Books That Keep Up With The Job Site.
Bookkeeping and job costing built for contractors — so you know what each job actually made, not just what QuickBooks says at month-end.
Built for how contractors actually make money.
Job costing is the baseline. Here’s what comes with it.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Full reconciliations across every account, every month, in QuickBooks Online — no backlog, no guesswork.
Job Costing
Know what each job actually earns — labor, materials, subs, and overhead tracked by project, not lumped together.
Progress Billing & Draws
Invoicing and draw requests that match what’s actually been completed, so cash flow doesn’t lag the work.
Retainage Tracking
Know exactly what’s being held back on every job and when it’s due, so it never gets lost in the numbers.
A $100,000 job doesn't mean $100,000 in your pocket.
Every job has a story between the contract price and what's actually left over. Job costing tells that story — before the job is finished, not after.
What changed between the estimate and the actuals?
That $7,000 variance came directly out of the margin you expected to make.
Tracking estimated costs against actual costs by job shows where margin is slipping — while there's still time to fix it on the next bid.
Costs that aren't tied to a job are just guesses.
Labor, materials, subcontractors, equipment, permits, and other direct costs all need to land on the job that generated them — so profitability by job is a fact, not a feeling.
Labor hours can make or break the margin.
A job can land on budget for materials and subcontractors and still lose money the moment labor runs long. Connecting payroll hours to jobs shows what the work actually costs — not just what was quoted.
Those extra 90 hours came straight out of the job's margin.
Explore Payroll Services →Work completed isn't always cash collected.
Contractors often perform the work before receiving all of the related cash. Progress billing and retainage tracking keep the books aligned with what's been completed, invoiced, collected, and still owed.
Busy doesn't always mean profitable.
A full schedule and growing revenue can hide jobs that are quietly losing money.
Which jobs actually made money?
Where are costs running over estimate?
Are we charging enough for the work?
Contractors who’ve outgrown the shoebox.
Built for general contractors, remodelers, and specialty trades doing $1M–$10M in revenue — where knowing which jobs are actually profitable matters more than what’s in the checking account.
You don't know if a job made money until it's already finished.
Profitability gets figured out after the fact instead of while there's still time to act on it.
Job costs live in a notebook, a spreadsheet, or someone's memory.
Labor, materials, and subcontractor costs never quite make it into QuickBooks Online where they belong.
You're bidding the next job on a gut feeling.
Without real numbers from past jobs, every new estimate is a guess dressed up as a plan.
Labor, materials, and subs aren't tracked by job.
Costs get recorded, but not connected to the job that actually generated them.
Progress billing and retainage live outside QuickBooks.
What's been billed, collected, and held back gets tracked in a separate system — or not tracked at all.
You can't tell which jobs are worth repeating.
Some jobs make money and some don't, and right now there's no clean way to tell them apart.
Running a bigger build?
Larger GCs and builders working across multiple concurrent projects usually need more than job costing — they need WIP schedules, percentage-of-completion reporting, and AIA-style billing to see how the whole company is doing, not just one job.
See Construction Bookkeeping →Ready to go beyond bookkeeping?
See Fractional CFO & Controller →Have a crew on payroll?
See Payroll →Common questions about contractor accounting.
Do you work with general contractors or specialty trades?
Both. Ample(x) works with general contractors, remodelers, and specialty trade contractors doing roughly $1M–$10M in annual revenue who need job costing they can trust.
What's the difference between job costing and regular bookkeeping?
Regular bookkeeping tells you what came in and went out company-wide. Job costing connects every cost — labor, materials, subcontractors, equipment — to the specific job that generated it, so you know what each job actually made.
Do you handle progress billing and retainage?
Yes. We help track what's been billed, what's been collected, and what retainage is still outstanding, so your books reflect the real state of each project.
Is this different from your Construction Bookkeeping service?
Yes. Contractor Accounting is built around job costing, labor, materials, and project profitability for contractors and trades. Construction Bookkeeping is built for larger GCs and builders who need WIP schedules, percentage-of-completion reporting, and AIA-style billing across multiple concurrent projects.
Can you connect job costs to payroll?
Yes. We help connect labor hours and payroll costs to the jobs they belong to, so labor variances show up in the job's numbers, not just the company-wide payroll total.
Do you work exclusively in QuickBooks Online?
Yes. We work exclusively with QuickBooks Online, which keeps job costing, reporting, and collaboration consistent across every client.
What if our job costs are currently a mess?
That's a common starting point. We typically begin with a cleanup phase to get historical job costs organized before moving into ongoing monthly job costing.
How do I know if I need this or Construction Bookkeeping?
If your core question is "what did this job actually make," this service is built for you. If your core question is closer to "does our WIP accurately reflect what's happening across all our projects," Construction Bookkeeping is the better fit.
Let’s look at your job costs.
Two ways to start — pick whichever fits where you're at.
Ready to talk now
Book a free 20-minute clarity call. No pitch.
Just a real look at where your job costs stand and whether we’re a fit.
