BEST ACCOUNTANT FOR EXCAVATION CONTRACTORS?
The best accountant for an excavation contractor is one who codes cost by soil class and haul, tracks production per machine against the bid, and keeps records that can support a changed-conditions change order. Keep a CPA for tax and compliance. Add a construction CFO when the question turns to margin and cash. SPM is that CFO for excavation subs doing $1M to $12M. It is not a CPA firm: nobody at SPM is a CPA, and SPM does no tax preparation, audit or review work.
A CPA answers what happened and files it. Excavation asks what the job is costing while it is still running. The soil rarely matches the report, the haul gets longer than the bid assumed, and a single strike on a marked line can erase the margin. Excavation contractor accounting has to record those events as they happen, coded to the job, or the year ends with a correct return and no way to tell which job or which haul cost the money.
WHAT IT MEANS.
The right accountant for an excavation contractor is one who records soil class, haul distance and machine production as job cost, and who knows where an accountant's work stops and a construction CFO's forward work starts.
Excavation moves a lot of material a long way, and every one of those tons is a cost that was estimated. The owner's soil report samples the site and promises nothing about what lies between the samples. Trucks bill by the hour whether or not the site is ready for them. Utilities are marked, and sometimes missed. Each of these is a job cost event, and a general ledger folds all of them into a few expense lines by month.
So the useful question is not which accounting firm ranks first for excavation. It is who will set the books up to record soil, haul and production against the bid, and who owns the forward work once the month closes. The sections below cover what a general accountant misses, what to ask for, and what SPM covers.
WHAT A GENERALIST LEAVES OUT.
The soil never matches the report
Soil, rock and groundwater change what a job costs, and the owner's report is a sample. When spoil quantities or soil classes differ from the plan, the cost is real the day it happens, and the change order is only as strong as the records behind it. A general ledger cannot support a changed-conditions claim because it never recorded soil class or spoil quantity.
Trucking is where profit leaves by the ton
Moving thousands of tons is the job. When the haul distance grows past the bid assumption, profit disappears one load at a time, and idle trucking subs bill $85 to $125 an hour each when the site is not ready for them. Trucking booked as one expense line hides which job, which haul and which delay did it.
One utility strike can erase the margin
A bucket through a marked line turns a profitable job into a repair, and liability turns on how the line was located and exposed. A five-figure repair is a job cost event. Booked to general expense it disappears, and nobody sees how often it happens or which jobs and crews carry the risk.
WHAT THE RIGHT PERSON DOES.
Excavation cost is coded by phase and soil class, and hauling is coded by haul distance. That makes cost per cubic yard by soil type a report, and it shows immediately when the job is running against the bid assumption.
Yards moved per machine per day are compared to the bid every week. A machine running under the bid rate is visible in the first week, which is early enough to fix the sequence or reprice the remaining work.
Spoil quantities, haul counts and delay hours are recorded as they occur and tied to the cost codes. A changed-conditions change order supported by records that predate the dispute is a much stronger claim than one reconstructed afterward.
THE OUTPUTS, NAMED.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing. No payroll. No add-ons.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions and never in a report.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Your office stops answering coding questions and stops chasing a reconciliation on the last day of the month.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the books, the job costing, and the software. No payroll.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
