Bookkeeping for Tradies Who Want to Know Which Jobs Pay
Busy all year and not much left at the end of it is the most common story in the trades. It is almost never a pricing problem in general. It is a specific type of job losing money while the others carry it.
Which of Your Jobs Actually Made Money?
Most trade businesses can tell you their turnover and their bank balance. Far fewer can tell you the margin on the last ten jobs, which is the number that decides what you should quote next week.
Without job-level costing every quote is priced on instinct, and instinct is systematically wrong in one direction: it forgets the second trip, the disposal fee, the hour on the phone and the callback three weeks later.
Get Your Jobs CostedThe materials on the wrong job
Bought for the Miller job, used on the Chen job, coded to neither. Both jobs now report a margin that is wrong, in opposite directions.
The variation done on a handshake
They asked for the extra power point while you were there. You did it, and it never reached an invoice. The most expensive kind of good service.
Travel and vehicle time nobody counts
Two hours a day across the ute and the trailer, unallocated to any job, so small local work looks far more profitable than it is.
The retention nobody chased
Five percent held on a commercial job, due six months after practical completion, and forgotten by everyone except the builder holding it.
The subbie invoice paid twice
Once off the emailed PDF and once off the statement, because there was no single place where bills were entered and matched.
Books Built for a Trade Business
Job-level cost tracking
Every material purchase, subcontractor invoice and labour hour tagged to the job that consumed it, using tracking categories in your accounting file or a connected job management app.
Subcontractors handled correctly
ABNs verified, invoices matched to work done, and the employee-versus-contractor question flagged where an arrangement looks like it carries a super or PAYG obligation.
Progress claims and retentions
Staged invoicing tracked against the contract, with retention amounts recorded separately and diarised so they are claimed when they fall due rather than written off by forgetting.
Receipts from the ute
Photograph it at the trade counter and keep driving. Coded, matched and attached to the job, with the image kept permanently against the transaction.
Payroll for apprentices and crew
The relevant award applied, apprentice rates stepped up on the correct anniversary, allowances included, and site or travel allowances treated properly for tax and super.
Quoted versus actual
Where you provide the quote, we report what the job was priced at against what it actually cost, so the pattern in your estimating becomes visible over time.
From One Ute to a Crew of Fifteen
Job costing is worth having from your first employee onward. Before that it is mostly about getting the GST right and keeping the books current enough that tax time is not an event.
- Electrical and data
- Plumbing and gas
- Carpentry and joinery
- Building and renovation
- Landscaping and civil
- HVAC and refrigeration
- Painting and rendering
- Roofing and cladding
We work in whichever job management system you already use, or with a simple weekly job list if you do not use one. Adopting new software is not a condition of working with us.
Before You Ask
Yes. Tracking categories inside Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks handle job costing perfectly well for most trade businesses, and that costs you nothing extra. All we need is a job name on the receipt or on the weekly list. If you grow to the point where a job management app earns its keep, we will tell you and help you choose one.
Sometimes not, and it is worth knowing. Having an ABN and issuing invoices does not settle it. Where someone works mainly for you, uses your tools and is paid for their time rather than a result, they may be an employee for PAYG and super purposes regardless of what the paperwork says. We flag arrangements that look like this and recommend you confirm the treatment with your accountant. It is a great deal cheaper to check than to be assessed.
Yes, and for most trade clients it is the highest-value thing we do. Jobs get invoiced the week they finish instead of whenever you get to the paperwork, variations get billed because we ask about them, and the follow-up runs on a schedule. Getting paid two weeks earlier on every job changes your cash position permanently.
We code them correctly and keep the records that support them, including logbook treatment where that applies and the GST split on part-private use. What the optimal claim looks like for your tax position is your accountant’s call, and we give them clean records to work from rather than a guess.
Get Job Costing Set Up
Margin on every job, receipts handled from the ute, and a monthly pack you can read on site. Bookkeeping for trade businesses starts at $25 a week, quoted as a fixed fee.