjustments requested. This eliminates the "cleanup before you can file" charge that most CPAs bill for when books arrive disorganized.
We work exclusively with US roofing and restoration contractors. Not HVAC, not plumbing, not retail — roofing and restoration only. That specialization matters when your bookkeeper needs to understand what a supplement is, how insurance claim timing affects your P&L, and why storm work margins differ from retail re-roofs.
Fixed monthly pricing based on your company size. No per-transaction fees, no surprise invoices. Includes QuickBooks cleanup and job costing setup in onboarding at no extra charge.
If JobCostBooks doesn't find at least $10,000 in fixable profit leaks — uncollected retainage, job costing errors, miscategorized expenses — in your first 90 days as a client, your first month is free. We've never had to honor it. But it removes all risk from trying us.
Four types of bookkeeping options exist for roofing contractors. Here's how they compare on the features that actually matter.
| Feature | JobCostBooks | Bench / Generic | Local Generalist | US Roofing Specialist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks job costing | ✅ Included | ❌ Not available | ❌ Rarely set up | ✅ Included |
| Retainage tracking | ✅ Included | ❌ Not available | ❌ Rarely understood | ✅ Included |
| Per-job profitability report | ✅ Monthly | ❌ Not possible | ❌ Not available | ✅ Monthly |
| Roofing-specific COA | ✅ Included | ❌ Generic only | ❌ Generic only | ✅ Included |
| WIP schedule | ✅ Growth + Pro | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available | ✅ Included |
| 1099 sub tracking | ✅ Included | 🟡 Add-on | 🟡 Sometimes | ✅ Included |
| Works in your QuickBooks | ✅ Yes | ❌ Proprietary software | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Monthly price range | $600–$1,800 | $299–$700+ | $300–$800 | $3,500–$5,000 |
| Profit leak guarantee | ✅ $10K in 90 days | ❌ None | ❌ None | ❌ None |
From your first call to clean monthly books in four steps. No lengthy onboarding forms, no waiting weeks before we start. Most clients have their first clean month-end report within 30 days.
We open your QuickBooks file live on a call, identify the specific issues present, and give you an honest assessment. No pitch unless the fit is right. You'll see the problems we find and what fixing them is worth.
We clean up existing transactions, rebuild the chart of accounts for roofing, enable and configure Projects, set up Retainage Receivable, and reconcile all bank accounts. This is included in onboarding — no separate cleanup invoice.
We close your first month with all transactions categorized, reconciled, and assigned to the correct Projects. You receive your P&L and Job Profitability Report — possibly the first time you've seen per-job margins in your books.
Every month: transactions categorized, accounts reconciled, reports delivered. You reach us on WhatsApp when you have questions. Your CPA gets what they need without a cleanup project. You know which jobs made money.
Roofing contractors need QuickBooks job costing to track profit per job, retainage tracking to capture held-back payments, monthly P&L and job profitability reports, subcontractor 1099 compliance, and monthly bank reconciliation. Generic bookkeepers miss job costing and retainage — the two items most critical to roofing financial health.
Yes. JobCostBooks operates inside your QuickBooks Online account using accountant-level access — the same as a US-based bookkeeper. All financial data stays in your QuickBooks account, which you own and control. We communicate via WhatsApp and email during US business hours. Many US roofing and restoration contractors already use India-based bookkeeping specialists successfully.
That's the normal starting point. QuickBooks cleanup is included in onboarding for all plans — we review, fix, and reorganize the existing file before starting regular monthly bookkeeping. We'll tell you what we find on the initial call and how long cleanup will take before you commit to anything.
We work in QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced (required for the Projects/job costing feature). If you're on QuickBooks Desktop, we can help you migrate to QBO Online as part of onboarding. If you're not on QuickBooks at all, we'll set up a new QBO account as part of onboarding.
JobCostBooks plans are $600/mo (Starter — under $1M revenue), $1,200/mo (Growth — $1M–$3M, 2–8 crews), and $1,800/mo (Pro — $3M–$5M, 8+ crews). All plans include QuickBooks job costing setup, retainage tracking, monthly reconciliation, and P&L reporting. Compare to US-based roofing specialists who charge $3,500–$5,000/month for equivalent service.
Book the free 15-minute call, and if it's a fit, onboarding begins within 3–5 business days. QuickBooks cleanup and setup takes 10–14 business days. Your first clean month-end report is delivered within 30 days of starting.
Book a free 15-minute QuickBooks screen-share. We'll open your file, show you exactly what's missing, and tell you what it's costing you — no charge, no obligation.
Book My Free Assessment →hello@jobcostbooks.com · Plans from $600/mo · $10K guarantee in 90 days