Who this is for
Catch-Up Bookkeeping for Contractors and Trades
Contractor books go wrong in a specific way: deposits counted as income when they arrive, materials expensed to overhead with no job attached, subs paid with no W-9, and a year that looked wonderful because three deposits landed in December. The cleanup puts each of those where it belongs.
Deposits are the first thing fixed
A customer deposit is a liability until the work that earns it is done. Booked as income the day it lands, it inflates one month and starves the next, and across a year-end it moves profit, and tax, into the wrong year. The cleanup moves deposits to the balance sheet and releases them as jobs complete, which for a contractor often changes last year’s profit by more than any other single correction.
Materials onto the job, subs into order
Supply-house runs coded to "materials" with no job make every job look more profitable than it was and overhead look out of control. Where the job can be identified from the receipt or the date, the cleanup codes it. Subcontractor payments are matched to W-9s, and the 1099-NEC list for each year is produced at the current threshold, which is $2,000 for payments made from 2026 onward.
The year that looked better than it was
If the business runs on cash-basis books, a December full of deposits and a January full of material bills produces a profitable year followed by a terrible one, and a tax bill on money that was spent by February. The cleanup shows what actually happened by job, and your tax preparer decides how the return should treat it. The decision is theirs; the numbers to make it are the cleanup’s job.
Keeping it clean afterwards
Contractors who have been through one cleanup rarely want another. Monthly bookkeeping with jobs on every transaction, deposits on the balance sheet and subs tracked through the year is what prevents it. If job costing and a WIP schedule are what you need after the catch-up, say so; that is ordinary monthly work for your bookkeeper.
Send how many months are behind, whether you take deposits, and roughly how many subs you paid. The reply within a business day says what the deposit for the cleanup would be.
Contractors & Trades: common questions
My subs never gave me W-9s. Is that fixable?
For past years, the 1099 list is produced from what is known and the gaps are listed for your tax preparer. From here on, a W-9 before the first payment is part of the monthly routine.
Can old jobs be costed after the fact?
Partly. Where receipts and dates identify the job, yes. Where they do not, the cost is recorded without a job rather than guessed.
Do you handle contractor payroll catch-up?
Yes, in any state, including missed filings.
What your bookkeeper handles
- QuickBooks Cleanup Services
- Catch-Up Bookkeeping Services
- Bookkeeping Cleanup Services
- Behind on Bookkeeping Before a Tax Deadline
- Multiple Years of Bookkeeping, Rebuilt
- Monthly Bookkeeping After the Cleanup
Also written for Sole Proprietors & Single-Member LLCs, S Corporations, E-commerce Sellers, Restaurants & Food Businesses, Real Estate Agents & Brokers, Medical & Dental Practices and Switching From Another Bookkeeper.
Request a quote for your contracting business
Tell us how far behind the books are and whether there is a date. Your bookkeeper replies within one business day with a plain answer: what it would take, whether the date is reachable, and what the deposit would be. Requests answered within one business day · Calls Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm Eastern Or call (888) 786-6502 if you would rather talk it through first.