Construction & Builder

Bookkeeping for Sydney builders and construction

You manage a site with 20 moving parts. Your books should not be the 21st.

Sound familiar?

If any of these describe your week, you are not alone — and you do not have to keep doing it yourself.

Progress claims and retention tracking

You invoice on percentage complete, but retention holds back 5–10%. Your bank balance never reflects what you are owed. Cash flow planning is impossible without proper tracking.

Subcontractor payments and compliance

PAYG withholding, ABN verification, taxable payment annual reports — every subbie payment has compliance obligations. Miss one and the ATO penalty is yours, not theirs.

Project costing across multiple sites

Materials, labour, and plant hire spread across three active jobs. Without job-by-job tracking, you do not know which project is profitable until it is too late.

What we handle for you

Every item below is done by our team and reviewed by your CPA. You do not touch any of it.

  • Progress claim tracking and retention management
  • Job-by-job cost coding and profitability reporting
  • Subcontractor PAYG compliance and ABN verification
  • Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) preparation and lodgement
  • BAS preparation from construction-specific accounts
  • Monthly project cost report against tender budget

The outcome

Every project has its own cost report. Retention is tracked. Subcontractor compliance is handled. And you know which jobs make money before they finish — not after.

We were losing money on two projects and did not know it until they set up job costing. Now we catch it in month one.

Residential builder, Western Sydney

Common questions from construction & builders

What is a Taxable Payments Annual Report and do I need to lodge one?

If you pay subcontractors for building and construction services, you must lodge a TPAR with the ATO by 28 August each year. It reports all payments made to each subcontractor during the financial year. We prepare and lodge this as part of your year-end compliance.

How do I track retention across multiple projects?

We set up a retention receivable account for each project, tracking the retention percentage held on each progress claim. When retention is released (typically at practical completion or defects liability period end), we reconcile the release against the receivable.

Should I buy or hire plant and equipment?

It depends on utilisation rate, cash flow, and tax position. Owning gives you depreciation deductions and asset value. Hiring is a fully deductible expense with no balance sheet commitment. We model both for each major equipment decision.

Need tax and advisory too?

Tax structuring, advisory, and strategic planning for your industry — from the same team.

Ready to talk?

15 minutes. No obligation. We assess whether our specialisations match your situation. If they don't, we'll tell you straight.