Home & Property Services
You're running the business from the truck. Receipts pile up, costs blur together, and pricing stays a guess. We track the numbers so you can stop wondering.
The Work Happens in the Field
You’re on a roof, in someone’s backyard, or crawling under a house. The business runs from the truck, not from a desk. Financial tracking gets pushed to tonight, then the weekend, then “whenever I get to it.” By the time you sit down, there’s a stack of Home Depot receipts, three weeks of transactions to sort through, and no memory of what that $347 charge was actually for.
The revenue model adds another layer. Pool service and pest control run on monthly contracts. Landscaping might be a mix of weekly maintenance clients and one-off hardscaping installs. Roofers work project to project with bigger dollar amounts and longer gaps between payments. Each model has different cash flow patterns, and most home service businesses are running some combination of recurring and project-based work at the same time.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Landscapers, roofers, pest control operators, pool service companies, fence installers, tree service, pressure washers, gutter cleaners. Any business that sends a truck and a crew to a customer’s property to get the work done.
What Makes It Messy
What Makes It Messy
Receipts from supply houses pile up in the console. Fuel costs across multiple trucks go on the same card. Customers pay with Venmo, Zelle, check, and cash. Materials for one job get bought on the same receipt as supplies for another. Everything blurs together when nobody is tracking it in real time.
What We Track
We set up your books to show profitability where it matters. For project-based work like roofing or hardscaping, every material purchase and labor hour gets tagged to the specific job. For recurring service clients, we track the monthly revenue against the actual time and supplies going into each account. You stop guessing which clients are worth keeping and which ones are costing you money.
Materials and supplies also need proper handling. A landscaper buying plants and soil for a specific install is different from picking up trimmer line and fuel for general operations. Pool chemicals purchased in bulk need to be spread across the accounts they serve. We make sure these costs land where they belong so your numbers reflect what’s actually happening in the business.
Client and Job Profitability
Client and Job Profitability
For recurring clients, we track revenue against labor and supply costs per account. For project work, materials and crew hours get assigned to the job. You see which clients and which types of work actually make money after all costs are accounted for.
Subcontractor and Vendor Management
Subcontractor and Vendor Management
Many home service businesses bring in day laborers or subcontractors for bigger jobs. We track those payments throughout the year and make sure W-9s are collected so that 1099 filing in January is handled without a last-minute scramble.
Where It Falls Apart
The most common problem is underpricing. You quoted the job based on a rough calculation, bought the materials, paid the crew, and at the end you’re not sure if you made $800 or $80. Without tracking actual costs per job, you keep quoting the same way and keep wondering why the bank account doesn’t grow even though the schedule is packed. A lot of home service owners are busier than ever and have less to show for it than they expected.
The other issue is seasonal cash flow. Even in Southern California, there are slower periods. Landscapers see maintenance drop in winter. Roofers get slammed after a storm and then go quiet for months. If the busy months get spent as fast as they come in, the slow months turn into a scramble to cover insurance premiums, truck payments, and payroll. Without a clear picture of the pattern, you can’t plan for it.
Pricing Without Data
Pricing Without Data
You set your rates years ago based on what competitors charge or what felt right at the time. You’ve never calculated what it actually costs to send a crew to a job site when you factor in drive time, labor, fuel, materials, and equipment wear. Your prices might be fine. They might be losing you money. Without the numbers, you have no way to know.
Growth That Outpaces the Books
Growth That Outpaces the Books
You add a second truck and hire two more guys. Revenue goes up. But so do insurance premiums, fuel costs, equipment maintenance, and payroll taxes. If the books aren’t keeping pace with the growth, you can’t tell whether the expansion is actually profitable or just creating more work and more overhead without more profit.
What Gets Better
You price with confidence. When a customer asks for a quote on a backyard renovation or a full reroof, you pull from actual data on what similar past jobs cost you. You know your labor cost per hour, your average material spend, and what your overhead adds to each job. The quote reflects what you’ve seen in your own numbers instead of a rough guess that you hope works out.
Seasonal planning becomes possible. You can see the revenue pattern from the past year and set aside cash during the busy months to cover the slow ones. Equipment purchases get timed to when the business can support them. Hiring decisions happen based on what the financials show rather than what feels right in the moment. Your tax preparer gets clean records that capture vehicle expenses, equipment depreciation, and supply costs that would otherwise get missed.
Decisions Based on Facts
Decisions Based on Facts
Equipment upgrades, new hires, adding a service line, dropping unprofitable clients. These decisions stop being gut calls. You have monthly financials that show whether the business can support the move and when the timing makes sense. Growth becomes intentional instead of reactive.
Tax Time Without the Panic
Tax Time Without the Panic
Home service businesses have a lot of deductible expenses that get missed when the books are messy. Vehicle mileage, equipment depreciation, supply costs, subcontractor payments. Clean records mean your tax preparer captures everything you’re entitled to and you keep more of what you earned.
Long Beach's Trusted Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A Quick Discovery Call
Tell us where things stand with your books. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a clear quote to get it handled.
