Outsourced accounting team for construction subs.
Public work pays well. The paperwork is the price.
Certified payroll reporting, job costing, and retainage tracking, backed by CPA-led bookkeeping and controller-level financial guidance, nationwide.
You didn't get into construction to fight paperwork.
You started the business because you know the work.
Most sub owners I talk to can run crews, read drawings, and deliver on schedule for GCs who don't accept excuses.
What they did not sign up for was producing certified payrolls every month, tracking retainage across a dozen contracts, matching progress billings to a schedule of values, and finding out in April which jobs actually made money.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Certified payroll due every week and someone in the office learning it under a deadline.
A payroll kicked back by the GC over classifications or fringe, holding up your money.
Retainage sitting on every job with no single place that shows what you're owed.
Progress billings that don't tie to the schedule of values.
No real way to tell which jobs made money until the job is closed.
Bid opportunities on public work you've passed on because the compliance side felt like too much.
Revenue is growing but cash always feels tight between pay apps.
Prophet Accounting is the outsourced accounting team built for construction subcontractors on bonded, public, and prevailing wage work.
We handle the certified payroll reports, the job costing, the retainage tracking, AR & AP, and the monthly close, then go a layer deeper with cash flow forecasting, budgets, and financial analysis, so the numbers are always current, always compliant, and always ready for whatever decision you need to make.
Here's what's included when you work with us
We're a complete financial back-office that specializes in construction subcontractors.
Certified Payroll Reporting + Prevailing Wage
Compliant payroll reports out the door every week.
- Weekly certified payroll reports in the required format
- Base and fringe splits calculated correctly
- Overtime and rate changes handled right
- Amendments prepared when corrections are needed
- Classifications that hold up under GC review
Bookkeeping + Job Costing
Every contract tracked, every margin visible.
- Transaction categorization to the right accounts
- Bank and credit card reconciliation monthly
- Costs and labor tracked by job at burdened rates
- Retainage receivable tracked on every contract
- Month-end close on a timely cadence
AP + Billing Coordination
Cash moving in and out without the chaos.
- Vendor bill entry and payment management
- Progress invoices tied to your schedule of values
- Coordination with your payroll provider (they run payroll, we handle the reporting)
- Invoice creation and follow up if needed
Reporting + Controller-Level Guidance
Numbers that tell you what's happening and what to do about it.
- Monthly P&L, balance sheet, cash flow
- Margin by job while the job is still running
- Cash flow forecasting so you see a crunch weeks before it hits
- Budgets and financial analysis when you're planning the year or a big move
- Year-end tax-ready package to your CPA
Signs your books aren't telling you the truth
Most subs don't realize their back office is failing them until a pay app gets held up. These are the signs it's already failing you.
You closed out a job and cannot actually tell whether you made money on it
Retainage is being tracked in someone's head or a spreadsheet instead of on the balance sheet
A certified payroll report got kicked back by the GC and your pay app sat until it was fixed
Your progress billings don't tie to the schedule of values without a scramble
Revenue is growing but cash always feels tight between pay apps
You want to add a crew or chase bigger contracts but have no real way to know if you can afford it
You've passed on public work because the compliance side felt like too much to take on
Your CPA charges extra every year to untangle the books before they can file
Someone in the office spends hours every week on payroll reports and job paperwork instead of running the office
We're built for subcontractors who:
If that's you, we should talk.
The math most subcontractors never run
There are four ways to handle the back office on contract work. Here's what each one actually costs.
DIY / Office Manager
Free, until a payroll gets rejected.
- Certified payroll reports learned under deadline, in the office, on the fly
- Retainage tracked in someone's head instead of on the balance sheet
- Job margins unknown until the job is closed and the money is spent
- A rejected payroll report or compliance miss holds up your pay app
- No forecasting, so the cash crunch between pay apps is always a surprise
- Real annual cost: $15,000–$40,000+ in time and mistakes
Cheapest on paper. Most expensive when something breaks.
Cheap Outsourcing
Cheap monthly fee. Expensive consequences.
- $200–$500 per month, plus surprise cleanup fees
- Has never seen a certified payroll form, and you're the training program
- No job costing, so every contract lands in one bucket
- No idea what retainage is or where it belongs on your books
- No CPA reviewing the work, so errors compound until April
- When a GC bounces a payroll report, you're on your own
Real annual cost: $3,000–$8,000, plus what bad data costs you on every bid.
In-House Hire
Better data, much bigger expense.
- $50,000–$60,000 salary for a decent full-charge bookkeeper, $65,000–$80,000+ all-in after taxes and benefits
- Prevailing wage experience is rare at that price, so you're still the training program
- A construction controller who can forecast and analyze runs $100,000–$140,000 in salary alone
- Hiring, training, vacation coverage, and turnover risk all on you
- One person, no review layer, no backup when they leave mid-project
Real annual cost: $65,000–$80,000+ for a bookkeeper. $115,000+ for a controller.
Prophet Accounting
Construction-fluent, CPA-led, controller-level guidance built in.
- Certified payroll reports produced weekly on real public projects, under real GC review
- Job costing, retainage tracking, and progress billing support built in
- Cash flow forecasting, budgets, and financial analysis on top of the bookkeeping
- CPA review on everything, so the books hold up at tax time and bond time
- Direct access to the firm owner, answers the same day
Starts at $3,500/month, with certified payroll reporting scoped per active project. Less than an in-house bookkeeper's all-in cost, roughly a third of a construction controller, and no hiring risk.
How we work with subcontractors
There is no mystery about what you are signing up for. Here is how the process goes from the first call to steady state.
