Construction Bookkeeping in Fort Lauderdale, FL

That is the normal Fort Lauderdale file, and yes. The problem here is almost never a hard job, it is the count: twenty or thirty live addresses, each producing supplier tickets, dump fees, a permit charge, a sub invoice and a handful of card swipes. We code weekly rather than monthly, so a tile order for a Coral Ridge bathroom does not land on a Rio Vista pool deck, and we attach the job number at entry instead of guessing at it in the following month. Volume is a rhythm problem, and a rhythm is something you can actually fix.

Because it gates the permit and it expires. Under section 713.135, Florida Statutes, when a permit is required and the direct contract is greater than 5,000 dollars, the issuing authority must have a copy of the recorded notice of commencement on file before the first inspection. A notice of commencement is generally effective for one year from recording unless a longer period is stated, and payments an owner makes after it expires are treated as improper payments. On a job that stretches, that date matters. We keep the recording date and the expiration date in the job record so nobody discovers it at inspection.

Section 713.20, Florida Statutes prescribes statutory waiver and release forms, one for a progress payment and one for final payment, and a lienor cannot be required to furnish a waiver that is not substantially in the statutory form. So the practical answer is that the form your general contractor invented is not automatically enforceable, and the form your sub sent may not be either. We standardize which form goes with which payment, keep the executed originals filed against the job and the pay period, and flag the sub who is short a waiver before the next check is cut.

By default, yes, which is the part that costs people money. A waiver executed in exchange for a check operates on its face when signed. Section 713.20(7) allows a lienor who is handed a check to condition the waiver on payment of that check, which is how a conditional waiver is created in Florida. That single choice belongs in your accounts payable procedure, not in a lawyer memo, because it decides what happens if the check bounces or the payment is reversed. We record which waivers were taken conditionally and which were not, so exposure is visible.

Under section 713.06(3)(d), Florida Statutes, a contractor in privity with the owner must execute a final payment affidavit and deliver it to the owner at least five days before starting an action to enforce a lien. It states that the work is done and lists every unpaid lienor and the amount owed, or states that all lienors have been paid. Courts treat it as a condition precedent, so a late one can end an otherwise perfect lien claim. The list it requires is a bookkeeping product. If your subcontractor payable ledger is accurate by job, the affidavit takes twenty minutes.

Very likely. Section 713.015, Florida Statutes requires a specific lien law notice, in at least 12-point capitalized boldface type, in any direct contract greater than 2,500 dollars between an owner and a contractor for improvements to dwellings up to and including four units, signed and dated by the owner. That threshold catches almost every kitchen, bath, pool and reroof contract written in Fort Lauderdale. We are not attorneys and we do not draft your contracts. What we do is keep the signed contract, the dated notice page and the change orders attached to the job file so the record exists.

There is, and it starts from a date only your books know. Section 489.126, Florida Statutes provides that a contractor receiving an initial payment of more than ten percent of the contract price on residential repair, improvement or construction must apply for the necessary permits within thirty days of that payment, and start the work within ninety days after the permits are issued, absent just cause or a written agreement to a longer period. We record customer deposits as a liability with the receipt date, not as revenue, and report the deposits that are approaching those windows.

Broward County has thirty-one municipalities, and most of them run their own building department with their own fee schedule, portal and inspection process. A contractor whose work sits between Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Pompano Beach, Hollywood, Plantation, Davie and Sunrise is paying eight different fee structures. Permit fees, impact fees, plan review charges and reinspection fees are direct job cost, not office overhead, and reinspection fees in particular are the number that tells you which crew is costing you money. We code them to the job the day they are paid.

They should be, because they are a recurring fixed cost on a fixed cycle. Florida licenses contractors through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and Broward County additionally runs Central Examining Boards for general and building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and liquefied petroleum gas trades, which issue local Certificates of Competency and require proof of insurance. Renewals, continuing education, bonds and liability premiums recur every year. Coded consistently to overhead, they feed a burden rate you can bid against. Scattered into miscellaneous expense, they quietly make every estimate you write too cheap.

Bookkeeping is the weekly and monthly mechanics: coding every cost to a job and a cost code, running accounts payable and receivable, collecting waivers before payment, processing payroll onto jobs, reconciling every account and closing the month on a fixed date. Accounting sits on top of clean books and adds WIP, over and underbilling, statements a surety or bank will lend against, and tax planning. Most Fort Lauderdale contractors start here. Sahil Ahmad, CPA reviews the work. Begin with the free Audit: send your file and your last bank statement and we will tell you what is actually broken.