Construction accounting that tells you whether the job made money

Have I billed everything I have built?

Rationale Services tracks progress billing against work completed, job by job. Each billing is recorded against the cost already incurred on that job, so under-billing shows up as a gap rather than as a cash shortage you discover later. You see which jobs are billed ahead of the work and which are behind it.

Under-billing is the quietest way for a profitable contractor to run out of money. The work is done, the cost is paid, the invoice has not gone out, and the next payroll still arrives. Reporting billings against cost on every open job turns that into a list someone can act on this week. It also stops the opposite problem, where cash from billing ahead is mistaken for profit and spent.

Where is my retainage, and when will I see it?

Rationale Services records retainage separately from ordinary receivables, by job and by customer, so held-back money is visible rather than buried in a single total. You can see how much is outstanding, which jobs it belongs to, and how long each amount has been held.

Retainage lumped into receivables makes your collections look worse than they are and your available cash look better. Separating it gives you two honest numbers: what you should be chasing now, and what is held pending completion. When the amounts are listed by job, with the dates, the conversation about releasing them becomes specific. We keep what each agreement actually says attached to the record.

How should equipment cost be charged to jobs?

Rationale Services allocates equipment cost to jobs on a basis you agree with us — usually hours or days used — and then applies it the same way every period. Purchase cost, finance payments, fuel, repairs and insurance are gathered per machine, then charged out to the work that used it.

Equipment left in overhead makes every job look more profitable than it is and makes the overhead line look out of control. Charging it out tells you whether a machine earns its keep, whether renting would be cheaper than owning it, and which jobs are genuinely equipment-heavy. Consistency matters more than precision here: an allocation applied the same way all year produces comparable job results.

Can you run payroll across crews, jobs and changing sites?

Yes. Rationale Services runs payroll for contractors with crews moving between jobs, hourly and salaried staff, overtime, and multiple pay rates. Hours come in by job, so labor cost lands on the job that used it and your job costing stays accurate rather than being reconstructed afterwards.

The critical detail is capturing hours against the job at the point they are worked. Once that habit exists, payroll and job costing become the same data instead of two systems that disagree. We will set up the collection method with you, document it, and keep it stable, and our part is making sure the records are complete.

Can you take on a subcontractor-heavy business?

Yes. Rationale Services handles subcontractor-heavy builds: costing their invoices to the right job and phase, tracking what has been approved against what has been billed, keeping their documentation on file, and reporting subcontractor cost as a share of each job.

When most of the work is placed with others, the risks move from labor to paperwork. Invoices arrive late, get coded to the wrong job, or are paid without being matched to what was approved. We put a matching process in place and report committed cost alongside incurred cost, so a job's final position is visible before the last invoices land rather than after.

What does construction accounting cost?

It depends on the number of open jobs, how many trades and crews are involved, whether payroll and job costing are both in scope, and the state of your current records. Rationale Services scopes that with you rather than quoting from a list. See how we work.