As peak construction season presses on, your job sites may be running full steam ahead—but are your books keeping pace?
August is a critical inflection point for contractors: it’s far enough into the year to spot trends and course-correct, yet not too late to improve your year-end outcomes. Cleaning up your books now ensures better decision-making, stronger cash flow, and less chaos when Q3 ends.
In this article, we break down six essential financial tasks you should complete this month, backed by best practices and real-world numbers.
1. Reconcile July: Accurate Books = Informed Decisions
Why it matters: A 2023 QuickBooks survey revealed that 61% of small business owners make financial decisions based on outdated or incomplete data. Reconciling monthly ensures your financial statements are current and trustworthy.
Tasks to complete:
- Reconcile all checking, credit card, and loan accounts through July 31
- Match every transaction to invoices, receipts, or bills
- Identify and correct any uncategorized or duplicated entries
- Confirm integration syncs (QuickBooks + Buildertrend, payroll systems, etc.)
Bonus Tip: Flag recurring discrepancies like duplicate vendor entries or improper bank feed rules—they often cause snowballing inaccuracies down the line.
2. Invoice Cleanup: Stop Leaks in Your Cash Flow
Unpaid invoices create cash flow bottlenecks—especially problematic when you're fronting materials or labor costs.
Construction Fact: According to the 2024 Levelset Construction Payment Report, 83% of contractors struggle with slow payments, and 1 in 5 has waited more than 60 days to get paid.
What to do in August:
- Send any missing or delayed invoices immediately
- Automate follow-up reminders using QBO or a tool like Jobber/Buildertrend
- Identify clients with habitual late payments and adjust terms
- Apply received payments correctly to open invoices
Pro Tip: Switch to progress billing if you haven’t already. It aligns cash inflow with project milestones and improves payment speed.
3. Job Costing Review: Confirm Actuals vs Estimates
Job costing is the financial backbone of any construction business. Yet, many contractors either skip this step or only review costs when a project goes sideways.
Why it's critical: If your gross profit margin is below 20%—the construction industry average according to NAHB—there’s a high chance you're underpricing, overextending, or misallocating resources.
What to review:
- Are labor hours being tracked to the correct cost codes and job phases?
- Are material and equipment costs tagged accurately per job?
- Are subcontractor payments aligned with original bids?
Tool Tip: Use the Buildertrend–QBO integration to automatically sync job costs and avoid double entry.
4. Overhead Check-Up: Spot Creeping Costs
Indirect expenses like insurance, software, admin wages, and office supplies tend to inflate as business scales.
Benchmark: Industry best practice is to keep overhead below 25% of revenue for construction businesses. If your operating expenses are edging higher, it’s time for a trim.
Review This Month:
- Review subscriptions and cancel tools not in active use
- Reallocate internal hours from admin to revenue-generating work
- Evaluate software overlap—are you paying for tools with duplicate features?
Financial Tip: Use your Profit & Loss report, filtered by class or department, to isolate administrative costs vs project costs.
5. Prep for Q3 Close: Organize Now, Not in a Panic Later
Waiting until September 30 to prep for quarter-end is like waiting until the final inspection to check your framing.
Pre-close checklist:
- Categorize all uncoded transactions (especially subcontractor payments)
- Flag unusual or high-cost items for further review
- Archive completed jobs and compare final budgets vs actuals
- Start organizing tax documentation, especially large capital expenditures
Bonus Move: Create Q3-to-date reporting to compare 2025 progress against 2024. This helps highlight strategic growth areas—or problems hiding in plain sight.
6. Update 1099 Info: Get Ahead of Compliance
1099 season may feel far away, but cleaning this up now prevents last-minute headaches (and penalties).
IRS Fact: In 2022, the IRS processed over 82 million 1099s. Mismatched or missing data can lead to penalties of up to $290 per form.
To-do list:
- Request W-9s from all subcontractors and independent vendors
- Verify legal names, EINs, and current mailing addresses
- Track total payments—if they exceed $600, you’ll likely need to file
Pro Tip: Use QBO’s built-in 1099 tracking feature to mark vendors and monitor thresholds in real time.
Final Thoughts: Clean Books = Strategic Clarity
With clean, accurate books, you’re not just compliant—you’re strategic. You can bid smarter, manage projects with confidence, and make decisions backed by real data—not guesswork.
Here’s the big takeaway:
"The contractors who win in Q4 are the ones who cleaned house in August."
Ready to Tighten Your Financial Systems?
At 24hr Bookkeeper, we help construction businesses streamline their back office so they can scale confidently—with support that goes beyond bookkeeping. Whether you need a cleanup, better job costing, or integrated systems, we’ve got your back.
📅 [Book Your Complimentary Financial Strategy Session →]
Let’s clean it up now—so you can focus on building what matters.
