Melville, New York · Accounting organized by industry☎ (631) 349-1661 · [email protected]
Industry practice

Construction Job Costing & WIP Accounting Services

Precision Accounting & Consulting is based in Melville, New York and works with clients nationwide.

Most New York contractors don’t lose money because they bid badly. They lose it because they can’t see, in real time, which jobs are making money and which are quietly bleeding. Precision Accounting & Consulting builds construction job costing and work-in-progress (WIP) reporting systems that turn your accounting into a management tool—so you know the true cost and true margin of every job before it’s too late to do anything about it.

What we do

We set up and run job-cost accounting and WIP reporting for New York contractors: cost-code structures, committed-cost tracking, labor burden, percentage-of-completion revenue, over/under billing analysis, and bonding-ready financial statements. Whether your books are in QuickBooks, Sage, Foundation, or another platform, we make job costing accurate, current, and usable.

Job costing and WIP built for how contractors actually work

Job costing only helps if it reflects the field. We build cost structures around your real trades, phases, and cost types—labor, materials, equipment, subcontractors, and other—so every dollar lands where it belongs. Then we layer on the WIP schedule that ties it all together: earned revenue, billings, and the over/under billing position that tells you whether you’re financing the owner or the owner is financing you.

Our construction job costing and WIP services include:

  • Cost-code and job-cost structure design tailored to your trades and reporting needs
  • Committed-cost tracking for subcontracts and purchase orders so future costs are visible early
  • Accurate labor burden allocation (taxes, insurance, benefits, prevailing wage supplements)
  • Percentage-of-completion revenue recognition and monthly WIP schedules
  • Over/under billing analysis to protect cash flow
  • Change-order tracking integrated into contract value and cost budgets
  • Bonding-ready financial statements your surety and lender will trust
  • Job profitability reporting by project, project manager, and job type

The problems we solve

Contractors come to us saying things like:

  • “My P&L says we’re profitable, but there’s never any cash.”
  • “I don’t find out a job lost money until it’s finished.”
  • “My bonding company wants a WIP schedule and I don’t have a clean one.”
  • “I think we’re under-billing but I can’t prove it.”
  • “Every job’s costs land in one big bucket—I can’t tell my winners from my losers.”
  • “My change orders never make it onto the books until closeout.”

Each of these is a job-costing and WIP problem, and each is fixable with the right structure and monthly discipline.

Why a construction accounting specialist matters

General bookkeepers treat a contractor like any other business—income here, expenses there. But construction runs on contracts, retainage, committed costs, labor burden, and percentage-of-completion accounting that most bookkeepers never touch. Getting WIP wrong doesn’t just distort your financials; it can cost you bonding capacity, mislead your bidding, and hide losses until they’re locked in. We do this every day for New York contractors, and we know how sureties, lenders, and the numbers behind a strong bid actually work.

How we work

  1. Assess. We review your current books, cost coding, and contracts to find where job costing breaks down.
  2. Structure. We design a cost-code and WIP framework that fits your trades and reporting needs.
  3. Implement. We clean up open jobs, set labor burden, and build the WIP schedule in your system.
  4. Report. You get monthly job-cost and WIP reporting that shows margin, over/under billing, and cash position by job.
  5. Advise. We meet with you to translate the numbers into bidding, billing, and cash-flow decisions.

Serving New York contractors

Precision Accounting & Consulting is based in Melville, NY and works with contractors across Long Island, New York City, Westchester, and the broader New York area—general contractors, subcontractors, and specialty trades on both private and public work. We understand New York’s prevailing wage, sales-tax, and bonding realities, and we build your job costing to account for them.

Frequently asked questions

What is construction job costing?

Job costing tracks the revenue and all costs—labor, materials, equipment, subcontractors, and overhead—of each individual job, so you can see the true profit of every project rather than just company-wide totals.

What is a WIP schedule and why do I need one?

A work-in-progress schedule compares each job’s costs incurred, estimated total cost, contract value, earned revenue, and amounts billed. It reveals whether you’re over- or under-billed and is essential for accurate financials and for bonding.

Can you work with my existing accounting software?

Yes. We work in QuickBooks, Sage, Foundation, and other construction platforms. In many cases we can dramatically improve job costing without switching your software.

Will this help me get bonding?

Clean, accurate WIP schedules and financial statements are exactly what sureties want to see. Better reporting can support and expand your bonding capacity, though bonding decisions ultimately rest with your surety.

How often will I see job-cost reports?

Monthly at minimum, with WIP updated each period. For contractors with many active jobs, more frequent reporting keeps decisions ahead of problems rather than behind them.

See your true job margins

Stop finding out a job lost money after it’s over. Precision Accounting & Consulting will build job costing and WIP reporting that show you exactly where you stand on every project. Contact us to talk through your jobs, or explore our related guides on construction job costing and WIP schedules and percentage of completion.

This page is general information for New York contractors and is not tax, legal, or accounting advice for your specific situation. Consult a qualified professional before acting.