FinTruction, 215 N MOORE Road APT 3024, Coppell, TX (2026)

10/09/2026

WIP schedule reconciles earned revenue to billed revenue job by job. Seven columns, one row per active job, totals at the bottom.

Column 1: Contract value. Original contract plus approved COs.

Column 2: Estimated cost at completion. Updated monthly as scope and conditions change.

Column 3: Estimated gross profit. Contract value minus estimated cost. The job’s expected margin.

Column 4: Cost to date. Total cost incurred through the report date, pulled from the job cost report.

Column 5: Percent complete. Cost to date divided by estimated cost at completion (cost-to-cost method).

Column 6: Earned revenue. Contract value times percent complete. This is what belongs on the P&L for the period, not what you billed.

Column 7: Billed to date. Total invoiced through the report date, including retention.

Over/underbilled. Earned minus billed. Positive = underbilled (contract asset on the balance sheet). Negative = overbilled (contract liability). This is the number bonding looks at hardest because it reveals whether the GC is front-loading billings.

Totals tie to GL. Sum of earned revenue ties to revenue on P&L. Sum of over/underbilled ties to balance sheet contract asset and liability accounts.

THE FIX:
Build the 7-column schedule in Excel from QBO data. QBO can’t produce it natively.
Update estimated cost at completion monthly. Stale estimates break the whole report.

Tie earned revenue total to P&L revenue line. Mismatch = error somewhere.

Tie over/underbilled total to balance sheet contract asset and liability.

Review with CPA and bonding agent quarterly. Both sign off on the format.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

10/06/2026

Sub payment applications are the document set required before releasing a progress payment. Standard on commercial work, often skipped on residential. Five documents:

Document 1: Signed pay application. Sub-signed AIA G702/G703 or the GC’s own equivalent, showing schedule of values, work completed this period, work completed to date, retention held.

Document 2: Conditional lien waiver from the sub for the current payment. Conditional means the waiver only takes effect once payment is received. A dozen states mandate a statutory form; the rest take any clear release.

Document 3: Unconditional lien waiver from the sub for the prior payment. Confirms the sub received the last payment and released lien rights for that work already performed.

Document 4: Tier-two lien waivers from the sub’s suppliers and lower-tier subs. Most contractors skip this one, and it’s where the lien exposure sits.

Document 5: Current COI. Coverage active through the pay period. Additional insured and waiver of subrogation confirmed on the certificate.

Payment release rule. All five documents in the file before the check cuts. Missing one, payment holds until it’s received.

The mechanics lien risk. Without tier-two waivers, an unpaid supplier can lien the customer’s job after you’ve paid the sub in full. On a $47K pay app, a $9K unpaid material invoice is enough to cloud title on the whole job.

THE FIX:
Require the five-document package on every sub pay application. No exceptions.

Distinguish conditional (current period) from unconditional (prior period) lien waivers.

Get tier-two waivers from the sub’s suppliers and lower-tier subs.

Confirm COI is current through the pay period.

Hold payment until all five are in file. Missing document = no check.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

10/05/2026

COA hygiene is annual discipline that pays off in report quality all year. Six steps:

Step 1: Find dead accounts. QBO has no last-activity report, so run a P&L and Balance Sheet over 24 months set to show all accounts including zero balances. Anything at $0.00 across that window is a cleanup candidate.

Step 2: Merge duplicates. Common pairs: “Materials” and “Job Materials”, “Vehicle” and “Auto Expense”. Merging moves transactions into one account. Both accounts must share the same type and detail type or QBO refuses.

Step 3: Deactivate stale accounts. No activity in 24 months gets deactivated. History stays and shows on reports; the account leaves the dropdowns. Clear any balance first, or QBO journals it to Opening Balance Equity.

Step 4: Rename for consistency. Pick one convention and rename to match.

Step 5: Enforce classification. COGS under COGS, overhead under Expense, balance sheet accounts in the right sections.

Step 6: Update the written account list so the bookkeeper stops opening new accounts.

The win. A cleaned COA runs a P&L in a couple of pages instead of eight.

Cadence. Once a year at year-end close.

THE FIX:
Run the annual COA cleanup. Find dead accounts, merge duplicates, deactivate stale, rename.

Merge duplicates rather than deactivating. Merge consolidates history into one account.

Enforce classification. COGS under COGS, overhead under Expense.

Document the account list. Reduces new-account creation.

Repeat annually. COA sprawl restarts within 12 months if the discipline lapses.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

10/04/2026

Every cost sits in one of two buckets: direct job cost or overhead. The decision is attribution.

Job cost (direct). Traceable to a job. Field labor and burden. Materials delivered. Sub costs. Equipment rate on job hours. PM salary allocated to one job. Permit fees.

Overhead (indirect). Supports the business as a whole. Office rent. Office salaries. Owner salary. Marketing. General insurance. Software across jobs.

