If you are a contractor you know how to get the work done. At the end of your day when your body is tired, your muscles are aching and you are too tired to move is when you ask yourself three simple questions:

#1 Am I making money or losing money?

#2 Which jobs and customers are making me money?

#3 Which jobs and customers are costing me money?

Every Complex Question Has Two Answers

#1 Is Simple And Wrong

#2 Is Hard And Right

The Simple Answer Is to keep doing what you have always done and continue getting what you have always got. Don't pay any attention to your financial and job costing reports until it is time to file your annual taxes and gasp in dismay and horror while asking what happened?

It is as story of two guys living in a farming community started a business buying and selling bales of hay. They had a large truck and would buy 100-pound bales the hay, load them up it and make deliveries to their customers. They bought and sold 500 bales of hay every day.

After a month one partner said to the other "If we buy a bale of hay for $10.00 and sell it for $10.00 we need a bigger truck if we are going to make any money!"

We see a lot of contractors, men and women with good hearts; good intentions and very intelligent doing something similar day-in-and-day-out and it cause us a lot of pain because we know there is a better way.

The Hard Answer Is early to bed, early to rise know your numbers and advertise. Knowing your numbers is painful! It hurts your brain for a short while because you are using a part of your brain that may have been sitting idle for a long while. Unless you are a recent university graduate and you studied hard and applied yourself.

The following is a simple Step-By-Step Process to get you started:

Step #1 - Ask your bookkeeper or accountant or better yet your construction accountant for three reports Profit & Loss Enhanced, Balance Sheet Enhanced and Profit & Loss By Job. And you can see samples of them at http://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/blog/we-fix-quickbooks-job-costing-reports-problems

There is a lot of information contained in each of these reports and like anything new if it is the first time you have seen them there will be a considerable amount to digest and understand.

We find that even contractors with highly skilled financial backgrounds have a bit of trouble understanding these reports because of the vast differences between Construction Accounting and Regular Accounting. The good news is any contractor who invests a small amount of time and money will be amazed at how much wealth can be gained from it.

My advice is spend a few minutes and look at them casually and then wait an hour or more and check them again. Repeat the process by reviewing them every day for 10-15 minutes and make notes about anything that looks interesting. Then set an appointment with your accountant and spend some time discussing them and asking questions.

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

Would You Rather Walk Barefoot Across Hot Coals Than Do Paperwork?

If this describes you just know you are not alone. Most contractors would rather do anything including work in the rain, sleet, hail or windstorm than do the bookkeeping.

You started your construction or contracting company, house building firm, handyman business or your specialty contracting company to build, remodel, repair homes, commercial spaces and other structures not be a desk jockey!

Did someone say you need to do all the bookkeeping in order to be a successful contractor? If so ask yourself are they a successful contractor? Chances are they're not!

Successful contractors outsource their bookkeeping to a construction accounting service and spend their valuable time reading and understanding what the Financial and Job Costing Reports are telling them so they can make informed decisions.

Bohunk Bob's Story May Interest You:

________________________________________

Bohunk Bob (Not His Real Name) Is A Typical Contractor Who Is Sick And Tired Of:

• Working long hours in all kinds of weather in wet clothes, using broken tools and worn out equipment.

• Dealing with hardnosed, cheap, ungrateful customers who want more, pay less and pay late, if at all.

• Putting up with whining, sniveling, lazy employees who arrive late and leave early to make up for it.

• Suppliers and vendors who move slower than molasses in the dead of winter, at night, on a frozen lake in a blizzard.

• Feeling like he is running on an endless treadmill and getting nowhere fast.

• In trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, Employment Security or Sales Tax agency.

• Trying to convince the bank to loan him money to take some of the financial pressure off or expand his business.

• And a thousand and one other problems and pressures that are driving him crazy.

