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FieldstoneAdvisory

Houston area · Texas · Contractors

Your books don’t tie to your jobs. Find out by how much.

In five business days we rebuild your job-level numbers from the bank, the bills, and payroll, then show you what the books said, what is true, and what to fix first.

  • A bonding agent asked for a WIP schedule that ties to your balance sheet.
  • A lender wants job-level margin and a current close.
  • Your CPA won't file on the file as it stands.
  • Your bookkeeper left, and nobody knows which checks belonged to which job.
Book the diagnosticSample Friday report

Illustrative story · invented file

“We were busy all year. So where did the money go?”

Picture a Houston-area contractor with four jobs running. QuickBooks says the year cleared $186,400. Then the bonding agent asks for a WIP schedule that ties to the balance sheet, and there isn’t one.

In five business days the X-ray finds a $20,000 customer deposit counted as income before the work was done, $6,240 of costs that never got tied to a job, and retainage mixed into sales on two jobs. The real number is $180,971, and for the first time the owner can see which jobs made it.

Most contractors don’t have bad books. They have books built for tax time, not for running jobs. The X-ray rebuilds them around your jobs, so the numbers answer the questions your lender, your surety, and you are already asking.

Figures are illustrative, from the invented file on our sample report.

The offer

Diagnostic. Catch-up. Friday Close.

Each step names what you get and when. Nothing on this page is an open quote.

  1. 01Five business days

    Five-day diagnostic

    $795, fixed, all-in

    The $795 diagnostic fee is credited in full toward QuickBooks catch-up if you start within 30 days.

    You send read-only bank access and your QuickBooks file, or twelve months of statements if there is no file. You get the before-and-after on your own jobs, a ranked list of what to fix, and a fixed-scope price to fix it. If the file is too far gone for five days, we say so before you pay.

  2. 02Named before work starts

    Catch-up

    Scope and price from the diagnostic

    A reconstructed job-cost file and a twelve-month job-cost report that ties to the balance sheet. The price and the weeks are the ones in the diagnostic. Work does not start on an open quote.

  3. 03A page every Friday

    Friday Close

    $1,500 a month

    Cash that ties to the bank, unbilled work, job margin against the bid, and retainage on the balance sheet. A weekly page, from a monthly close kept current in QuickBooks Online.

Proof

What the diagnostic found on a sample file

Read the Friday page
ItemAs receivedAfter the rebuild
Net income, year to date186,400180,971
WIP scheduleNone. Not producible from the file.Four jobs, ties to the balance sheet, difference $0.00
Cost with no job$6,240 parked in an asset accountAssigned to jobs, expensed correctly
Customer deposit, plumbing job$20,000 booked as income$18,390 earned; $1,610 held as billings in excess
RetainageMixed into income on two jobs$26,480 receivable and $9,350 payable on the balance sheet
Bank reconciliationFive months behindCurrent, difference $0.00

Illustrative figures on an invented file.

How $186,400 became $180,971

Net income as booked186,400
Billed ahead of work on two jobs (defer)−14,284
Work done and not billed on two jobs (recognize)+15,095
Cost with no job, parked in an asset account−6,240
Net income after the rebuild180,971

A $5,429 swing is small enough to miss and large enough to change what a surety or lender sees. The WIP schedule is what they ask for, and the file couldn’t produce it.

Who this is for

Owner-operated trades whose jobs were never tagged.

HVAC, plumbing, and the same shape of contractor. One to five trucks. An S-corp. A file a surety or a CPA just refused.

Contractors and trades

Progress billing, retainage, and jobs that were never tagged. The job-cost report has to mean something on Friday.

Quiet add-ons

These are different buyers. They sit behind the books, not in the headline. The Transition — $1,000 stays available after the diagnostic.

The Estate File

The Estate File — $1,500. Inventories and a clean file for your attorney. Not a will, and not the reason this page exists.

Individual returns

Prepared after the books are true. A CPA signs the return. We do not lead with tax season.

Who signs

We are not a CPA firm.

We are not an enrolled agent or a law firm. We prepare the books, the job-cost rebuild, and drafts a person reviews before anything is sent. A CPA must sign the return. An attorney must sign the will. We refer both.

Request a consult

$795, fixed fee.

All-in. No sales tax added at checkout.

Five business days. Read-only bank access and the QuickBooks file, or twelve months of statements if there is no file. Or write desk@fridayclose.com.

  • Do not send a return, a Social Security number, or an account number in this form. Documents come after we confirm the file is a fit.
  • If five days is not enough, we say so before you pay.

  1. 1. Who you are

  2. 2. What you need

  3. 3. How to reach you

Who should we plan around?

One choice. You can add nuance in a moment.

FAQ

Straight answers.