#construction
Accounting practices for construction businesses including job costing, WIP schedules, and retainage
How environmental remediation contractors should structure job costing when a state UST cleanup fund — not the property owner — is the real payer. Covers the five remediation phases as cost codes, ASC 606 collectibility with fund caps and deductibles, tracking 6-to-8-week reimbursement aging separately from ordinary AR, and the documentation that survives a fund audit.
Retainage withholds 5-10% of every construction progress payment until project completion, and contractors who book it into regular AR/AP instead of separate Retainage Receivable and Retainage Payable accounts lose visibility into which "earned" revenue is actually collectible now versus locked up for months.
Percentage-of-completion accounting recognizes contractor revenue in proportion to costs incurred using the cost-to-cost method, and a monthly WIP schedule tracks the resulting overbilling and underbilling under ASC 606.
A working contractor's guide to Davis-Bacon compliance in 2026, covering the redesigned WH-347 certified payroll form, fringe benefit annualization, apprenticeship ratios measured daily, the 2023 final rule and 2024 truck-driver injunction, and how the Inflation Reduction Act's five-times tax credit multiplier ties prevailing wage compliance to clean-energy projects.
OSHA's proposed federal heat rule sets 80°F and 90°F triggers requiring water, shade, paid breaks, acclimatization, and a written HIIPP. Five state plans — California (Cal/OSHA 3395 and 3396), Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Maryland — already enforce binding heat illness standards. Here's the compliance playbook construction, restaurant, warehouse, and delivery employers can build today under the General Duty Clause.
How residential roofers and storm restoration contractors should handle ASC 606 variable consideration, Section 460 elections, supplemental claim revenue, customer deductibles under state law, OSHA fall protection costs, and the KPIs (squares per crew-day, gross margin by channel) that separate profitable shops from busy ones.
How independent residential GCs and custom home builders should structure their books — Section 460 method election, phase-level job cost categories, deposit and retainage handling, mechanics lien waiver discipline, warranty reserves, and the NAHB KPIs that matter.
How residential and commercial solar EPCs should structure ASC 606 performance obligations, document the Section 48E domestic content and energy community adders, reserve for workmanship warranty per kilowatt, and survive the post-Section 25D residential market in 2026.
How custom cabinet and architectural millwork shops should account for long-lead contracts under ASC 606, allocate CNC machine-hour burden, hold customer deposits as liabilities, reserve for hardwood yield loss, and expense equipment under the 2026 Section 179 limit of $2.56M.
A working guide to bookkeeping for storm-restoration roofers — splitting insurance and retail revenue, tracking ACV and recoverable-depreciation receivables, modeling mortgage-endorsement float, booking supplements as scope adjustments rather than new sales, accruing 1–3 percent workmanship warranty reserves, and applying Section 179 to trucks, dumpsters, and tear-off equipment.
How AIA Forms G702 and G703 work together, how to build a defensible schedule of values, handle retainage and change orders on the continuation sheet, and reconcile progress billings to ASC 606 revenue recognition for U.S. general contractors.
Markup and margin share a numerator but not a denominator, and the gap can quietly cost a contractor $99,000 a year. A plain-language guide to the conversion math, a target-margin lookup table, and why retailers, contractors, and restaurants keep underpricing jobs.