IF YOU KNOW THE ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS WILL NOT BOTHER YOU - Randalism

When you're driving you don't need to know how the truck was put together; you just need Five Key Performance Indicators:

1. Speedometer

2. Tachometer

3. Fuel Supply

4. Oil Pressure

5. Water Temperature

For your contracting company you don't need to know construction accounting you need Five Key Performance Indicators:

1. Cash On Hand

2. Cash To Come In

3. Cash To Go Out

4. Profit & Loss

5. Balance Sheet

You are all about getting things done, not running on an endless treadmill of mundane; mind numbing, paper heading and pencil pushing geek work. If someone told you that in order to own and operate a successful construction and contracting company you had do all of the paper work they were wrong.

Your Contractors Bookkeeping Has To Get Done But You Don't Have To Do It!

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

All Contractors will experience embezzlement at some point in their business life if they stay in it long enough. How much money will be lost is easy to predict if you know what to look for.

Group #01 Contractors Who Have Experienced Embezzlement immediately outsource the bookkeeping to a reliable, trustworthy Contractors Bookkeeping Service. The owner pays the bills and has controls in place controlling access to the money

Group #02 Contractors Who Have Not Experienced Embezzlement

want someone else to pay the bills. They are holding a sign "I’m stupid to pay my bills and embezzle as much of my money as you want!

When a Contractor asks if we will pay their bills as part of our Outsourced Contractor Bookkeeping Services we just say NO!

If you let someone else "Pay The Bills" without controls in place embezzlement will happen. After contractors are victimized that is when they put restrictions in place.

When Do Most People Buy A Burglar Alarm? After Being Robbed, Not Before!

Before giving your bookkeeper or Outsourced Contractor Bookkeeping Service access to your money review the list of the twenty-one signs of bookkeeper embezzlement:

#01 You Hired A Bad Bookkeeper

#02 Employee Theft 10-10-80 Rule

#03 Bookkeeper asks for signature authority on checking accounts

#04 Bookkeeper has lifestyle that seems more than they earn

#05 Bookkeeper takes QuickBooks files, and other records home

#06 Bookkeeper refuses to take a vacation

#07 Bookkeeper gets defensive when questioned

#08 Bookkeeper has access to credit/debit cards

#09 Bookkeeper receives mail-order packages at work

#10 Bookkeeper has QuickBooks in a mess, and you can’t understand any of it

#11 You Bookkeeper tries to explain away tax delinquency notices

#12 Bookkeeper insists on picking up the daily mail

#13 Bookkeeper is the primary contact for company’s financial inquiries

#14 Bookkeeper misplaces receipts, deposit records, supplier letters

#15 Bookkeeper makes bank deposits, and they seem small

#16 Bookkeeper show signs of drinking, drug, gambling or personal financial problems

#17 Bookkeeper wants to get rid of the outside accounting firm

#18 Bookkeeper gets angry when you ask for a QuickBooks report

#19 Bookkeeper blames messy QuickBooks on previous Bookkeeper

#20 Bookkeeper doesn’t get along with others

#21 Paying bills with Cashier’s Checks because they show as a withdrawal

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

Successful Contractors Do The Exact Opposite Of Poor Contractors

The First Place to start is to understand how the 80/20 Rule applies to your construction company. The top 20% of your clients generate 80% of your profit, and the bottom 80% of your customers produce only 20% of your construction company profits.

It Stands To Reason if you want to more cash flow and profits and more freedom in your life you would copy the operations of highly successful and very profitable contractors. They outsource everything they are not good at especially their Contractor Bookkeeping Services Needs so they can focus on finding and satisfying the needs of high-value, high-profit clients.

They leave the price shoppers, tire kickers, carpet pilots and web-surfers to the poor dumb contractors who prefer to work hard rather than smart, do everything themselves and end up wasting their lives in pain and misery.

Successful Contractors have a comprehensive demographic and psychographic profile of their high-profit prime client. They focus on acquiring more high-profit top clients and finding new and better ways to satisfy their high-profit prime clients wants wishes, desires, and needs.

Poor Contractors take whatever comes their way because they don't have a profile of their prime clients let alone a marketing budget, so they get trapped with the leftovers and price shoppers.