Fit Call
Thirty minutes on your jobs, your payroll situation, and how your office runs today. We take on a limited number of construction clients, so this call goes both ways. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you straight.
Scope and Pricing
If there is a fit, we build a custom scope based on your job volume, payroll complexity, and compliance load. Flat monthly fee, no long-term contracts required.
Onboarding
We connect to your QuickBooks file, restructure your books around jobs and contracts, clean up what is behind, and stand up certified payroll if you need it. This part works because your office works with us. That is what step one confirms.
Weekly + Monthly Rhythm
Certified payrolls go out on schedule every week. Books close monthly with margin by job, retainage tracked, and reporting delivered on a predictable cadence.
Year-End Handoff
In Q1, we prepare your complete year-end tax package and deliver it directly to your CPA so tax season stops being a scramble.
What you actually get out of working with us
It's not just clean books.
Financial ROI
You bid with real numbers instead of gut feel, stop losing margin to jobs you would have walked away from, and quit paying for cleanup work every April. Certified payroll done right also means pay apps stop getting held up, and money you earned shows up when it should.
Strategic ROI
You stop guessing about crews, equipment, and which work to chase. When you know your margin by job while the job is still running, you double down on the contracts that pay and bid the rest accordingly. And with the compliance side handled, public work stops being something you avoid.
Mental ROI
The biggest one most owners don't expect. No more Thursday nights doing certified payroll at the kitchen table. No more wondering what's sitting in retainage across your jobs. No more April scramble. You get back the mental space to run crews and win work, which is the job you actually signed up for.
Built for construction subcontractors, specifically
Construction is a specialty here, not a sideline. Our work includes live weekly certified payroll production on active public projects under GC review, so we know the difference between base and fringe, why the blended rate matters on overtime, what a schedule of values is for, and why retainage receivable belongs on your balance sheet instead of in your head. Whether you run service work alongside contract jobs or live entirely on bid work, the books get structured around how your business actually operates. You won't spend the first three months teaching us your industry.
Why we’re a fit
There are a lot of bookkeeping services available. Here is what separates us:
CPA-led. You work directly with a CPA who specializes in construction businesses. You will not be working with an account manager, a junior bookkeeper, or a rotating team.
Construction subcontractor specialization. We deeply understand how bonded, public, and prevailing wage work actually flows: certified payroll, retainage, progress billing, and job-level costs. You are not paying us to learn your industry.
Full back-office, not just bookkeeping. We handle everything from transaction categorization, to account reconciliation, to certified payroll, AP, billing coordination, close, reporting, and year-end handoff management. We are the complete financial function for your business, all for one flat monthly fee.
Direct access to the firm owner. Questions get answered the same day they are asked, which matters when a certified payroll deadline is Friday.
Timely monthly close. Books closed and financial statements delivered on a predictable cadence every month, with margin by job while the job is still running. No more 60-day-old data.
No long-term contracts. Month-to-month service you can cancel any time. We earn your business every month.
What our clients have said about us.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Construction engagements start at $3,500 per month for the full back office: bookkeeping, job costing, retainage tracking, AP coordination, monthly close, reporting, and controller-level guidance including cash flow forecasting and budgets. Certified payroll reporting is scoped on top, priced per active project. For context, that's less than the all-in cost of an in-house bookkeeper and roughly a third of a construction controller's salary.
There's also a one-time setup fee, starting at one month's fee, covering the work of learning your contracts, restructuring the books around your jobs, and standing up certified payroll reporting. If your books are behind, cleanup is scoped separately on top.
Flat monthly fee, no long-term contract, and the fit call gives you an exact number.
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Yes. We handle the monthly books and deliver a complete year-end tax package directly to your tax preparer. If you don't have one, we can recommend firms we work well with. The goal is that tax season becomes a handoff instead of a scramble.
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Yes, and most of our construction clients start exactly there. Cleanup is priced off your quoted monthly fee: the monthly rate, times the number of months behind, times 50% for clients who sign on for ongoing monthly service. As an example, if your monthly fee is $3,500 and your books are six months behind, cleanup runs $3,500 × 6 × 50%, which is $10,500. The discount reflects that cleanup work goes faster once we're the ones maintaining the books going forward, and clients who only want a one-time cleanup without monthly service are quoted at the full rate.
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No. The work happens in QuickBooks Online and secure cloud tools, and we serve subcontractors nationwide. Certified payroll requirements vary by state and by project, and part of onboarding is confirming the specific requirements your contracts carry.
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Yes, certified payroll reporting is a core service rather than an add-on. Your payroll provider runs the actual payroll, and we produce the certified payroll reports from that data: base and fringe splits, overtime handled correctly, amendments when corrections are needed, and classifications that hold up under GC review. We produce these weekly on active public projects. If your reports keep coming back rejected or your office is drowning in them, this is exactly the problem we solve.
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Yes. Part of what keeps subs off public work is the compliance overhead, and that's the piece we take on. We'll set up your books and payroll process so you can bid prevailing wage work with the back office already handled.
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Retainage receivable gets tracked on your balance sheet by contract, so you always know what's held, on which jobs, and when it's collectible. Most subs are tracking retainage in someone's head or a spreadsheet, and money that isn't tracked has a way of not getting collected.
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QuickBooks Online is the core, alongside cloud time tracking and digital document sharing. If your office still runs on paper, we'll tell you honestly during the fit call what needs to change for this to work.
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Local Areas Served
We work with construction subcontractors remotely across the country. For businesses located in Florida, we are based in Port St. Lucie and serve the following local markets in person when needed: