Why Do You Need To Make A Profit?
By Michael StoneDon’t confuse profit with salary or hourly wages. Making a profit isn’t optional: Your business needs profit to survive.
Taxes and Profit and Markup
By Michael StoneMichael addresses a few different questions we’ve heard recently, primarily dealing with taxes and profit and calculating your markup.
Know Your Numbers: Current Ratio
By Michael StoneThere is a measure you can use to determine how financially solid your company is at any given point in time. It’s called the current ratio, and it’s a good idea to check it regularly.
Estimating, Labor Burden, Cost of Goods Sold
By Michael StoneWhen you own a small business you wear a lot of hats. Understanding the numbers might not be your favorite hat, but numbers are important because they show where you stand financially.
What Should You Do With Your Profit?
By Michael StoneThe best way to avoid paying taxes is to not make a profit at all, but it’s a rough way to live.
Profit and Loss and Markup
By Michael StoneWhen your books are set up properly, it’s easy to calculate your markup, and it’s also easy to compare your actual results to your estimates.
Calculating for Taxes
By Michael StoneTaxes are the price you pay for being profitable. It’s a good thing when your business is in the black and you need to pay taxes on it. It’s not good when you’re taken by surprise.
Construction Business Safeguards: Fraud and Embezzlement
By Michael StoneWe hear many stories from business owners who have had to recover from the theft of funds by their own employees. Today we’re sharing a list of things you can do to protect yourself and your business.
Job Costs and Overhead
By Michael StoneI’ve seen contractors try to apportion overhead on a daily, weekly, monthly or per job basis when compiling their estimates. I don’t recommend any of those approaches.
Bookkeeping, Markup, Taxes, Advertising
By Michael StoneThis week I want to catch up on a few things that have been bothering me.
Accounting – Keeping Track of Your Jobs
By Michael StoneIt’s easy to know if you’ve made a profit when every transaction is complete in a day. It isn’t as easy in construction, where a job might take a week, a month, or even more than a year to complete.
Paying Yourself
By Michael StoneYou’re in business to provide a service and make a profit doing it. Having the financial info you need to make decisions is critical for your business success.
Recover Overhead and Profit in your Labor Rate
By Michael StoneThere are four basic ways to charge for construction services. These are fixed fee or lump sum pricing, Time & Material pricing, Cost Plus, and using an hourly rate.
Labor Rate for Construction
By Michael StoneI’m frequently asked for the “industry standard” rate per hour for various types of work. There isn’t an industry standard markup, and there isn’t an industry standard hourly labor rate.
Is It Gouging or a Fair Price?
By Michael StoneAn earlier post of ours is getting a few homeowners riled up. The post discusses homeowners who have contacted us, unhappy about the prices their contractor is charging.
Overhead Expenses in Accounting Software
By Michael StoneI was reminded again this week by a dear friend who is an expert in the use of QuickBooks of the necessary care that needs to be taken when you set up your accounting.
Provide a Service, Make a Profit
By Michael StoneA young businessman called. He was in a state of shock after checking his books over the weekend and found over $11,000 in receivables, much of it over 30 days.
Salary and Markup
By Michael StoneOne of our clients called with cash flow problems. Leads were coming in, sales and production was good, correct number of employees for the volume of work, but no money.
Definition of Terms – Construction Accounting
By Michael StoneTime for a quick review of some terms: gross profit, net profit, owner’s salary, owner’s wages. Owner’s salary is overhead, owner’s wages are a job cost.