Three people at a construction business meet to discuss a construction contract and working capital.

A Guide to Tax Planning for Construction Companies

Tax planning is crucial for construction companies aiming to maintain financial health and maximize profitability. Our comprehensive guide explores the unique tax challenges faced by construction companies, offering actionable insights on maximizing deductions, leveraging energy-efficient tax credits, optimizing business structures for tax efficiency, and more. Let this guide be your roadmap to proactive tax planning and sustainable growth.

Helping you build a better business

Building something that lasts feels great, whether it’s a large construction project or a successful business. Struggling to get timely financial statements so you can increase bonding? That doesn’t feel so great. Come to think of it, neither does wrestling with wage and hours issues, or wishing you had better tools to interpret your WIP and real-time project profitability.  

There’s a better way. When you partner with James Moore, you can focus on doing what you do best while we focus on what we do best: helping you increase profitability, improve operations, and build the value of your company at every point in the business cycle.

Measurably Better

James Moore brings innovative solutions and niche-specific insights to support the full range of construction professionals:

  • General contractors and subcontractors
  • Federal and state government contractors
  • Commercial contractors
  • Residential contractors
  • Multi-industry contractors
  • Multi-state contractors
Construction Worker with Tool Belt working with a saw on a steel beam.

Grow Your Construction Business with a Fractional CFO

Need c-suite financial expertise but not the c-suite cost? See how our fractional CFO services can help your construction company level up!

On-Demand Webinar: Financials for Bonding

If you have aspirations of taking your construction business to the next level, securing bonding capacity is key to your success.

In this on-demand webinar, James Moore’s Webb Shephard explains the key financial reports and statements your business must have to secure the bonding to work on government and public works projects.

On-Demand placeholder image for Construction Bonds Webinar.
Construction worker on a job site.

A Comprehensive Guide to Construction Accounting

Understanding the complexities of construction accounting is essential as your business grows, especially when you move from smaller residential projects to large commercial and government contracts. This guide provides invaluable insights into the unique accounting challenges construction companies face — the differences between construction and traditional accounting, key financial statements, effective accounting management practices and more. Let this essential resource be your guide to responsible financial management and sustainable growth! 

Why do you need a CPA that specializes in construction?

The specialized financial reporting, income tax rules and cyclical nature of the construction business mean that it’s essential to partner with a construction CPA firm that knows your industry. There are numerous rules, requirements and regulations that are unique to construction. And to keep you up to date, we provide a comprehensive guide to construction accounting.

Bottom line, when it comes to your accounting needs, a one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t cut it. For example, a CPA that doesn’t fully understand the nuances of material price trends and the allocation of overhead will make mistakes that, over time, can cripple even the biggest construction companies. Like many aspects of construction itself, precision and expertise are essential when it comes to budgeting and accounting.

After all, your finances are the foundation of your business because they affect every other aspect—from day-to-day operations to future plans for growth and transition. If you build on a weak foundation, your future plans may come crumbling down.

Why hire our construction CPAs?

Our goal is to continually improve your business and make it run more smoothly. That means we’re constantly working to increase our knowledge and the level of service you receive. It’s a commitment to always be bettering ourselves. To go above and beyond every day. Just like you.

When you partner with us, you’ll work with a team focused on understanding your business and finding effective strategies to help you achieve your objectives. For the construction industry, that means improving job cost controls, implementing the right accounting software, interpreting the numbers to accurately project profitability, and creating timely and accurate financial statements to help increase bonding.

Outsourced Accounting Services

Having a robust in-house accounting team is ideal. But in reality, this isn’t feasible for many construction companies due to the tremendous investment of time and money to operate that way. By partnering with our experienced outsourced construction accountants, we can fully manage your accounting operations. Consider us your off-site accounting department.

Depending on your company’s needs, we can grow or shrink the scope of our services to provide the targeted solutions you’re looking for. We have experience handling everything from bill payment, payroll processing and maintaining a general financial ledger to preparing financial statements, month-end adjustments, taxes and annual audits.

In particular, small and mid-sized construction companies have benefited from our outsourced accounting services.

Our Construction Accounting
Solutions & Services

Assurance

As a contractor, your financial statements tell an important story about your past, present and future performance. Accurate and timely financial reporting helps you operate your business successfully and profitably, and it shows others about your financial capabilities.

Your potential clients want accurate financial statements so they can make an informed decision about potentially hiring you.

