Construction Accounting Services in New York

Danzinger & Co. provides construction accounting, bookkeeping and tax services for general contractors, subcontractors, developers and specialty trades across New York. We run job costing and WIP schedules, keep percentage-of-completion revenue and retainage straight, handle New York sales tax on capital improvements, and prepare the statements your bank and surety need.

Book a Strategy Call What we handle

Earned revenue$0

Billed to date$0

Retainage held$0

Job profit to date$0

Tap a job to switch. Each slab set is work earned; every pay app holds 10% back as retainage.

What Are Construction Accounting Services?

The questions New York contractors ask us most, answered in plain English. Swipe through.

What is construction accounting?

Construction accounting is project-based accounting for contractors: every dollar of labor, materials, subcontracts and equipment is tied to a specific job, revenue is recognized as the work progresses instead of when the project ends, and retainage, change orders and pay applications are tracked separately from ordinary invoices.

Done right, it shows which jobs make money before they are finished, and gives your bank and bonding company statements they can trust.

A job-site office with rolled plans, a laptop and a hard hat

How is it different from regular bookkeeping?

A regular business sells the same thing over and over and gets paid on delivery. A contractor sells one-off projects that run for months, gets paid in stages against pay applications, has 5–10% of every payment held back as retainage, and carries costs for work it has not billed yet.

That is why contractors need a job-cost ledger and a WIP schedule on top of the normal profit and loss statement. The P&L alone cannot tell you whether you are winning.

A set of blueprints laid beside an open ledger and calculator

What is a WIP schedule, and why does my bank want one?

A work-in-progress schedule lists every open job with its contract value, cost to date, estimated cost to complete, percent complete, earned revenue and billings to date. The gap between what you have earned and what you have billed is your over- or under-billing.

Banks and sureties read it before they lend or bond because it reveals what a P&L hides: fading margins, front-loaded billing, and jobs that will lose money at completion.

A site superintendent reviewing progress on a tablet in front of a building frame

Percentage of completion or completed contract?

Percentage of completion recognizes revenue as costs are incurred against the estimate, so profit shows up while the job runs. Completed contract waits until the end. The IRS lets smaller contractors, roughly under $30 million in average gross receipts, use the completed-contract or cash method for tax, which can defer income.

Most growing contractors run percentage of completion for their books and a deferral method for tax. We set up both so they reconcile.

A mid-rise building half complete under a tower crane at dusk

When should a contractor hire a CPA?

Before you bid your first bonded job, before you hire your first W-2 crew, and before a prevailing-wage contract. Bonding needs CPA-prepared statements with a WIP schedule, payroll brings certified payroll and workers’ comp audits, and a wrong sales tax call on a capital improvement can cost you the margin on the job.

A CPA who works with New York contractors will also flag the state specifics: Form ST-124, contractor registration, and electronic certified payroll through the State Department of Labor.

A contractor and an accountant reviewing figures inside a site trailer

Many Contractors Win the Job and Lose the Money — Don’t Be One of Them

Construction is one of the few businesses where you can be profitable on paper and broke in the bank. Costs hit months before the pay application clears, 5–10% of every invoice is held as retainage, revenue has to be recognized as the work progresses, and one wrong sales tax classification can erase a job’s margin.

When all of that runs through a generic P&L, you can’t see which jobs are winning, your bank and surety can’t trust your statements, and bonding capacity shrinks right when you need it to grow. These are the four problems we see most often on job sites across Rockland, Westchester and the five boroughs.

Challenge 01

Three jobs up. One quietly down $40,000.

Challenge 02

Over-billed by $120,000, and it looked like cash.

Challenge 03

10% of every job, sitting in someone else’s account.

Challenge 04

Repair or capital improvement? The answer changes the invoice.

01

Profitable company, losing jobs

Without job costing, overhead, labor burden and subcontractor invoices land in one bucket. The company shows a profit while one project bleeds, and you find out when it’s too late to change the bid or the crew.

02

Billing that’s ahead of the work

Front-loaded pay applications feel great until the WIP schedule shows the revenue was never earned. Your bank and surety will see it before you do, and next year’s bonding capacity pays for it.

03

Retainage you can’t spend

Owners hold 5–10% of each pay app until substantial completion. Track it inside regular receivables and your cash forecast goes wrong; forget to bill for it at closeout and it never comes back.

04

Sales tax on the wrong side of the line

In New York a capital improvement is exempt with a Form ST-124 on file, but you pay tax on the materials; a repair is taxable to the customer. Get it backwards and the audit lands on the contractor.