Where PMs and estimators get miscoded. Both drive to jobs. PM time is job cost when allocated, overhead when spread. Estimator time is overhead; estimating is a business function. Fuel follows the person.

The margin effect. Overhead miscoded into job cost inflates COGS and understates gross margin; the reverse overstates it. On a $4M contractor, one $120K estimator-and-admin payroll line in the wrong bucket moves reported gross margin three points, and every bid built on it inherits the error.

The COA structure. Six COGS accounts: Materials, Labor, Burden, Sub, Equipment, Other. Overhead kept separate.

Allocation. Shared costs like shop rent split between job storage and office get allocated on a rational basis. Document it.

THE FIX:
Apply direct attribution. Traces to a job = job cost. Otherwise overhead.

Code PM time to job cost when allocated; overhead when spread. Estimator always overhead.

Set up separate COGS and overhead accounts.

Allocate shared costs by a rational basis. Document the split.

Review gross margin monthly. Miscoding shows up as margin drift.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

10/04/2026

Your overhead is 22% of revenue. Your bid markup is 15%.

Every job you win loses money before it starts.

Here's the part that hides for years: markup and overhead feel like the same kind of number. They're not.

Markup is what you add on top of cost. Overhead is what it actually costs to keep the doors open. One lives in your estimating software, the other in your books, and nobody puts them side by side.

Watch one job.
Direct costs $500,000, plus 15% markup = a $575,000 bid. Looks profitable. Wins.

Then real overhead shows up. 22% of $575,000 is $126,500 for rent, insurance, admin, bonding, equipment, financing. The bid only carried $75,000 for it.

Shortfall: $51,500. The job started underwater before payroll, before a single change order.

A markup you've never checked isn't a profit margin. It's a guess that your overhead is lower than it is.

When did you last check your markup against what your overhead actually costs?

Book your free 48-hour audit from the link in bio.

If we miss the deadline, we work free for 30 days.

10/03/2026

Each bank rule matches transactions by condition and applies a category, payee, class, or project.

Rule 1: Fuel and vehicle. Description contains “Shell”, “Chevron”, “Fuel”. Category: Vehicle expense. Class: division that owns the fleet.

Rule 2: Supply houses, one rule per vendor. Home Depot, Lowe’s, your electrical or plumbing house. Category: Job Materials. Project assigned at review.

Rule 3: Payroll tax deposits. Description contains “EFTPS” or “IRS TAX”. Category: Payroll Tax Liability. Rules split by percentage or amount, so deposits can split across withholding, F**A, and FUTA.

Rule 4: Insurance premiums. Description contains the carrier name. Category: Insurance expense. Class: division owning the policy.

Rule 5: Bank fees and interest. Description contains “Service Charge”, “Wire Fee”, “Interest”. Category: Bank charges or Interest.

The 80% math. Of 340 weekly transactions, roughly 270 are recurring vendor types. Fuel, two supply houses, payroll tax, insurance, and bank fees cover that 270. The other 70 stay manual.

The auto-post switch. Rules carry an auto-post toggle that books transactions with no review. Leave it off; rules propose, the bookkeeper approves.

THE FIX:
Write 5 canonical rules first. Fuel, top supply house, payroll tax, insurance, bank fees.

Use Description contains, not exact match. Processors change the description week to week.

Assign class and project in the rule where fixed. Leave blank when they vary.

Review Excluded and Categorized tabs weekly.

Order matters. QBO applies the first match; put narrow rules above broad.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

10/02/2026

Books closeout means reconciling everything tied to the job before the status flips to closed. Eight items, in order:

Item 1: Final invoice issued and collected. Contract value plus all approved change orders billed, paid or in known collection.

Item 2: Retention released. Customer retention released per contract terms. Sub retention on your side released with lien waiver received.

Item 3: CO log reconciled to invoiced. Every CO on the log has an invoice number in QBO. Nothing unbilled.

Item 4: Sub AP paid. Every sub billed against the job has been paid. Lien waivers on file for each payment.

Item 5: WIP reconciled. Contract asset and contract liability balances zeroed for the job.

Item 6: Warranty reserve trued up. The accrual builds through the job as revenue is recognized, not at closeout. At closeout, check the balance against historical claim rates.

Item 7: Job P&L reviewed. Final gross margin compared to bid margin. Variance documented for the next bid.

Item 8: Job status changed in QBO. Mark completed, set a closing date with a password. Status is a filter; the closing date is what actually stops new charges from posting to the job.

THE FIX:
Run the 8-item checklist before flipping status to closed.

Reconcile contract liability and asset to zero. Non-zero balances signal missing work.

Release retention both sides. Sub retention paid with lien waiver.

Accrue warranty as the job earns revenue, not at closeout. True up at close.

Compare final margin to bid margin. Variance drives estimating improvement.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

09/30/2026

Percentage complete is the ratio that recognizes revenue and cost on jobs spanning accounting periods. The method chosen determines when revenue hits the P&L.

