Profit First Bookkeeping & Financial Strategy for the Trades

You built your business swinging a hammer. Growing it takes a different set of tools.

Construction, plumbing, roofing, remodeling, waterproofing. You know the work cold. What keeps you up at night is job costing, cash flow between draws, chasing change orders, and wondering whether the last project actually made money. That is our craft. We build the financial systems that let you run the business instead of the business running you.

At Reconciled Solutions, we measure success in three ways:

TIME SAVED

TIME WELL-SPENT

TIME INVESTED

TIME SAVED

Spend your time on what matters, to you and the business.

Cross Cuts more than doubled their monthly transactions as they grew. Instead of the back office falling apart, structured systems handled the load quietly in the background.

Purpose-based bank accounts on autopilot: Profit, Tax, Materials, and Payroll each get their share before the money gets spent.

Clean QuickBooks Online categorization built around how trades actually run, not a generic chart of accounts.

Less time digging for financial information, more time out on the job.

TIME WELL-SPENT

When you can see the true cost of every job, you stop guessing.

Better data leads directly to better pricing, better bids, and better decisions.

Real visibility into which jobs, crews, and service lines actually make money

Change orders captured and billed, so the revenue you earned is the revenue you collect

A financial foundation strong enough to hire, expand services, and grow on purpose.

TIME INVESTED

Rapid growth breaks a business without the right foundation underneath it.

Investing in systems early is what turned a busy season into a scalable company.

Cash flow forecasting and Profit First reserves so payroll, materials, and subs are covered even between draws.

Job-costing systems that show revenue against labor, materials, and subcontractors on every project.

Year-end and tax readiness handled all year long, so April is not a fire drill.

Tablet, people or manager in carpentry warehouse for furniture manufacturing, renovation or labor. Mentor, apprentice or mature carpenter talking for production, remodeling maintenance and research.

Most trades owners were tradespeople first.

You started because you were good at the work. Then the business grew, and suddenly you are managing invoices, payroll, subs, materials, sales tax, and a bank balance that swings wildly from one draw to the next. Nobody handed you a manual for that part.

Here is what we believe. A profitable trades business does not grow by working harder. It grows when the owner can stop worrying about the money and start making decisions with it. That takes clean books, real job-cost visibility, and a partner who explains what the numbers mean in plain language.

what we do

Clarity, cash flow, and profit you can count on

Everything a growing trades business needs on the financial side, handled by a team that knows the industry.

Job Costing & Profitability

Know what every job, crew, and service line actually earns, in real time.

Cash Flow & Profit First

Forecasting and reserves so payroll and materials are covered between draws.

Monthly Bookkeeping & Reporting

Clean QuickBooks Online books and reports you can actually read.

Payroll & Subcontractors

W-2 and 1099 handled and tied back to true labor cost per job.

Sales Tax & Compliance

Ongoing sales tax management and records that stay audit-ready.

Advisory & Education

A financial partner who teaches, not just reports. Frameworks like Profit First and Fix This Next put to work for you.

Fluent in the software the trades run on, including QuickBooks Online, Jobber, Joist, ServiceTitan, Acculynx, Clover, Square, DJEP, Shopkeep, and Housecall Pro.

Get Started

"We needed more than bookkeeping. We needed a partner who could help us understand our numbers and build confidence in the financial side of our business. Reconciled Solutions has provided the reporting, guidance, and support we needed to make better decisions and stay focused on growth."

DAWN COLLINS

Boxer Exteriors

CLIENT SUCCESS STORY

"Reconciled Solutions helped us spend less time worrying about the books and more time focusing on our customers, our team, and growing Boxer Exteriors."

FINANCIAL CLARITY ∙ TAX STRATEGY ∙ DATA-DRIVEN STRATEGY

Dawn Collins wears many hats. As Boxer Exteriors grew, running operations, serving customers, overseeing projects, and managing the back office all got more complex at once. Coming from a nonprofit background, Dawn was learning the financial side of ownership while leading a fast-growing roofing company, and she needed reporting she could trust.

