Guides and deep dives on construction accounting — written for specialty trade contractors, not accountants.
March 15, 2026
By Daniel Jahn, CPA — Contractor’s Ledger
If you’re a specialty trade contractor doing commercial work, there’s a good chance your bonding company, your bank, or a GC you’re trying to prequalify with has asked whether your financials are prepared using the percentage-of-completion method.
This guide explains what percentage-of-completion (POC) accounting is, how it compares to the cash-basis or completed-contract approaches most small contractors use, and why it matters for your bonding, banking, and financial decision-making.
March 8, 2026
By Daniel Jahn, CPA — Contractor’s Ledger
Every HVAC contractor knows the rhythm: slow in winter, slammed in summer, a brief surge in fall. The revenue swings between your best months and your worst can be dramatic — sometimes 3:1 or wider. Managing cash through that cycle is one of the defining financial challenges of the HVAC business.
This guide covers the practical strategies that help HVAC contractors stop getting caught off guard by the slow season and start managing cash flow proactively.
March 1, 2026
By Daniel Jahn, CPA — Contractor’s Ledger
Two of the most misunderstood concepts in construction accounting are overbilling and underbilling. Many specialty trade contractors have heard these terms from their surety agent or bonding company but aren’t entirely sure what they mean — or why they matter so much.
This guide breaks down both concepts clearly, explains how they affect your cash flow and financial statements, and walks through what surety underwriters think when they see your overbilling/underbilling position.
February 22, 2026
By Daniel Jahn, CPA — Contractor’s Ledger
Most specialty trade contractors can tell you how much the company made last year. Very few can tell you which specific jobs drove that profit — and which ones quietly lost money.
That’s a job costing problem. And it’s one of the most expensive problems a contractor can have, because without job-level profitability data, every new bid is based on gut feel instead of actual performance.
February 15, 2026
By Daniel Jahn, CPA — Contractor’s Ledger
If you do any work on public construction projects — schools, government buildings, infrastructure, publicly funded housing — you’ve likely encountered the term “certified payroll.” For many specialty trade contractors, certified payroll is one of the most confusing and time-consuming compliance requirements they face.
This guide explains what certified payroll is, who it applies to, what’s required, and how to stay compliant without it becoming a full-time job.
February 8, 2026
By Daniel Jahn, CPA — Contractor’s Ledger
Every specialty trade contractor reaches a point where bonding capacity becomes the ceiling on business growth. You want to bid a $2M project, but your bond line only supports $800K. Or you apply for a bond and get declined because your financials don’t tell a story the surety underwriter can approve.
Getting bonded — and increasing your bond line over time — is fundamentally a financial documentation problem. This guide explains what surety underwriters look for, how your financials need to be structured, and what contractors can do to improve their bonding position.
February 1, 2026
By Daniel Jahn, CPA — Contractor’s Ledger
A WIP schedule — short for Work in Progress schedule — is one of the most important financial documents a specialty trade contractor produces. Yet most contractors either don’t have one, don’t know what it’s supposed to show, or are producing one that their surety underwriter can’t use.
This guide explains exactly what a WIP schedule is, why it matters, and what goes into one that actually works for your bonding company, your bank, and your own decision-making.