Our construction CPAs can help you tell your story in the best light possible. We’ll advise you about the level of assurance that best suits your needs and show you how to improve your internal reporting to help you better manage your business.

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Income Tax Planning & Compliance

Contractors, home builders, engineering firms, real estate companies …they all have specialized accounting and income tax rules to follow. Contractors working across state lines also have additional income and payroll tax liabilities in those states. You want to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the numerous special deductions, credits, excise taxes and other elections available.

As experienced accounts specializing in the construction industry, we are well versed in the details of construction tax issues. We will help you select the best accounting method to help delay reporting income, deferring tax and more. By taking advantage of the tax breaks available to you, you can minimize your tax burden while maximizing your cash flow.

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Fractional CFO Services

You’ve got goals for your construction company, like taking on bigger projects, growing your book of business, managing job costs and obtaining desired licenses. But achieving them takes work beyond your day-to-day accounting and operations. It requires expert knowledge in financial analysis, budgeting and strategic planning, as well as construction-specific accounting experience to meet your unique challenges and needs.

Our fractional CFO services provide the knowledge and expertise of a chief financial officer without having to have one on your payroll. We handle risk management and compliance, financial forecasting, relationships with your banks and much more — all at a price that works for you.

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Outsourced Accounting

Your construction company’s financial success depends on solid and consistent accounting practices. But finding qualified people for the job isn’t always easy. It’s also expensive to bring them onboard, train them and pay their salary and overhead.

Our construction CPAs have worked with companies of all sizes and disciplines to perform bank and credit card reconciliations, job costing, monthly financial statement preparation, accounts payable and receivable and much more. We can help you in a way that best fits your business, be it a la carte services or a complete outsourced accounting solution (or somewhere in between).

Whether you need to complement your existing financial staff or take it off your plate entirely, our construction CPAs can provide a customized accounting solution that suits your needs — and grows with you.

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Quickbooks & Accounting Support

Construction accounting, reporting and software are complicated. There are many methods of accounting that can be used in your industry. And you have multiple construction jobs running simultaneously, with each job requiring you to monitor its budget, cash flow, job progress, expenditures… It’s almost like running several businesses at once.

So it stands to reason that construction accounting involves much more than debits and credits. Do you have the tools and reporting you need? And do you really understand how to read them (and the story they are telling you)?

As knowledgeable construction CPAs, we can help you with these and other complexities you encounter. We invite you to leverage our expertise to help run your business better and more profitably.

 

Bonding & Surety Support

When bidding and obtaining a bid bond for a proposal, time is of the essence. The last thing you need is a delay caused by a CPA unfamiliar with the importance of responding quickly to bid-related requests—or a communications gap between you, your CPA, your bonding agent and the surety. You also don’t want to have difficulty explaining your financial statements to surety professionals.

Timely, clear and consistent financial communication with your bond agent and surety underwriter is critical to maintain or increase your bonding capacity so that you can continue to replenish and grow your backlog.

Our construction CPAs can help paint your financial story in the best light and make sure there are no misunderstandings. We understand the surety underwriting process, and we can effectively bridge the communication and knowledge gaps between your company and other parties.

HR Solutions

With the growth in new construction, many construction companies face an increasing need for qualified workers—from general laborers to plumbers, masons, electricians and other skilled tradespeople. If you don’t have a qualified workforce, you have a delay on the job that costs you time and money.

As a result, many construction companies are turning to outsourced human resources service providers to address their needs. From recruiting and retention to long-term personnel planning, external HR consulting helps firms like yours find and retain qualified employees to jobs done faster and better.

Our HR Solutions team brings decades of combined experience to your company so that you can find the right help for your jobs. We can also show you how to stay in compliance with ever-changing employment regulations and safety requirements in order to protect your company from costly lawsuits and state and federal penalties.

From a one-time consult to a consistent HR presence, we have a solution for every firm.

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Transition Planning

In construction, families and key management team members often work together and stay in business for decades. So it’s expected that a construction company will continue operating long after the founder retires. Yet many owners have no transition plan established.

Leaving the helm might seem like a long way off, but time moves quickly and life (like projects) doesn’t always go as planned. A written transition plan ensures that your vision for your firm is fulfilled and protects your family, your employees, and your customers.

We have the construction transition planning knowledge to help contractors prepare for an expected (or unexpected) transfer of ownership. By drafting a written plan documenting the steps to be taken when the time comes, you and your team will have peace of mind knowing that nothing is left to chance.

