For small construction + trades contractors.
Bookkeeping built for the job-cost view.
Each job gets its own subaccount. Progress draws split between Cash and Retainage Receivable. The P&L filters by job at close. Trade-sub 1099s aggregate the year. Workers-comp audit and tax-pro get the same numbers from one monthly PDF.
No card required · $15/mo after trial · 30-day money-back
Job-level P&L from real accounts
Active jobs get subaccounts under Construction Revenue and Construction COGS. Material runs, equipment rentals, trade-sub payments — coded to a job, summed on close. Profit by job is a filter, not a spreadsheet.
Retainage as a real asset
5–10% of every progress payment is held until punch-list clears. PlainBooks posts Retainage Receivable on the Balance Sheet, separate from cash on hand. When the customer signs off, the entry reverses to Cash. Disputed retainage stays visible.
1099 summary for the trade subs
Aggregate the year-to-date payments to each unincorporated trade sub. The 1099 summary report drops the names + totals you need at year-end, so the January filing isn't a manual spreadsheet pass.
Where the books get messy
You ran four jobs this month. Two were federal-funded so they need certified payroll on form WH-347 every Friday at prevailing wage. Three had retainage held back at 7%. The 84 Lumber tab is $11,400, you used Sunbelt for two weeks on the school job, and one of your trade subs just sent over a 1099-NEC request because you paid him $11,200 over three jobs. Workers comp is by trade class — laborer rate, carpentry rate, roofing rate — and the audit shows up next month.
This is construction bookkeeping at the end of a real month. The books need to be right because a federal-job audit, an insurance audit, and a lien-claim period all hinge on what your records say.
What PlainBooks does
PlainBooks gives you the books — chart of accounts you can shape with job-cost subaccounts, the journal where every progress draw, material purchase, equipment rental, and payroll JE writes a balanced entry, and a period close that locks each month with proper closing entries to Retained Earnings.
Job-level visibility is built on accounts: each active job gets its own subaccount under Construction Revenue and Construction COGS, so the Profit & Loss can be filtered by job at close.
Bills get an accrual entry when you log them and a payment entry when you pay them — so the 84 Lumber net-10, the Sunbelt return, the trade-sub 1099 payment, all aging correctly. Customer progress payments split between Cash and Retainage Receivable (a real asset that lives on the Balance Sheet until punch-list clears).
When the month closes
Close the period and PlainBooks generates the closing entries. The monthly PDF package — Trial Balance, P&L by job, Balance Sheet (with retainage receivable and retainage payable broken out), AR aging, AP aging, GL detail, 1099 summary for the trade subs — comes out in one file. Your tax pro and your insurance auditor see the same numbers.
PlainBooks does not run certified payroll for federal jobs or fill out form WH-347 — those live in your payroll provider's certified-payroll module. PlainBooks posts the resulting payroll journal entry per pay period so your books match what got reported.
If a customer disputes punch-list items and retainage drags, reopen the period to recognize the write-down (or hold the receivable), and re-close. The audit log shows every change.
Bills you can't afford to forget
PlainBooks puts each one on the same calendar as your real bank balance, so you see the collision before it happens.
- Materials (Home Depot Pro, 84 Lumber, ABC Supply, Ferguson)Daily-to-weekly, COD or net 10$3,000–$15,000/mo
- Payroll (2-5 person crew)Weekly or biweekly$6,000–$20,000
- Equipment rental (Sunbelt, United, Herc)Daily/weekly during projects$300–$3,000/job
- Truck + trailer + vehicle paymentsMonthly, year-round$600–$2,500
- GL + builders risk + workers comp + autoMonthly$700–$2,500
- FuelWeekly$300–$1,200
Retainage that shows up on the Balance Sheet
A 7% retainage on a $60,000 job is $4,200 held back until punch-list clears and the customer signs off. PlainBooks posts that to Retainage Receivable on the Balance Sheet — not to Cash. The working-capital line is honest. The Balance Sheet is honest. The customer dispute, when it happens, has a real ledger entry to write down or write off against.
What PlainBooks doesn't do
Honest about scope. If you need any of these, you need different software.
- Bid jobs or build estimates — that's Buildertrend, JobTread, Procore
- Run certified payroll on form WH-347 for federal jobs — that lives in your payroll provider's certified-payroll module; PlainBooks posts the resulting JE
- Manage change orders or daily logs — your project-management tool
- Track materials on the truck — that's an inventory job, not a GL job
- Tell you when to take retainage to small claims. Disputes are yours to handle; PlainBooks records what's collectible while you do.
Ready to see your cash position?
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Start your free trialCommon questions
- Does PlainBooks work for construction / trades?
- Yes. PlainBooks is general-ledger bookkeeping software — workspaces, chart of accounts, journal entries, period close, bank reconciliation, the full report set (Trial Balance, P&L, Balance Sheet, GL detail, AR aging, AP aging, 1099 summary). The construction / trades-specific copy on this page describes the accounts and bills that matter most in this vertical.
- What does it cost?
- $15/month or $150/year when signups open. One price, all features, no tiers. Signups aren't open yet — leave your email on the home page and we'll send one note when launch happens.
- Do I need to connect a bank account?
- No. PlainBooks does not ingest bank feeds. You post journal entries directly (and for trucking workspaces, trips and state-mileage entries write the underlying entries automatically). If you want bank-fed cash visibility, that's a different category of tool.
- What about cash-flow forecasting?
- On the roadmap, not in the current build. PlainBooks today shows what your books say — current balances, what's open in AR and AP, what's posted, what's pending close. We don't promise features that aren't built.