For plumbing, HVAC, + electrical contractors.
Contractor bookkeeping that separates service from install, parts from labor.
Service-call revenue and install progress payments post to separate accounts. Parts purchases accrue to AP. Customer-financing pass-through splits into Service Revenue + Finance Fee Expense. Subcontractor 1099s aggregate the year. Monthly P&L shows real margin by channel.
No card required · $15/mo after trial · 30-day money-back
Service-vs-install margin
Service calls clear same-week and pay fast. Install jobs run weeks and tie up cash in materials before the customer wires the balance. PlainBooks separates them so you see the cash drag of an installation week even when total revenue looks healthy.
Parts-house pattern
Ferguson, Johnstone, HD Supply, Winsupply. Some on net-30 accounts, some on the card. PlainBooks tallies monthly parts spend against revenue every week so the margin creep is visible before the books are done in February.
Seasonal-rush math
HVAC summer peak and heating winter peak fund the shoulder months. PlainBooks shows the runway date so you can pull a maintenance-agreement promotion forward — not wait until the slow week hits in March.
Where the books get messy
You ran 14 service calls this week. Eight cleared same-day on the card; three were billed on Net-15; three were install jobs where the customer paid a deposit and owes the balance on completion. The Ferguson tab is $2,800. The Johnstone order on Net-30 came in Tuesday. The lead tech and the apprentice each get biweekly W-2 paychecks; the subcontractor electrician got $850 for two jobs. The Housecall Pro subscription debits the 8th. The shop card was used for fuel three times and an emergency parts run Saturday.
Service calls clear fast. Install jobs tie up cash for weeks in materials and labor before the final wire. Customer-financing pass-through (Snap, Synchrony, GreenSky) splits the deposit into Service Revenue + Finance Fee Expense. The books need to handle all of it accurately for monthly close and year-end 1099 filing.
What PlainBooks does
PlainBooks gives you the books — chart of accounts shaped for an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical contractor, the journal where each service-call deposit, install progress payment, parts purchase, tech payroll, and subcontractor payment writes a balanced entry, and a period close that locks each month.
Service and install revenue post to separate accounts so the margin-per-channel picture is honest. Parts purchases accrue to AP and reverse when paid. Customer-financing pass-through splits the deposit between Service Revenue and Finance Fee Expense so the actual takeaway is one number.
Subcontractor payments accumulate by vendor so the year-end 1099-NEC filing is one report. Service-area sales tax (in jurisdictions that tax labor as well as parts) splits out into Sales Tax Payable.
When the month closes
Close the period and PlainBooks generates the closing entries. The monthly PDF package — Trial Balance, P&L (service revenue, install revenue, parts COGS, labor, fuel, vehicle, insurance), Balance Sheet (AP + vehicle loans + sales-tax liability), GL detail, AR aging for fleet and commercial accounts, AP aging for supply houses, 1099 summary — comes out in one file.
PlainBooks does not dispatch jobs, track WIP, or send field invoices. ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber handle those. PlainBooks records what cleared the bank and what each transaction was actually composed of.
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.
- Van + truck paymentsMonthly$400–$900 per vehicle
- Parts / supply housesDaily, net 30 for accounts$1,500–$5,000/mo
- FuelWeekly fill-ups$300–$900
- Payroll (techs + dispatcher)Biweekly$3,000–$10,000
- Lead-gen platforms (Angi, Thumbtack)Per-lead or monthly$200–$1,200
- GL + workers comp + commercial autoMonthly$400–$1,100
The 5% net-margin question
ACCA's contractor survey of 1,000+ shops puts the average net margin at 5% — 9% if you spend on marketing. On $15,000 of monthly revenue that is $750 left after everything. The wrong $400 mistake on a single install — material miscount, no-show callback, customer financing fall-through — eats half a month's profit. PlainBooks shows the running margin from the actual bank lines so the mistake is visible the week it happens, not at year-end.
What PlainBooks doesn't do
Honest about scope. If you need any of these, you need different software.
- Dispatch jobs or schedule techs — ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber
- Track work-in-progress or send field invoices — your field-service software
- Look up parts pricing or check inventory — that's Ferguson's app or your supply portal
- Tell you what to charge for a service call. Pricing is yours; PlainBooks shows the cost honestly so the markup math works.
Ready to see your cash position?
$15/month or $150/year (two months free). 14-day free trial. No card required.
Start your free trialCommon questions
- Does PlainBooks work for home services (plumbing, hvac, electrical)?
- 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 home services (plumbing, hvac, electrical)-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.