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Contractor tax strategy and filing
Federal and state returns for your construction entity, planned all year rather than scrambled in March, so you pay what you owe and not a dollar more.
Procore runs your projects and QuickBooks holds your ledger. Neither one does your accounting or your taxes. We are the construction accounting layer on top: contractor tax strategy, WIP-based financial statements a bank or surety will accept, job profitability analysis, and CFO-level advisory, all built on numbers that tie back to Procore.
Procore is excellent at running the field. It tracks budget versus committed cost, change orders, owner invoices, and a real-time over/under view on every job. What it does not have is a general ledger, and it does not do accounting or taxes. There is no tax return coming out of Procore, no financial statement a lender will accept, and no strategy for how your entity should be taxed. Those are accounting jobs, and Procore was never built to do them. If you want the detail on where the platform stops, see does Procore replace QuickBooks.
So contractors reach for a CPA. The problem is that a generic CPA does not understand construction. They have never built a work in progress schedule, do not know percentage of completion from completed contract, have never dealt with retainage on a balance sheet or the look-back method, and have no idea how committed costs and cost codes flow from Procore into QuickBooks. They file a return that is technically correct and strategically blind, and they hand you financial statements your surety will not underwrite.
That is the gap this service fills. We are the accounting and tax layer that sits on top of a clean set of books. We know construction accounting cold, we work inside Procore and QuickBooks every day, and we treat the whole thing as one connected system rather than a project tool and a tax return that never speak to each other.
It helps to be precise about who does what. Bookkeeping is the day-to-day: coding every transaction to the right job and cost code, reconciling bank and credit card accounts, managing AP and AR, and closing the month. That is real, essential work, and it is a separate service. If that is what you need, start with Procore bookkeeping services.
The accountant layer sits on top of that closed, reconciled month and does the higher-level work: tax planning and filing built for contractors, year-end and entity structure, financial statements a bank or surety will accept, job profitability and margin analysis, and cash flow and CFO-level advisory. Bookkeeping tells you what happened. The accountant decides what to do about it, keeps the IRS bill legal and as low as it should be, and puts numbers in front of a lender that get you bonded.
You can hand us both, or you can keep your bookkeeper and add us as the accounting brain on top. Either way, the two layers have to agree, and they only agree when the person doing the accounting understands the Procore to QuickBooks handoff. When the codes underneath are a mess, no amount of tax planning fixes it, which is why we sometimes start with a cost code cleanup before anything else.
Trusted by 25+ Construction Businesses
Everything above the monthly close. This is the strategy, the tax work, and the reporting that decisions and lenders depend on.
Federal and state returns for your construction entity, planned all year rather than scrambled in March, so you pay what you owe and not a dollar more.
Percentage of completion versus completed contract, cash versus accrual, and the IRC section 460 long-term contract rules that decide when your income is taxed.
Work in progress schedules and financial statements a bank or surety will actually accept, built from a close that ties to Procore, not guessed at.
Bonding-ready statements and the WIP backup your surety underwriter asks for, presented the way they expect to see them.
Which jobs, project types, and crews actually make money once burden, overhead, and committed costs are counted, not just gross revenue.
Forecasting, draw and retention timing, overhead and pricing decisions, and a real read on whether growth is helping or hurting cash.
How the business should be taxed, owner compensation, and a clean year-end close that sets up the return instead of fighting it.
Nexus, apportionment, and filing across the states you build in, so expanding into a new state does not become a tax surprise.
Construction has its own tax code, and the choices are not academic. They decide how much you pay and when. A generalist who files your return the way they file a retail shop or a dental practice will usually leave money on the table or create a problem that surfaces two years later.
How you recognize revenue on long-term jobs changes your taxable income every year. Percentage of completion recognizes profit as the job progresses; the completed contract method defers it until the job is done. Which one you can use, and which one is smarter for you, depends on your size, your contract types, and your goals. Most contractors are not using the method that actually fits them.
The section 460 long-term contract rules govern how contracts that span more than one tax year are taxed, including the look-back method that trues up interest once a job closes. These rules trip up accountants who do not live in construction. We apply them correctly and plan around them rather than discovering them in an audit.
Cash versus accrual is not a coin flip for a contractor. Gross receipts thresholds, the type of contracts you sign, and the small contractor exceptions all steer the answer, and the right choice can shift a large tax bill from this year to next. We pick the method deliberately and revisit it as you grow.
None of this works on shaky numbers. Every one of these positions depends on a clean WIP schedule and job costs that reconcile to Procore, which is why our tax work and the WIP and over/under reporting underneath it are the same conversation. When the field and the books disagree, see why your Procore budget does not match QuickBooks, because a tax plan built on numbers that do not tie is not a plan.
A good general CPA is fine for a lot of businesses. Construction is not one of them, and Procore on top raises the bar again.
| What you need | Generic CPA | FinTruction |
|---|---|---|
| Understands WIP and over/under billing | Rarely | Every day |
| Picks the right tax method for contracts | Defaults to generic | Deliberate choice |
| Knows IRC 460 and look-back | Often not | Applied correctly |
| Handles retainage on the statements | Gets it wrong | Tracked correctly |
| Produces bonding-ready statements | Surety rejects them | Built for underwriting |
| Reads job profitability by cost code | Sees only the P&L total | Job by job |
| Works inside Procore and QuickBooks | Neither | Both |
| Gives CFO-level advice, not just a return | Files and disappears | Year-round |
Trusted by 25+ Construction Businesses
It starts with a free books Audit, so you see exactly what your current numbers can and cannot support before you commit.