Cost-to-cost. Costs incurred divided by total estimated cost at completion. Most common for general construction. Breaks when a big material purchase spikes cost early and pushes the ratio ahead of actual physical progress on site.

Units-of-work. Units delivered divided by total contract units. Works for concrete yards, roofing squares, linear feet of pipe. Cleaner than cost-to-cost for unit-price contracts because units and revenue tie one-to-one.

Milestone. Revenue recognizes at physical completion points: foundation, framing, MEP rough-in, drywall, final. Milestones must track real physical progress, not the owner’s draw schedule. On a $3.2M job one milestone can swing a month’s revenue by $400K.

Why PM and bookkeeper diverge. The PM walks the site and estimates physical progress. The bookkeeper runs cost-to-cost math off the general ledger. Early material buys push the math ahead; labor-heavy phases push it behind. Monthly reconciliation catches the drift before it becomes a WIP problem.

Billed percentage separate. What you billed reflects the draw schedule agreed at contract signing. It does not drive revenue recognition and should not be confused with earned revenue.

THE FIX:
Pick one method per job at contract signing. Switching mid-job forces a cumulative catch-up, not a restatement.

Reconcile PM physical estimate to bookkeeper math monthly.

Keep billed separate from earned. Billing is cash timing, not revenue.

Update total estimated cost when scope changes.

Document the method on each job file. Auditors ask.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

09/29/2026

Equipment rate follows the cost recovery method in the Rental Rate Blue Book, the reference most contractors and state DOTs use for owned equipment.

The two buckets. Ownership: depreciation, financing, insurance, property tax, storage. Operating: fuel, oil, tires, undercarriage wear, repairs.

The math. Annual ownership divided by productive hours, plus operating per hour. The $85K excavator on a 7-year life depreciates $12K/year, financing $4K, insurance $1.5K, tax $500. At 1,200 productive hours, ownership is $18K/1,200 = $15/hour. Fuel at 4 gal/hr of off-road diesel (skips road tax, call it $6 against the $6.53 on-highway average) is $24/hour. Oil, wear, repairs add $16. Operating = $40/hour. True rate = $55/hour.

Productive hours matter as much as cost. At 800 hours: $22.50 plus $40 = $62.50/hour. At 1,600 hours: $11.25 plus $40 = $51.25/hour. Utilization moves the rate more than any other factor. Run both lines at your own off-road price and your own hours.

Why the rate matters. Bill $95 against a true $55 and the job carries $40/hour of cost it never incurred, while equipment books $40/hour of margin that is only an internal transfer. Run it the other way, bill $50 against a true $95, and the job looks profitable while equipment quietly eats the difference until year-end.

Fleet variation. A skid steer and an excavator are not one blended rate.

THE FIX:

Rate each major machine annually: ownership plus operating over productive hours.

Reprice when fuel or utilization moves. Both have moved hard this year.

Bill jobs at the true rate. Margin sits with the job.

Segregate equipment P&L. Shows whether the fleet pays its way.

Track productive hours, not calendar hours. Idle time recovers nothing.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

09/28/2026

Housecall Pro handles dispatching, mobile close-out, and payments. The QBO sync moves customer records, invoices, and payments to QBO.

Where the sync breaks. Tech marks a job “finished” instead of “invoiced”; the invoice never generates. Tech edits an invoice in Housecall after sync; the edit doesn’t push. Customer entered with a different name than QBO has; sync creates a duplicate.

The payment problem. Payments taken via Housecall Pro push to QBO. Payments taken at the office in QBO don’t push back, so Housecall AR shows amounts already collected.

Master data ownership. Pick which system owns customers. Housecall usually wins; QBO takes customers downstream and keeps the vendor list. At 400 calls a month, cleaning 40 broken invoices runs 6-8 hours, $400-600 of billable time monthly for a setup problem.

Invoice numbering. Both auto-number by default. Turn off QBO auto-numbering and let Housecall own the number.

THE FIX:
Train techs to move jobs to “invoiced” in the field. “Finished” doesn’t push.

Turn off QBO auto-invoice numbering. Housecall Pro owns invoice numbers.

Standardize customer entry in Housecall Pro. Naming matches QBO exactly.

Reconcile Housecall AR to QBO AR weekly. Discrepancies surface fast.

Confirm your Housecall Pro plan is Essentials or MAX. Sync works with any QBO plan; Housecall gates it.

We do a free 48-hour audit of your construction books. We review what you’ve got, flag where you’re exposed, and send back what it’s actually costing you, within 48 hours.

Comment “CLEANUP” and we will DM you the details.

This content is for educational purposes only. Every business is different. Before making any changes to your books, reach out to us for guidance specific to your situation.

FinTruction

10/09/2026

10/06/2026

10/05/2026

10/04/2026

10/04/2026

10/03/2026

10/02/2026

09/30/2026

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09/28/2026

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