Run your contractors business on numbers, not guesses
Job costing, expense tracking, and cash flow management for contractors.
Last reviewed 2026-05-11
Built for Contractors
Job Costing Engine
Track every dollar spent on each job site—materials, labor, equipment rental, and subs—with real-time budget vs. actual comparisons.
Progress Billing & Retainage
Generate AIA-style G702/G703 progress billing invoices and automatically track retainage holdbacks so you know exactly what you are owed.
Change Order Tracking
Log change orders with their financial impact and automatically adjust project budgets so your estimates stay aligned with reality.
Equipment Depreciation Manager
Track depreciation schedules for vehicles, heavy equipment, and tools using IRS-approved methods to maximize tax deductions.
WIP Schedule Automation
Produce a work-in-progress schedule with costs incurred, billings to date, and over/under-billing in one click — the report bonding companies actually ask for.
Subcontractor Compliance Tracking
Hold W-9s and COIs on file per sub, block payments when insurance is expired, and prepare 1099-NEC forms at year end automatically.
Financial Challenges for Contractors
- Tracking material costs, labor, and subcontractor expenses across multiple active job sites
- Managing progress billing and retainage holdbacks that tie up cash for months
- Keeping equipment depreciation records accurate across a fleet of heavy machinery and tools
- Handling change orders that alter project budgets mid-job without losing track of original estimates
- Collecting certified payroll and prevailing-wage reports for public works projects
- Choosing between cash, accrual, completed-contract, and percentage-of-completion accounting methods
- Managing certificates of insurance and W-9s for every subcontractor before they hit a jobsite
General contractors and specialty trades operate in a world of thin margins and complex financial logistics. A single miscalculated bid or untracked change order can turn a profitable job into a money-losing headache. Yet most contractors still rely on spreadsheets, shoebox receipts, and a bookkeeper who reconciles things long after they happened. The result is a P&L that shows you were profitable last quarter without telling you which jobs made the money or which ones quietly bled out.
FiscalInsights brings construction-grade financial tracking to your business without forcing you to learn ERP software. Our job costing engine ensures every material purchase, labor hour, and equipment rental is allocated to the right project the moment it posts. Progress billing tools generate AIA-style G702 and G703 invoices that match industry standards, while retainage tracking keeps your receivables accurate even when 10 percent of every draw sits with the GC for months. For contractors who work on public projects, certified payroll reports for Davis-Bacon and state prevailing-wage compliance generate automatically from your time data.
The chart of accounts a contractor needs is meaningfully different from a generic small-business template. Direct job costs — labor, burden, materials, equipment, sub — sit above the line and get allocated to specific jobs. Indirect job costs like small tools, vehicle fuel, and supervisor time can be pooled and allocated by job hour or by direct labor dollar. Below the line, you separate overhead (rent, office staff, insurance) from G&A. On the balance sheet, you need contract assets and contract liabilities to handle billings in excess of costs and costs in excess of billings under ASC 606. FiscalInsights ships a contractor-ready template and adjusts it based on whether you run residential remodel, custom homes, commercial GC, or specialty trade.
AI bookkeeping changes the contractor workflow in three important ways. First, supplier invoices are read by AI the moment they arrive — line items are split to the correct job and cost code without your office manager spending Friday afternoon retyping numbers. Second, certificates of insurance and W-9s are tracked per subcontractor, and payment runs block a sub whose insurance has lapsed before a problem walks onto a jobsite. Third, the system maintains your WIP schedule continuously, so when your surety, your banker, or your CFO asks for a schedule you can produce one in under a minute instead of two days. From a solo handyman to a mid-size GC running ten concurrent projects, FiscalInsights scales with your business. Real-time dashboards show you which jobs are on budget, which are bleeding money, and where your cash is tied up in retainage, so you can make better bidding decisions and protect your margins.
Metrics Contractors Should Track
Tax Deductions for Contractors
Deductions are general guidance per IRS Publication 535. Confirm with your CPA.
“We were certain we were making money on the remodels and losing it on commercial. Once we loaded the cost codes properly we found the opposite — commercial was running 22 points, remodels barely 9. Changed our bidding strategy that week.”
— Diego R., owner of a residential and light commercial GC, Phoenix AZ
FiscalInsights vs QuickBooks for Contractors
QuickBooks Contractor Edition charges extra for job costing and still cannot produce a real WIP schedule; FiscalInsights ships AIA billing, retainage, and a one-click bonding-ready WIP report at the same price point as the base plan.
Read the full comparison →What does it cost for contractors?
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I track costs across multiple construction jobs?
FiscalInsights uses job codes to allocate every expense — from a lumber delivery to a subcontractor payment — to the correct project, with sub-cost categories like labor, materials, equipment, and sub. You see real-time budget vs. actual reports for each job, making it easy to spot cost overruns before they eat your margins. Mobile receipt capture means your foreman can photograph a Home Depot ticket and tag it to a job before leaving the parking lot.
What is retainage and how do I track it?
Retainage is the percentage of payment withheld by the project owner until work is completed, typically 5 to 10 percent. FiscalInsights automatically calculates retainage on each progress invoice and tracks it as a separate receivable on the balance sheet so you have an accurate picture of your cash position. The system also flags retainage that has aged past contract terms so you can chase it down rather than write it off.
How should contractors handle equipment depreciation?
FiscalInsights supports the Section 179 deduction, bonus depreciation, and standard MACRS schedules. Enter your equipment details once and the system calculates annual deductions automatically, helping you decide whether to buy or lease based on tax impact. For heavy equipment, the platform also tracks accumulated hours so you can allocate cost back to specific jobs as a more accurate alternative to flat overhead allocation.
What accounting method should a contractor use?
Small contractors under the IRS gross receipts threshold can typically use the cash method or completed-contract method, both of which defer income recognition until cash is collected or the job is done. Larger contractors and most long-term contracts must use percentage-of-completion, which recognizes revenue as costs are incurred. FiscalInsights supports all four methods and produces compliant reports — your CPA picks the method and the system follows.
How do I produce a WIP schedule for my bonding company?
A work-in-progress (WIP) schedule shows for each open contract: total contract value, costs incurred to date, estimated costs to complete, percent complete, billings to date, and the resulting over- or under-billing. FiscalInsights generates this report from your job-cost data in real time, with the gross-profit roll-forward and the bond-friendly footnotes most sureties require. Contractors usually pay an accountant to produce this quarterly — here it is a one-click export.
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