We stepped in with ongoing bookkeeping and reconciliations, consistent monthly reporting, cash flow visibility, and coordinated tax preparation and year-end support. Monthly review meetings became a regular part of how the business makes decisions, paired with financial education so the numbers actually made sense.

Financial discussions at Boxer Exteriors shifted from reactive to proactive. Reporting became a management tool instead of a year-end chore, and leadership gained the visibility to make decisions backed by data rather than gut feel.

Revenue increased more than 550% during the company's biggest growth phase
Gross profit increased more than 1,000% as the business scaled
Gross profit margin improved from about 24% to nearly 50%
Practice area profitability tracking provides clarity around which work to grow and which to phase out.
Net income climbed sharply once expense visibility and structure were in place
Financial reporting became a consistent, proactive management tool

"The Reconciled Solutions team does not just hand us reports. They help us understand what the numbers mean and how they impact our decisions."

NICK CROSS

CROSS CUTS & OUTDOOR DESIGN

"As Cross Cuts continued to grow, we realized that keeping up with the financial side of the business required stronger systems and better visibility into our numbers. Reconciled Solutions has helped us build confidence in our financial reporting, improve our processes, and stay focused on running the business."

Revenue grew approximately 26% across the reporting period
Gross profit increased approximately 57%
Gross profit margin improved by more than 14 percentage points, from about 59% to more than 73%
Practice area profitability tracking provides clarity around which work to grow and which to phase out.
Net income increased nearly 40%
Monthly transaction volume rose approximately 109%, handled by scalable systems instead of a scramble

As Cross Cuts continued to grow, Nick ran into a problem familiar to almost every trades owner. More customers meant more invoices, more transactions, more payroll, and a lot more financial complexity. The systems that worked for a smaller operation could not keep up with where the business was headed.

We built a stronger financial foundation with monthly bookkeeping, payroll support, sales tax management, and recurring reporting. We monitored accounts receivable, aligned revenue categories so job profitability became visible, and handled the transition from Joist to Jobber for estimating, invoicing, and customer approvals. The goal was never just cleaner books. It was systems built to support sustainable growth.

You do not have to hand this to a family member and hope for the best.

A lot of trades businesses keep the books in the family because trusting an outsider with the money feels risky. We understand that completely. We are not here to take over. We are here to give you a partner who explains everything, keeps nothing hidden, and makes the office run easier so you do not have to worry about it.

Clarity creates confidence. When you can see exactly what your business is doing, you stop hoping and start deciding.

Low angle of happy African American female engineer in yellow vest and helmet standing with laptop while working on construction project with solar batteries looking at screen

How trades businesses go from financial stress to financial confidence

No jargon, no judgment, no getting handed a stack of reports and left to figure it out.

Here's how we work together.

Discovery and Diagnosis

First, we review your books, job costing, and financial structure. We look for the gaps between what your numbers show and what is actually happening on your jobs: job profitability, materials and subcontractor tracking, payroll integrity, sales tax, and the cash flow patterns between draws.

Build Your Financial Infrastructure

Next, we clean up and organize your books, align your field and job management software like Jobber with QuickBooks Online, and establish the account structure for your Profit First system. You will have clean, accurate numbers for the first time, maybe ever.

Ongoing Strategy and Support

Monthly bookkeeping plus regular advisory sessions: not just reports, but real conversations about what the numbers mean and what to do next. We bring frameworks like Profit First, Fix This Next, and Pumpkin Planning into the work, helping you focus on your most profitable jobs and clients and let go of the work that drains the business. We can also support hiring decisions, crew and role definition, and structured quarterly planning so your whole team is rowing in the same direction.

Scale with Confidence

As your business grows, your financial infrastructure grows with it. We help you identify the right time to add crew, what each new hire actually costs the business, and how to bid and price with margins you can count on. New service lines, equipment investments, and succession planning: we are in those conversations before the decisions are made, not cleaning up afterward.

FAQs

Do you work with trades businesses specifically, or every industry?