How We Help Construction Businesses in New York

Job-Level Numbers Are the Difference Between Busy and Profitable.

Danzinger & Co. is a New City, NY CPA firm that keeps the books for general contractors, subcontractors, developers and specialty trades — electrical, plumbing, HVAC, concrete, roofing and more. We build your construction accounting the way projects actually run: estimate, cost codes, pay applications, retainage, closeout — so every number ties to a job and every job tells you the truth.

Here’s what we do for you:

Run job costing on every project
Set up job costing so labor, materials, subcontracts, equipment and burden land on the right project. Each job gets its own cost codes and budget. You see estimate versus actual by phase while the work is happening, not after the final invoice.
Build & maintain your WIP schedule
Prepare a monthly work-in-progress schedule with percent complete, earned revenue and over/under billings. The same report your bank and surety ask for, produced every month from your own job-cost data, so there are no surprises at year end.
Recognize revenue correctly
Apply percentage-of-completion or completed-contract revenue recognition to your books and your tax return. Books on percentage of completion for management and bonding; a deferral method for tax where you qualify; both reconciled so nothing is counted twice.
Track retainage & change orders
Track retainage receivable and payable, change orders and pay applications separately from ordinary invoices. Retainage sits in its own account with a release date per job, and approved change orders update the contract value before the next pay app.
Handle NYS sales tax for contractors
Handle New York sales tax on capital improvements, repairs and materials, including Form ST-124 documentation. We classify each job, keep the capital improvement certificates on file, and make sure you pay tax at the supply house only when you should.
Manage certified payroll & labor
Manage certified payroll, prevailing wage reporting, union remittances and 1099s for subcontractors. Electronic certified payroll filings for public work, workers’ comp and liability premium audits, and subcontractor 1099s from one payroll ledger.
Prepare bonding & bank statements
Prepare CPA financial statements and WIP schedules that meet surety and lender requirements. Reviewed or compiled statements in the format bonding agents expect, delivered on the timeline your renewal needs.
File New York State & City returns
Handle New York State and City filings, contractor registration renewals and the entity returns behind your company. Corporate, partnership and LLC returns, quarterly estimates, NYC filings and the compliance calendar for every registration and license.

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Why Choose Danzinger & Co. for Your Construction Accounting

We know New York job sites

Prevailing wage, Form ST-124, certified payroll, NYC filings: we work inside these rules every week, for trades across Rockland, Westchester and the five boroughs.

You talk to a senior accountant

No junior hand-offs. The person who understands your WIP schedule is the person who answers when your bonding agent calls.

Flat, predictable pricing

You know the cost before the work starts, and it doesn’t jump because you won a bigger job.

Stop Guessing Which Jobs Make Money. Call Us First.

One conversation is usually enough to see where a job-cost ledger and a real WIP schedule would change your next bid. Call (347) 410-1839 or send us a note below.

Book a Strategy Call

Construction Accounting FAQ

What is retainage in construction accounting?

Retainage is the 5–10% of each pay application an owner holds back until the project is substantially complete. It is still your revenue, so it is recorded as retainage receivable, separate from regular receivables, and billed at closeout. We track the release date on every job so it is collected, not forgotten.

Do contractors charge sales tax in New York?

It depends on the job. Repair and maintenance work is taxable to the customer. A capital improvement is exempt when the customer gives you a completed Form ST-124, but you pay sales tax on the materials you buy for it. We classify each contract up front so the invoice and the supply-house purchase are both handled correctly.

What financial statements do I need for bonding?

Sureties typically want CPA-prepared statements — reviewed for most mid-size contractors, audited for larger programs — with a work-in-progress schedule and a completed-contract schedule attached. We prepare the WIP monthly, so the year-end package is a summary rather than a scramble.

Can you clean up job costs on projects already underway?

Yes. We rebuild the job-cost ledger from invoices, payroll and subcontractor pay apps, re-code costs to the right jobs and phases, and produce a corrected WIP schedule you can hand to your bank. Most catch-ups take three to five weeks.

We want to hear from you!

Tell us what you build and how you get paid, and we’ll show you what job-level reporting looks like. Fill out the form and a senior accountant will reply within one business day.

“They set up reporting that shows which projects earn the best margins. They understand service businesses.”

SK

Scott KerityMain Man Water Main & Sewer

“It’s very hard to find a really good accountant. When you do, you never look back.”

YE

Yehuda EckhausGoogle review

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