Know which projects made money, what the crew actually cost, and how much cash you need to get through winter. Bookkeeping in QuickBooks Online built for design-build and maintenance businesses in Frederick, Maryland and surrounding areas.
A landscape design firm doesn't sell hours or widgets. It sells projects: a design phase with a deposit, an installation with plants, hardscape, subcontractors, and crew labor, and often a maintenance contract afterward. Generic bookkeeping lumps all of that into one revenue line and one "materials" expense, and at year-end you know the company made money but not which jobs did.
We keep the books for a landscape design firm today, and the setup is the same every time: every dollar in and out is tagged to a project, labor is allocated by job, deposits are kept separate from earned revenue, and the monthly reports answer the question owners actually ask — was that job worth it?
Projects set up per job in QuickBooks Online. Design fees, installs, change orders, and maintenance contracts each show their own margin.
Payroll reports from your provider reconciled into the books, labor allocated to jobs, overtime and workers' comp tracked as true job cost.
Nursery, stone, irrigation, and subcontractor invoices coded to cost of goods sold and to the job. Markup and material margin visible every month.
Design deposits held as liabilities until earned, so revenue is real and you always know what work you still owe.
Monthly cash-flow reports that make the spring rush and the January trough visible, with a reserve target to carry you through.
Trucks, trailers, mowers, and skid steers tracked as fixed assets with loans and depreciation ready for your CPA.
Design-phase billing, installation management, and client deposits, with project-level reporting your team can plan around.
Hardscape, planting, irrigation, and lighting crews that need job costing and clean subcontractor 1099 records.
Recurring-contract revenue, route labor costs, and seasonal snow-removal income kept separate and reconciled.
Inventory-heavy retail with Maryland sales-tax tracking and wholesale vs. retail margins reported separately.
Yes. We set up Projects (or Classes) in QuickBooks Online so labor, materials, plants, subcontractors, and equipment are tagged to each job. You see what every design-build project actually made, not just the company total.
Monthly cash-flow reporting shows the spring–summer surge and the winter trough side by side, so you know how much to reserve before the slow months. Deposits and retainers on design work are kept separate from earned revenue.
We reconcile the payroll reports from your payroll provider into the books, allocate crew labor to jobs, and track workers' comp and overtime as true job cost, so labor shows up where it belongs on each project.
Supplier invoices are coded to cost of goods sold and to the job they belong to, so markups and material margins are visible. Maryland sales-and-use tax treatment on resold materials is tracked for filings.
Deposits are recorded as customer liabilities until the work is delivered, then recognized as revenue. Your profit & loss shows real earned income and your balance sheet shows what you still owe clients in work.
