How it runs for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and landscaping companies
Card deposits are posted gross with the processor fee on its own line. Fuel, repairs and equipment leases are coded by truck, so you can see which vans cost the most to keep on the road. Every account is reconciled monthly, and a second accountant reviews the file before you see it.
What is outsourced bookkeeping?
Outsourced bookkeeping means a remote accounting team records, categorizes and reconciles your business transactions instead of an employee doing it in-house. You keep ownership of the accounting file and the bank relationship. The provider works inside your software on a fixed schedule, so the books are ready for reporting, tax and lending whenever you need them.
What we handle for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and landscaping companies
- Completed-jobs report tied to QuickBooks invoices weekly, with missed syncs posted by hand
- Supply-house statements split by job, truck stock and shop consumables
- Card and financing deposits posted gross, with fees and dealer discounts as separate lines
- Vehicle costs coded by truck: fuel cards, repairs, insurance and lease payments
- Maintenance-agreement revenue deferred and released as each visit is completed
The KPI that matters here
Revenue in the field software and revenue in the ledger agree to the dollar at every month-end.
Field services compliance notes
Sales tax on services by state
Taxability of labor, parts and maintenance agreements is set state by state, and some states also tax at the city or county level. We map your service items to the right tax codes in QuickBooks Online and reconcile the tax collected against the liability each period. Filing stays with you or your tax preparer; we supply the reconciled workings.
Job costing
Materials, technician hours, subcontractor bills and permit fees are coded to the job they belong to, so a large install can be reviewed against its estimate. Progress payments on installs are held as customer deposits until the work is complete, which keeps revenue in the month it was earned.
Technician commissions
Commission plans based on sold revenue, gross margin or spiffs are documented once and calculated the same way every pay period. We accrue the commission in the month of the sale and reverse it when payroll runs, so the P&L does not spike on payday.
Inventory on trucks
Van stock is an asset until it is used, and unrecorded stock is a common reason field-service margins look wrong. We record a monthly count per truck, post the adjustment, and flag trucks whose usage is far above the fleet average for the owner to look into.
Field services software we work in
- QuickBooks Online
- Gusto
- ServiceTitan
- Jobber
- Housecall Pro
- All 50 platforms
More for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and landscaping companies
Other services for field services
Frequently asked questions
How do you get job data out of ServiceTitan or Jobber?
We use the built-in accounting sync plus the standard completed-jobs, payments and inventory exports. Each week the bookkeeper compares the export to the invoices that reached QuickBooks Online and posts anything missing. Nothing changes for your dispatchers or technicians; the work happens on the accounting side, inside your existing file.
Do we need to change our chart of accounts for job-level bookkeeping?
Usually only a little. Most field-service files need department classes for install, service and maintenance, a truck class list, and separate income items for parts, labor and agreements. We map your existing accounts to that structure during onboarding and leave the account numbers your tax preparer already knows in place.
What if our technicians collect cash and checks on site?
Cash and checks collected in the field are recorded against the ticket in your software and then matched to the bank deposit. The bookkeeper reconciles the day's collections report to the deposit slip, so a check that sits in a van for a week shows up as undeposited funds rather than as a missing payment.
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