How do I know if a construction project is profitable?
A construction project is profitable when your revenue exceeds all costs associated with that job. That sounds simple, but most contractors undercount their costs and overestimate their margins as a result.
Start with direct costs. Materials, labor hours, and subcontractor invoices for that specific project. Add them up and subtract from your contract price plus any approved change orders. If the number is positive, you have gross profit. But gross profit isn’t the full picture.
You also need to account for overhead allocated to that project. Your truck doesn’t run for free. Your insurance covers that job. Your office rent and bookkeeping and phone bill all support the work you do on every project. Allocate a reasonable portion to each job, usually based on labor hours or revenue percentage. Contract price minus direct costs minus allocated overhead equals true profit. Many contractors who think they made money actually broke even or lost money once overhead gets counted.
Tracking matters more than math. You can’t calculate profitability if you don’t capture costs as they happen. Every material purchase, every labor hour, every sub invoice needs to be coded to the correct project. Wait until the job is done to figure it out from memory and you’ll miss things. Job costing set up correctly in your accounting software makes this tracking automatic rather than an afterthought.
Compare actual costs to your estimate during the project, not just after. If you budgeted $4,000 for electrical materials and you’ve already spent $3,800 with half the electrical work remaining, you have a problem you can still address. Wait until completion and all you can do is absorb the loss.
Track your own time if you work on jobs. Many contractor-owners don’t count their labor, which makes projects look more profitable than they are. If you spent 40 hours on a job, that has a value whether you pay yourself or not. The same goes for callbacks and warranty work. A job isn’t truly complete until the warranty period ends. Track time and materials spent on punch lists and assign them to the original project.
Post-project reviews help you bid better next time. Compare every completed job’s actual costs to the estimate. Look for patterns. Are you consistently under-bidding framing labor? Over-estimating material waste? The answer is in your completed project data if you tracked costs properly.
The bottom line is that you know a project is profitable when you can show the math with real numbers. Not a gut feeling that it went well or an assumption based on the contract value. Actual documented costs subtracted from actual documented revenue, including overhead allocation. If you’re guessing, you need better tracking. Bookkeeping services in Santa Fe NM that understand construction can help you set up systems that give you real answers instead of estimates.
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More Questions
How do I track labor costs by project in QuickBooks?
Enable projects in QuickBooks, set up time tracking that assigns hours to each project, and connect it to payroll so hours convert to actual labor costs. The setup is straightforward but requires daily discipline from your crew.
Read answerWhat expenses should contractors track for each job?
Track labor hours, materials, subcontractor invoices, equipment costs, and permits for every job. Each expense needs a job code before it hits your books. Without this discipline, you won't know which projects actually make money.
Read answerWhy are my construction job estimates always off?
Your estimates are probably off because you don't have accurate data on what past jobs actually cost. Without tracking actuals against estimates, you keep repeating the same mistakes on every bid.
Read answerWhat is the best bookkeeping software for contractors?
For most small to mid-size contractors, QuickBooks Online is the standard. It handles job costing, integrates with common tools, and every accountant knows how to work with it. The key is setting it up correctly for contractor needs.
Read answerHow do I set up job costing for my construction business?
Job costing tracks every cost against the specific project that incurred it so you know which jobs make money. Setup requires defining cost categories, configuring your accounting software for project tracking, and establishing consistent processes for capturing labor and expenses.
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