Successful Contractors focus 80% of their time and effort on increasing revenue and 20% on cutting costs. They outsource whatever they don't specialize in and focus on whatever provides value to their clients and grows cash flow and profits.

They hire $25 an hour people to do $25 an hour work in their construction company and focus their time and efforts by earning $250 an hour working on their construction company developing strategy and marketing to find more high-profit clients.

You Deserve To Be Wealthy Because You Bring Value To Other People's Lives!

This is one more example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners all across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that, and a lot more valuable to people like you so stop missing out!

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

The First Place - To start is to understand how the 80/20 Rule applies to your construction company.

Some Construction Company - Owners feel that all staff members from the laborers to the Project Managers need to hustle and run everywhere and if they are giving less than 110% to the job they are not doing enough.

Some Contractors make sure everybody knows they can be replaced at any time day or night which makes people uncomfortable and likely to search for a job elsewhere. If someone wastes ten minutes a day on thinking about it, that could drain your cash flow and profits!

When Contractors treat suppliers and advisors like enemies, they lose money.

If Your Construction Company Profits averaged over the past five years are less than 10%, you may want to chat with Sharie 206-361-3950 for a no-charge consultation, and you may want to look at the Business Strategy Program.

We Have Hundreds of fast, easy and safe ways that can increase your company profits and put more money in the bank to operate and grow your business. It is all about having a Strategy That Works!

Maximize

Stock Your Truck with every tool you own and load it to the sky with parts then drive hard and fast you are maximizing it, and that is not a good thing.

The benefit of fewer trips to the supply houses to save you a little bit of time and money will end up costing more for each mile you drive. Use more fuel; brakes wear out faster with more weight, tires wear quicker, and vehicle suspension will need replacement sooner rather than later.

Money tied up in tools, equipment, and inventory could be invested elsewhere and make more money for you. Even worse, if you have any credit card debt or loans that money could be used to pay them down and reduce your interest expense.

If you involved in a traffic collision and the investigation reveals that you have exceeded the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of your truck or van then your insurance may not cover the damages. Also, you may be liable for negligence charges.

Optimize

Stock Your Truck wisely by having a strategy that serves a niche market and uses the 80/20 Rule so you will not need so many tools, parts, and equipment.

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors

Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at

www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected]

and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

You have what appears to be a high-profit job, and now you think you have it made, and I hope you are right!

The problem is high-profit jobs have a way of turning into little or no profit jobs and in some cases, they can bankrupt your construction company because you bid the project using whatever model you are accustomed to using and in the end you wind up with cash flow problems.

Construction company owners who understand Construction Psychology and the need for Business Process Management (BPM) System also know the importance of being process dependent, not people dependent. One will bankrupt you, and the other will make you wealthy.

A lot of problems can be traced back to the "Halo Effect" which happens when a contractor thinks "We are so good at (fill in the blank) we should expand into (fill in the blank). They have the attitude "I am going after Moby Dick in a rowboat with tartar sauce!"

The most common situation is when a residential remodel contractor who has built a reputation and a strong company generating profits of 15% or more decides to start building custom homes. Or the opposite a home builder who decides to branch out into residential remodeling.

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

So You Are Starting A Construction Company! Congratulations you have taken a big step toward being the Master of Your Destiny!

Two Paths Open In Front Of You, One Leads To Pain And Misery (P.A.M.) and the other one Leads To Success And Happiness (M.A.P.)

P.A.M. = Production Accounting Marketing = Pain And Misery

“Failure In Construction Is A Few Simple Errors Repeated Every day” - Randalism

Production First

The Most Popular, hardest and least profitable way to operate a construction company.

They do what they have always done, put their tool bags on and go to work!

They think their overhead is low because they work from home.

They Don’t mark up materials or sub-contractors to save their customers money.

They believe hard work and low prices will make them wealthy; instead, they own a JOB.

Accounting Second

When Tax Forms and letters arrive from tax agencies, they think about bookkeeping.

