Concrete work is equipment-intensive, weather-dependent, and margin-thin. Your cost structure is unlike almost any other trade — material delivery timing, pour scheduling, form rental, finishing labor — and your financials need to reflect that complexity or your numbers will lie to you.
Contractor’s Ledger works exclusively with specialty trade contractors. We understand concrete accounting from the ground up, and we set up your books to give you real visibility into job-level profitability.
The Financial Challenges Concrete Contractors Face
Equipment-heavy cost structure. Concrete contractors own or rent a significant amount of equipment — pump trucks, finishing machines, forms, saws, mixers. Whether you own or rent, that equipment cost needs to be properly tracked and allocated to jobs. If you’re buying, we maintain your fixed asset schedule and depreciation. If you’re renting, we make sure those costs hit the right job.
Material delivery timing and cost tracking. Concrete is typically purchased by the yard from a ready-mix supplier, but material costs don’t always align neatly with when you invoice. We track material costs per job — including waste and over-ordering — so your job margins reflect reality.
Weather-driven revenue patterns. In most markets, concrete work is seasonal. A wet spring or hard winter can compress your revenue schedule significantly. We build cash flow projections that account for your actual seasonal patterns so you’re planning ahead, not reacting when the slow months hit.
Job costing for multiple concrete scopes. Flatwork, foundations, tilt-up, structural, decorative, and site work all have different cost profiles and margins. If your books lump them together, you can’t tell which work is profitable and which isn’t. We set up separate job cost categories for each scope type.
Certified payroll for public projects. Public infrastructure work — roads, bridges, government buildings, public schools — typically triggers prevailing wage and certified payroll requirements. We process certified payroll accurately and on time. See our contractor payroll services.
Bonding for larger commercial and public work. Concrete contractors pursuing public bid work or larger commercial GC relationships need bonding — and bonding requires clean financial statements and often a WIP schedule. We prepare bonding-ready financials and WIP schedules formatted for surety review.
Subcontractor cost tracking. Many concrete operations use labor-only subs for specific work types. We track subcontract costs per job and handle 1099 reporting at year-end.
What We Deliver for Concrete Contractors
- Monthly books closed by the 5th, job-coded by scope type
- Equipment depreciation and fixed asset schedule maintenance
- Material cost tracking per job with waste and over-ordering visibility
- Seasonal cash flow projections based on your actual revenue patterns
- Phase-level job costing matched to your estimating structure
- Certified payroll for prevailing wage and public infrastructure projects
- WIP schedules for commercial contracts and bonding requirements
- Bonding-ready financial packages for public bid and commercial prequalification
- Subcontractor 1099 tracking and year-end filing
Who We Work With
Our concrete contractor clients range from small residential flatwork and foundation shops to established commercial concrete subs handling tilt-up, structural, and public infrastructure. Most are in the $500K to $7M revenue range. The common thread: they need job-level financial visibility that a general bookkeeper can’t provide.
Common Questions From Concrete Contractors
How do you track equipment costs when I both own and rent? Owned equipment runs through your fixed asset schedule with depreciation allocated to jobs. Rented equipment is tracked as a direct job cost per the rental agreement and invoice. Both show up in your job cost reports so you can see total equipment expense per project.
My revenue varies a lot month to month — can you help me plan for that? Yes. We build a 12-month cash flow projection based on your backlog, your expected pour schedule, and your historical seasonal patterns. This gives you a forward-looking view of cash so you can make hiring, equipment, and credit decisions proactively.
What does a WIP schedule look like for a concrete operation? For concrete contractors doing longer-duration commercial work, a WIP schedule tracks each open contract’s estimated value, costs to date, percentage complete, and billed-to-date position. It shows where you’ve overbilled or underbilled relative to work performed. Read our WIP schedule guide for a detailed explanation.
Let’s Look at Your Concrete Contractor Books
We’ll review your current setup, your equipment cost tracking, and what your financials look like to a bonding company — for free.
Get your free financial review →
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