Bookkeeping & Financial Services for HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Contractors
We're not a general bookkeeper who also happens to take a few contractors. Trades is the only thing we do. So when you hand us the books, you get people who already know what a fully-burdened labor rate is, why the deposit sitting in your account isn't profit yet, and how ServiceTitan revenue is supposed to land in QuickBooks. Everything below is what that looks like month to month.
Every new relationship starts the same way with a free Profit Leak Audit, not a contract.
We cap our roster on purpose. You'll know the person doing your books, and they'll know your shop.
Monthly Bookkeeping — Your Financial Back Office
This is the core of what we do: clean, current books, plus the reporting to actually run the business on. Not a shoebox reconciled once a year for the IRS but a live picture you can make decisions from.
Booked against a real trades chart of accounts, with COGS split into materials, labor, subs, and permits not one "expenses" bucket.
Every balance sheet account tied out so nothing drifts and revenue never quietly goes missing.
Every purchase captured through Dext, so you're not hoarding a glovebox full of receipts.
ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, or Jobber reconciled to QuickBooks, so what the field booked matches what the bank shows.
Subs tracked all year and W-9s collected before they're paid, so year-end isn't a scramble.
Reports you can actually read in plain English.
A clear read on what's coming and going, so payroll week stops being a white-knuckle surprise.
One person who knows your shop not a rotating pool that re-learns you every month.
What's in each tier, and how often we reconcile and report, scales with your size. See the plans on our Pricing page.
Add-ons are priced separately, scoped during your diagnostic (not every shop needs these):
Accounts Payable: we manage vendor bills and payments so nothing slips and you protect the vendor terms that are floating your materials.
Payroll support: we coordinate with and support your payroll provider (Gusto, Patriot, ADP, and the like). We don't run payroll ourselves, and we're not going to pretend we can out-compete the payroll giants at it.
Cleanup / Catch-Up: behind or messy? That's the norm, not the exception. Learn more about this service here.
New integration setup: getting your FSM wired to QuickBooks the right way the first time.
Job Costing, Done For You
Job costing is where most trades shops get hurt, and where most bookkeepers tap out. Below ServiceTitan size, on QuickBooks Online, there's no clean off-the-shelf answer and that's unfortunately a gap in the currently available tools and not something you missed.
What we do is set up and run the version that actually fits your software stack, instead of selling you a fantasy:
On QBO Projects: The budget option. It works, but it needs managing so it doesn't turn into an open bucket that clutters your books. We keep it disciplined.
On Jobber or Housecall Pro: We enter actual material costs against the job so the profitability picture lives where you work. It won't sync back to QuickBooks (that's double entry), but it's still worth doing to stay on top of margin.
On ServiceTitan: Native, PO-driven job costing built into the job flow. Here the headache mostly goes away, and we make sure it's set up to actually report.
Want the honest, tool-by-tool breakdown of how job costing works at every stage: QBO Projects vs. Jobber/HCP vs. ServiceTitan? We wrote it all out here: HVAC Bookkeeping by Stage → The Honest Truth About Job Costing.
Cleanup & Catch-Up
Most books we're handed are a mess. Commingled accounts, miscoded deposits, a year of "I'll fix it later." No judgment from us. It's the norm.
Cleanup is where we find what's actually going on and fix it. In client diagnostics alone we've surfaced things like $1.6M in customer payments that never made it onto one shop's books and $1.5M of income sitting uncategorized. You can't run a business on numbers that wrong and you can't sell it or borrow against it either.
Start Here: The Financial Leak Detection
The Profit Leak Audit is free. It's a no-pressure call to learn your shop, look at where the money's going, and see if we're a fit. No commitment, no cost.
The Financial Leak Detection is the deeper diagnostic every new client runs before we quote anything. We dig into your actual books and produce a 14–20 page report of every error, leak, and risk we find, with a prioritized plan to fix them and a real monthly price instead of a guess we'd have to walk back. Then we sit down with you and make sure both the cleanup and the ongoing monthly are the solution you actually want before anyone signs anything.
That diagnostic-and-alignment step is the whole reason we can quote a real number and set real expectations. It's modeled on the best cleanup diagnostics in the profession, then taken a step further with the alignment meeting.
Advisory That Comes With the Books
As your books get clean and stay clean, we help you read them. We commonly can help determine where margin's leaking, what you should be charging, when you can actually afford the next truck or the next hire. This isn't a separate product you buy. It comes with doing your bookkeeping, because numbers you can't act on aren't worth much. We take on advisory for the shops whose books we keep, not as a stand-alone service.
What We Don't Do
We'd rather be straight about our lane than overpromise:
We don't file taxes. We keep your books accurate and coordinate directly with your tax preparer so filing is clean and you're not overpaying.
We don't run payroll. Nobody beats the ADPs and Gustos of the world at it. We support and coordinate with your provider so the numbers land right in your books.
We don't chase your customers. AR and collections stay with you.
We don't work outside the trades. HVAC, plumbing, and electrical only. Staying in one lane is exactly why we're good at it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's included in your monthly bookkeeping for contractors?
Every month we categorize your transactions against a real trades chart of accounts, reconcile your bank, credit card, and loan accounts, capture receipts and documents, sync and reconcile your field service software to QuickBooks, track 1099s, and deliver financial statements with an optional live or prerecorded video walk through. How often we reconcile and report scales with your plan.
How is a trades bookkeeper different from a regular bookkeeper?
A generalist treats your HVAC shop like a coffee shop with a truck. Meaning materials and labor dumped in one bucket, payroll as a single line, and no idea how to map ServiceTitan or Jobber to QuickBooks. We split COGS the way trades work actually behaves, calculate your fully-burdened labor rate, reconcile your field software to your bank, and hand you reports you can make decisions from. We can also leverage all of our inhouse data to isolate P&L issues with industry comparisons.
Can you set up job costing for my HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business?
Yes, and the setup depends on your software. On QuickBooks Online we can run QBO Projects; on Jobber or Housecall Pro we enter actual costs against the job; on ServiceTitan we use its native, PO-driven costing.
Do you do taxes or run payroll?
No to both, by design. We don't file taxes. We keep your books accurate and coordinate with your tax preparer.
We don't run payroll. We support and coordinate with your provider so it lands correctly in your books.
How do I get started, and what does it cost?
Start with a free Profit Leak Audit. If it's a fit, the next step is our Financial Leak Detection, a deeper diagnostic that produces a 14–20 page findings report, a custom tailored solution, and a real monthly price. Ongoing plans start at $600/mo; the full breakdown is on our pricing page.
Related Resources
Let's Find the Money Your Books Are Hiding
Wherever you are in your journey, whether that's your first truck or fifteen, it starts with a free Profit Leak Audit. We'll look at where your money's going and tell you honestly whether we're a fit.
Want the numbers first? → See Pricing
90-Day Moneyback Guarantee
We stand by our work—no excuses, no fine print. If you're not 100% satisfied within the first 90 days, we'll refund up to 50% of one-time investments or 100% of recurring service fees. Your success is our priority, and we’re confident in delivering results that matter.
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