They Bounce Checks, pay fees, change banks, repeat.

Bookkeeping death spiral. DIY Bookkeeping, get stuck, take QuickBooks class, hire Cheap Bookkeeper, lose sleep, get aggravated and finally outsource the accounting.

Marketing Last

When friends "Honey-Do-Projects" are done they wait for referrals, but the phone hardly rings.

When the phone rings, it’s someone looking for a cheap contractor who gives away extras!

M.A.P. = Marketing Accounting Production = Success And Happiness

“Success In Construction Is A Simple Disciplines Practiced Every day” - Randalism

The Least Popular yet the most profitable way to operate a construction company.

Marketing First

Stop, Look, Listen And Think And Understand the 80-20 Rule for Contractors

• 20% of your customers generate 80% of your profit

• 20% of the services contribute 80% of your revenue

• 20% of your staff create 80% of the value for your customers

Accounting Next

Outsource Your Contractors Accounting Services To someone who specializes in Construction Bookkeeping and Accounting. In most cases we save you 40% over an in-house bookkeeper with our Bookkeeping System.

We can guide you on which Financial reports paying attention to and why certain ones can make you more money than other ones.

Production Last

Now you a road map to success, go to work and make lots of money.

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

So You Are Starting A Construction Company. Perhaps yours will be House Builder, Handyman Company, Specialty Contractor like a Plumber, Electrician, HVAC, Concrete Contractor or Landscape Company.

Whatever it is congratulations you have or will be taking a big step toward being the Master of Your Own Destiny!

I Trust This List of Five Accounting Tips For Contractor Startups Will Help You

Nearly half of all new companies fail in the first five years. Contractors we speak with who failed report lack of cash flow. They say they were "Blind-Sided" and unaware of running out of cash until it was too late.

There is a point when a contracting company starts to fail and nothing short of a massive cash infusion can stop it and a domino effect begins which is when a series of similar or related events occurring as a direct and inevitable result of one initial event.

Lack of cash holds up material deliveries, causes labor to be idle which costs money, payroll checks bounce and construction workers take your tools and equipment to the pawn shop to get paid which causes the contracting company to spirals down to its final end.

Tip #1 - Open Three Business Checking Accounts

One big mistake new contractors make is not keeping business and personal expenses separate. It makes the Contractor bookkeeping easier and the monthly, quarterly and annual tax preparation smoother and cheaper.

Primary Checking Account does not have credit or debit cards. All money is deposited into here transfers are made into the other two accounts as needed.

Payroll Checking Account has just enough money cover payroll with a small cushion of $100.

Petty Cash Checking Account with $500 +/- this account is for debit cards to make small purchases in the field.

Tip #02 - QuickBooks Desktop In The Cloud

QuickBooks desktop in the cloud allows you it with a tablet, laptop, notebook, desktop and some phones. It is the Windows version of QuickBooks; however, it can be accessed from most Apple devices

Tip #03 - Backup In The Cloud

There are several cloud based services to choose from. We use a paperless server version which allows us to scan a paper document and attach it to the individual transaction in QuickBooks for easy retrieval.

Tip #04 - Focus On Profitable Customers And Clients

The 80/20 rule says that most contractors spend 8 out of 10 hours doing things that drive little or no value to the bottom line. The biggest drain is trying to save money doing your contractor bookkeeping.

Tip #05 - Develop A Business Plan

Develop Your Business Plan - Using the Eleven Steps Program and pay close attention to marketing because that is the niche market of construction you can dominate.

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

Downloading from the bank looks smooth and appears to save time; however, it destroys Job Costing Reports because in your Construction Company every bookkeeping transaction needs to be filtered and input with a clear understanding of Money In and Money Out.

Otherwise, someday you will be frustrated and be raging mad when you ask your bookkeeper the all important question: "I need to know where I am making and losing money, and I need to know RIGHT NOW!"

Transactions are dumped into the same account you used the first time you downloaded a purchase.