We review your QuickBooks file, your Procore setup, and your last return. We look at how your job costs, WIP, and cost codes line up, and whether your financial statements would survive a lender or a surety. You get an honest read on what is solid and what is exposed, with no obligation.
Accounting sits on top of a reconciled close. If the books are behind or the cost codes are wrong, we fix that first, through our bookkeeping or cost code cleanup work, so the tax planning and statements stand on numbers that tie to Procore.
We set your revenue recognition and accounting methods deliberately, plan the year rather than react to it, and map out the entity and owner-compensation structure that fits how you actually operate and grow.
We produce WIP-based financial statements your bank and surety will accept, and we break down job profitability so you can see which work, crews, and project types make money once everything is counted.
We stay on as your accounting brain: quarterly check-ins, cash flow and pricing conversations, bonding support, and a return at year-end that is the calm result of a plan, not a fire drill. You build. We keep the numbers strategic.
Not a once-a-year return from someone who forgot your name. A construction accounting partner who knows your jobs and your systems.
Tell us how you run Procore and where your accounting and taxes stop making sense. We will Audit your books against your Procore jobs, look at your last return, and show you exactly what a construction accountant would do differently, at no cost and no obligation.
You keep your QuickBooks and your Procore. We bring the construction accounting, the tax strategy, and the advisory that sit on top.
Get a Free Books AuditProcore runs your projects and tracks budget versus committed cost, but it has no general ledger and does no accounting or taxes. It cannot file a return, produce a financial statement a lender will accept, or tell you how your entity should be taxed. A Procore accountant does that higher-level work: tax strategy and filing, WIP-based financial statements, job profitability analysis, and CFO-level advisory, all built on numbers that tie back to your Procore jobs.
Bookkeeping is the day-to-day: coding transactions to the right job and cost code, reconciling accounts, managing AP and AR, and closing the month. The accountant layer sits on top of that closed month and handles tax strategy, entity structure, financial statements, profitability analysis, and advisory. Bookkeeping tells you what happened. The accountant decides what to do about it and keeps your tax bill correct and as low as it legally should be.
A generalist can file a technically correct return, but construction has its own rules that most CPAs never touch. They rarely understand WIP, percentage of completion versus completed contract, retainage on the balance sheet, IRC section 460 long-term contract rules, or the look-back method. They also do not know how costs flow from Procore into QuickBooks. The result is a return that is strategically blind and statements a surety will not underwrite.
They are two ways to recognize revenue on long-term jobs. Percentage of completion recognizes profit as the job progresses, so income is taxed along the way. The completed contract method defers profit until the job is finished. Which one you can use, and which is smarter for you, depends on your size, your contract types, and your goals. Many contractors are not on the method that actually fits them.
Yes. That is a core reason contractors come to us. We produce WIP-based financial statements and the work in progress schedule backup that lenders and surety underwriters expect, presented the way they want to see it. Because the statements are built from a close that reconciles to Procore, the numbers hold up under underwriting instead of falling apart under questions.
No. You can hand us both the bookkeeping and the accounting, or you can keep your existing bookkeeper and add us as the accounting and tax layer on top. Either way the two layers have to agree, which only happens when the person doing the accounting understands the Procore to QuickBooks handoff. If your current books are shaky, we will tell you during the free Audit.
Yes. If you build in more than one state, we handle the nexus, apportionment, and filing that come with it, and we plan for a new state before it becomes a tax surprise. FinTruction is based in Coppell, Texas, and works with contractors across the United States remotely.
We review your QuickBooks file, your Procore setup, and your last return. We check how your job costs, WIP, and cost codes line up, whether your financial statements would survive a lender or surety, and where your tax position is exposed. You get a clear, honest read on what is solid and what needs work before you commit to anything, with no obligation.
No. FinTruction is based in Coppell, Texas, and works with commercial general contractors, specialty subcontractors, and construction firms across the United States. Accounting, tax strategy, WIP statements, and Procore and QuickBooks work are all handled remotely.
Real results from contractors we have helped untangle their books and systems.
They didn’t just record transactions and call it a day. They built a custom chart of accounts around how a remodeling company actually runs, did a full catch-up on years of bookkeeping inside QuickBooks Online, and now stay on top of my monthly bookkeeping and payroll. Every step, they broke it down in simple terms instead of burying me in accountant talk.
FinTruction rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up, with real job costing, work in progress, and retainage. They didn’t just hand me reports and disappear; they walked me through my numbers until I understood them.
Sahil and his team handle the bookkeeping and job costing for my painting business. They cleaned up my books and set up integrations that give me accurate, timely job costing with solid weekly data. Reliable, detailed, and genuinely invested in getting the numbers right.
FinTruction is the only bookkeeping team we’ve found that truly understands construction accounting and WIP reporting. They aligned our income and costs across 21 jobs and gave us full, monthly transparency. Fast, accurate, and an indispensable partner.
When I came to FinTruction I had no financial structure. No job costing, no WIP tracking, books behind. They did a full cleanup and rebuilt job costing and WIP tracking in QuickBooks. Now I know what’s billed, what’s owed, and where every job stands.
A couple of minutes from a contractor we support, sharing what working with FinTruction has been like and what changed once their numbers finally made sense.
Start with a free books Audit. We will show you what your current numbers can and cannot support, and how a construction accountant would fix it. No obligation.