We work with service-based businesses, and the trades are a core focus. Construction, plumbing, roofing, remodeling, and waterproofing all share the same financial challenges: job costing, cash flow between draws, change orders, and mixed W-2 and 1099 labor. We build systems around exactly those realities.

What is a Profit First Professional, and how does it apply to a trades business?

We keep the books in the family. Why would we bring in an outside firm?

Can you help me figure out if my jobs are actually profitable?

What software do you work with?

My books are a mess and I am behind. Is that a problem?

How do we get started?

What if, rather than serving your business, your business served you?

Q: What is a Profit First Professional, and how does it apply to a trades business?

Profit First is a cash management method that has you set aside profit, taxes, and owner's pay before you spend on everything else. For a trades business with wild cash swings between draws, that discipline is a lifeline. As a Certified Profit First Advisor, we tailor the allocations to your revenue and your season so the money to cover payroll and materials is always there.

Q: We keep the books in the family. Why would we bring in an outside firm?

Plenty of our clients started exactly there. We are not here to replace a trusted family member or take control away from you. We bring the systems, the industry knowledge, and the extra set of expert hands so the office runs smoother and you get real financial visibility. Everything stays transparent, and you stay in the driver's seat.

Q: Can you help me figure out if my jobs are actually profitable?

Yes, and this is one of the biggest reasons trades owners come to us. We set up job costing that tracks revenue against labor, materials, and subcontractors on every project, so you can see which jobs and crews make money and which ones quietly lose it. That clarity changes how you bid.

Q: What software do you work with?

We work in QuickBooks Online and integrate with the field and project management tools the trades rely on, including Jobber, Joist, ServiceTitan, and Housecall Pro. If you are on a different platform, we will meet you where you are and help you decide whether a change is worth it.

Q: My books are a mess and I am behind. Is that a problem?

Not at all, and you are far from alone. We handle cleanup and catch-up as a normal first step, then build systems so the books stay current going forward. There is no lecture and no judgment. There is a plan to get you caught up and keep you there.

Q: How do we get started?

Start with the Free Profit Assessment or book a call. We will talk through your business, look at where things stand, and map out what working together would look like. No pressure and no obligation.

The Profit First Formula

Sales-Expenses=Profit
Sales-Profit = Expenses

The GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) formula for determining a business's profit is Sales - Expenses = Profit. It is simple, logical and clear. Unfortunately, it's a lie.

The formula, while logically accurate, does not account for human behavior. In the GAAP formula profit is a left over, a final consideration, something that is hopefully a nice surprise at the end of the year. Alas, the profit is rarely there and the business continues on its check to check survival.

With Profit First you to flip the formula to Sales - Profit = Expenses. Logically the math is the same, but from the stand point of the entrepreneur's behavior it is radically different. With Profit First, you take a predetermined percentage of profit from every sale first, and only the remainder is available for expenses.

Start your transformation

A business
game-changer...
we know from experience.

The Profit First method is a cash management system that ensures that, no matter how much income a business owner generates, they always get paid FIRST. We believe in Profit First and we know it works because we have implemented the Profit First system ourselves.

Our profit grew by 61% within the first 12 months, while our revenue was only up 4%!

Angie Noll and her team are Mastery Certified Profit First Professionals, making Reconciled Solutions one of the few firms nationwide with her level of expertise at helping entrepreneurs and small businesses maximize and drive profitability.

Don't change habits. Leverage them.

Many entrepreneurs try to force themselves to become better at accounting. They try to become more disciplined in their fiscal management using pure willpower. But just like a muscle, willpower can be drained.

In a moment of financial stress or bigger than expected expenses, many entrepreneurs will break their own fiscal rules and spend the money they have.

The goal of Profit First isn't to change your habits. That's nearly impossible. Profit First works with your existing habits instead. By allocating your money as it comes in and removing the temptation to "borrow" from yourself, your business will become fiscally strong. You will benefit from regular profit distributions.

Learn more about Profit First

FREE DOWNLOAD

Download the first 2 chapters of Profit First, written by best-selling author, Mike Michalowicz, as our gift to help you on you new and profitable journey to managing your business' finances. For more information or Profit First coaching, contact us.