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Technology Solutions

Your IT network is the backbone of your company, providing you with quick access to vital information about any given job—whether you’re in the office or on site. It allows for timely communication and secure data. Without a sound network, you wouldn’t be able to operate. So you need a technology provider who can keep it running.

Our technology solutions consulting department helps construction companies and engineering firms with everything an in-house IT department might handle—from routine troubleshooting, maintenance and equipment installation to long-term technology planning and employee training. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we keep up with the latest developments and technologies to make sure our clients’ networks remain up to date and secure.

Whether you need a single consultation or a full complement of managed IT services, our team is ready to keep you connected:

    • Managed IT solutions
    • Break-fix support
    • Security & data protection
    • Backup & disaster recovery
    • Email, messaging & collaboration
    • Network planning & design

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Construction Success Stories

Ready to see how our construction accounting and consulting services can help build your success?

Check out our case studies to see how we’ve guided construction companies with tailored solutions, from financial management to strategic planning.

Team of engineer and architects working, meeting, discussing,designing, planning, measuring layout of building blueprints at construction site.

How One Construction Company Grew from $250K to $12 Million in 5 Years

copper pipes of a private house autonomous heating system in boiler room.

How We Unlocked A $500,000 Cash Flow Boost for One Plumbing Company

Two construction site foremen looking over plans for their project.

Transforming Construction Accounting with Outsourced Expertise

Featured Articles on Construction Accounting

A desk with construction documents, a calculator, pen, and rolled blueprints, with a white hard hat and laptop in the background, symbolizing financial support for construction bonding needs.

Construction Bonding: How James Moore Can Help

In the construction industry, securing a construction bond is often the key to unlocking bigger…

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A construction professional wearing a hard hat and business suit shakes hands with a fractional construction CFO holding a tablet with tall buildings in the background.

FAQs: What to Expect When You Work with a Fractional Construction CFO

Construction company owners wear many hats, but managing the finer details of your business’s financial…

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A construction professional wearing a hard hat and sunglasses uses a tablet at a job site.

How an Outsourced Construction CFO Can Support Your Business

As the owner of a construction business, you face a constant tug-of-war between delivering quality…

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Two professionals shake hands over a desk with construction plans, a hard hat, and a laptop, symbolizing trusted support and deliverables from James Moore's Fractional Construction CFO Service.

Deliverables to Expect from James Moore’s Fractional Construction CFO Service

Construction companies face financial challenges that demand specialized expertise. From working through the complexities of…

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Free downloadable resources

November 2024 CICPAC Economic Newsletter

From GDP growth to material costs and labor trends, the November 2024 Economic Newsletter provides a comprehensive outlook on key factors influencing your business decisions. Download now for the latest economic insights shaping the construction industry!

Revenue Recognition Implementation Guide for Construction

ASC 606-10-25-1 requires your company’s management to make additional judgments on recognizing revenue associated with contracts. Download this free whitepaper with all the details.

CICPAC Tax Planning Guide for the Construction Industry

CICPAC's Tax Thought Leadership Committee has recently updated its tax planning missive to summarize the tax guidance that could impact construction companies. Learn more in this informative whitepaper.

CICPAC | PAS, Inc. Compensation Report

The survey provides a multidimensional overview of salaries for three chosen positions in the construction industry, emphasizing the importance of considering multiple categories, position descriptions, and external factors to effectively tailor compensation practices to your company's unique circumstances. Download the report for the complete results.

Professional headshot of Jeremy Wright.

Jeremy Wright, CPA

Partner

Jeremy’s work at James Moore includes audit and assurance services, due diligence support for mergers and acquisitions, cash flow forecasting, outsourced accounting services and more. As a partner, he also provides guidance to our accounting and assurance staff as an instructor and mentor.

Jeremy leads the Construction Service Team and is a member of the Healthcare Services Team at James Moore & Co. He is a member of several industry-specific associations including the Builders Association of North Central Florida (BANCF), the Construction Industry CPAs and Consultants (CICPAC), the Florida Surety Association, and StartupGNV (where he serves as Treasurer). He also regularly holds office hours at UF Innovate to help guide area startup businesses as they grow.

In addition to the areas mentioned above, Jeremy also serves multiple federally qualified health centers, condo/homeowner associations and other commercial entities.

Full Profile