Skilled Trades
Every service call and installation has its own cost structure. We track profitability by job type so you know which work makes money and price accordingly.
The Industry
A plumber does a $175 drain clearing at 8am, a $2,400 water heater replacement at noon, and quotes a $9,000 bathroom rough-in before heading home. Three completely different jobs with three different cost structures. Parts, labor time, truck rolls, permit requirements. Each one needs to be tracked if you want to know what actually made money that day.
Skilled trades run at a pace that makes bookkeeping difficult. You are in and out of homes and job sites all day. Invoices get written on the tailgate or typed into a phone while the customer watches. Parts come out of truck stock or get picked up at the supply house on the way to the call. The money moves fast and the paperwork piles up faster.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, and welders operating in MetroWest and Greater Boston. Whether you run a one-truck operation or manage a team of field technicians, the accounting challenges are similar.
The Friction
The Friction
Service calls blend together in the books. A busy week might show $18,000 in deposits but no visibility into which job types drove that revenue. Without tracking by service category, you cannot see that drain work is profitable while fixture installations are barely breaking even.
What We Handle
We set up your books to reflect how your business actually works. Service calls, installations, and maintenance contracts each get tracked separately. Materials get coded to the job where they were used. Labor hours flow to the right project. You end up with reports that show profitability by job type instead of one big number that tells you nothing.
We also handle the payroll side. Field technicians often have overtime, tool allowances, and varying rates depending on the work. Getting that right every week takes time you probably spend on Sunday nights. We take that off your plate so Monday morning starts with paperwork already handled.
Job Costing for Trades
Job Costing for Trades
Every job gets tagged by type. Emergency service calls, scheduled maintenance, equipment installations, and subcontract work for general contractors all track separately. You see margins by category and know which work deserves more of your attention.
Materials and Markup
Materials and Markup
Parts are a profit center if tracked correctly. We help you see the actual markup you are capturing versus what your price book says. Supply house purchases get allocated to the jobs where they were used so true job costs are visible.
Common Problems
Flat rate pricing often gets set once and left alone for years. Meanwhile, labor costs went up, the supply house raised prices, and your truck insurance doubled. That $325 service call that used to be profitable now barely covers the technician’s time after you factor in the overhead. Without current cost data, you keep running calls at rates that worked five years ago.
Warranty callbacks are another hidden cost. You go back to fix something that should have been right the first time. That return trip has a real cost in labor, truck expense, and parts that never shows up anywhere. It just disappears into the general expenses where you cannot see how much it actually costs you each month.
Missing Overhead
Missing Overhead
Your flat rate covers labor and parts. But does it cover the truck payment, commercial insurance, license renewals, tool replacement, and fuel? Overhead runs 30 to 50 percent of revenue in most trade businesses. If it is not in your pricing, you are working for less than you think.
Seasonal Cash Gaps
Seasonal Cash Gaps
HVAC sees summer and winter spikes with slow shoulders in between. Plumbers have steadier work but still see dips. Without cash reserves built during busy months, the slow weeks force tough choices about payroll and supplier payments.
What Changes
You price based on real numbers instead of gut feeling. When the data shows that residential service calls need to bill at $195 per hour to hit your margin target, you update the rates. When you see that commercial maintenance contracts run 22 percent margin while emergency service runs 8 percent, you know where to focus your marketing.
The weekend paperwork disappears. Invoices are organized. Payroll runs without you calculating hours at the kitchen table. You get reports each month that actually tell you something useful about the business instead of just confirming that money came in and money went out.
Confident Pricing
Confident Pricing
Historical job costs show what work actually costs to perform. You stop underbidding because you forgot to factor in permit time or callback risk. Price increases become easier to justify because you have the numbers to back them up.
Smoother Cash Flow
Smoother Cash Flow
Seasonal patterns become predictable instead of stressful. Cash reserves build during busy months. Slow weeks do not trigger panic because you planned for them. The business runs on data instead of hoping the bank balance holds.
Greater Boston's Trusted Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
We'll ask a few questions, figure out what you need, and give you a straightforward quote.