For example

• First Home Depot transaction went to Material

• Next transaction for a tool went to Material

• Next transaction was for office supplies and went to Material

Tax preparers love bank downloads and feed because it makes their job easy and if you get audited or pay more income tax than you should, oh well.

Sign In Motorcycle Shop..."If You Have A $10.00 Head Buy A $10.00 Helmet

While shopping for a bike helmet, I browsed the selection of helmets and asked the clerk for a "cheap helmet" because in my mind all bike helmets were the same and I was not about to be ripped off. He had a profoundly simple answer: "If You Have A $10 Head Buy A $10 Helmet."

He said it with a deadpan face, no expression and he acted as if he could not care less about what helmet I purchased.

I remembered something my Step-Father used to say "Buy the best you can afford and cry once, rather than the cheapest and crying about it not doing what it was intended to do." He was a simple man without a lot of formal education and yet one of the wisest men I have ever known.

I purchased the most expensive helmet I could afford, and it saved me from experiencing several injuries over the next few years.

Recently a roofing contractor contacted and said his tax accountant charges $200 a month to download from the bank into some program, could be excel, quicken, QB who knows what; but the financial and job costing reports don't make any sense. He wanted someone to take over the contractor bookkeeping services and do it right for less than $200 a month.

We said yes we can do it right, but not for $200 a month. In the long run and we might be able to reduce the amount he pays in taxes and increase his roofing company's cash flow and profits which could mean that our services could pay for themselves put more money in his bank to operate and grow his roofing company.

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.

Contractors Who Pride Themselves As Hard-Ball Negotiators Can Skip This Article

Fair Minded Contractors Who Want To Become Extremely Wealthy Keep Reading!

Relationships will make or break you; financially, professionally and personally. Stephen R. Covey covered this in The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People.

When you meet someone, you automatically credit them with a tiny bit emotional trust, and they do the same for you. In time, you both make deposits and withdrawals in each other's emotional bank account. The key is to make more deposits than withdrawals.

Do Something Good For Someone And You Made A Deposit

Do Something Bad To Someone And You Made A Withdrawal

If your Word Is Law and you keep your agreements, no matter what, the emotional bank accounts you have invested in other people be will grow massively.

If someone's word is worthless and they rarely, if ever keep their agreements, the withdrawals from the emotional bank accounts of everyone they know will become overdrawn. Every Hard-Ball Negotiator

I have ever known has a negative balance with everyone.

Every Fair Minded person I have ever known has large positive balances and that resource if used, sparingly will generate massive cash flow and profits in business and personal.

During the years owning and operating construction companies we developed deep relationships with suppliers and consultants which paid handsome dividends.

Step #01 Short List Of Suppliers

Rate the list from A-E based on convenience, how they treat you and price. Narrow to one for each category to become your "Prime Supplier' for that product or service.

Step #02 Lunch Meeting

During lunch with your sales representative say you would like them to be the "Prime Supplier" for what they offer. In exchange, you ask for their best price and terms.

Step #03 Honor Your Commitment

If your word is Law and you keep your agreements, no matter what your reputation will precede you, and if someone treats you unfairly another supplier will be at your doorstep ready to serve you.

Now For The Big Money $$$$

Free Material

Manufacturers exchange products and services for contractors who provide testimonials and endorsements. Sports stars and highly successful contractors do it!

Turn Excess Inventory Into Cash

Prime Suppliers will take it off your hands and credit your account for future purchases.

Job Accounts

Job Accounts give you unlimited access to material with little or no risk. Prime Supplier sets up separate accounts for each large project and materials assigned to that job are billed separately, and tied to the property.

Instant Qualified Referrals

Every Prime Supplier is asked for contractor referrals. Your relationship with Prime Suppliers can generate rivers of cash flow and profit.

Can you visualize your cash flow and profits rising?

Listen to this Podcast for more…

If you are Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services you are invited to download a guide to finding the right contractor bookkeeping service to fit your particular situation at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Call Sharie now 206-361-3950 or [email protected] and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.