Accounting software for contractors and the trades

Know which jobs make money

In the trades, the question that matters most is rarely answered by a standard P&L: did that job make money? Materials get bought on one card for three sites, a subcontractor invoice arrives weeks later, and the crew’s hours sit in a separate timesheet. By the time it is all reconciled, you have already quoted the next job the same way.

SeroBooks Pro includes projects, classes and job costing, so bills, materials, payroll costs and invoices can be assigned to the job they belong to. Job profitability reports compare what you spent with what you billed, which makes it much easier to see where estimates run light and which kinds of work to chase.

Estimates, invoices and staged billing

Start with an estimate or quote, send it to the customer and convert it to an invoice when the work is approved. For larger jobs billed in stages, issue a standard invoice for each draw or milestone as the work progresses, so the customer and your receivables report both show what has been billed and what is still to come.

Payments are received against open invoices, card payments can be taken through Global Payments or Moneris, and customer statements show outstanding balances. Finance charges can be applied to overdue accounts, and A/R ageing reports show which customers are slow before it becomes a cash problem. Recurring invoices also help with ongoing service or maintenance contracts that bill the same amount each month.

• Estimates and quotes
• Invoices for each stage or draw
• Customer statements and A/R ageing
• Finance charges on overdue accounts
• Recurring invoices for maintenance contracts

Supplier bills, receipts and subcontractors

Receipt and invoice scanning lets you photograph a supplier receipt from the truck and turn it into a bill in SeroBooks, ready to assign to a job. Purchase orders work for larger material orders, and payment runs let you pay several suppliers and subcontractors at once, with cheque printing where needed.

In Canada, businesses whose main activity is construction generally need to report subcontractor payments on T5018 slips. SeroPayroll and SeroBooks Pro payroll both prepare T5018 slips and XML. In the US, SeroBooks Pro prepares 1099-NEC slips for contractors you pay. Paying subcontractors through SeroBooks keeps the records you need for those slips in one place.

Payroll for crews

SeroPayroll runs Canadian payroll in all 13 provinces and territories, from $25 USD a month for up to 10 employees. It handles CPP, EI, income tax, vacation pay, statutory holidays and overtime by each province’s rules, plus remittances on the CRA calendar, T4s, ROEs and WCB, WSIB or CNESST employer levies.

Timesheets and a time clock capture hours, and direct deposit produces a CPA 005 bank file you upload to your bank. If you want payroll in the same ledger as job costing, or you have US crews, SeroBooks Pro at $300 USD a month covers Canadian and US payroll together.

• CPP, EI, QPP and income tax to the cent
• Overtime by provincial statute
• WCB, WSIB and CNESST levies
• T4, T4A, T5018 and ROE files
• Timesheets and time clock

Equipment, tax and year-end

Trucks, trailers and tools are significant assets. SeroBooks tracks fixed assets with CCA classes in Canada and MACRS in the US, so depreciation is calculated in the books rather than in a separate schedule at year-end. Loan manager tracks equipment financing alongside it. Asset registers stay current as equipment is bought, sold or written off.

GST/HST, PST and QST are handled for every province, with returns prepared in the Sales Tax Centre, and T2/GIFI support helps at year-end. Your accountant can log in with free accountant access, and period locks keep closed months from being changed after the return is filed. You spend less time assembling year-end packages and more time on the tools.