Contractors & Project-Based Businesses

Your P&L says you made $30,000. It doesn't say which jobs lost money.

If you bill by the job, a standard profit and loss statement is technically correct and strategically useless. We build your books by job — so you can see the difference between the work that pays and the work that doesn't. Trades, construction, remodeling, landscaping, and anyone else running on projects.

Standard P&L — June

Revenue180,400
Materials62,100
Labor71,800
Subcontractors9,400
Overhead6,960
Net income30,140

Accurate. And it tells you nothing you can act on.

Job Profitability — June

Henderson AC replacementInstall · 3 days +4,200
Vasquez new constructionInstall · 9 days +6,100
Mercado repipeService · 4 days −900
Ortiz kitchen remodelProject · 11 days +1,340
Small service calls (14)Service · after hours −1,180
All other jobs (23)Mixed +20,580
Net income30,140

Same $30,140. But now you know after-hours emergency calls cost you $1,180 last month, and your repipe pricing hasn't kept up with material costs.

What we do

Three things, done properly, every month.

We work with a small number of contractors so the work stays close and the numbers stay current. No call centers, no rotating account managers.

Bookkeeping

Clean, current books closed on a schedule you can set your calendar by.

  • Every transaction categorized and reviewed
  • Bank and card accounts reconciled monthly
  • P&L and balance sheet by the 15th
  • 1099s prepared and filed in January

Payroll

Your crew gets paid, the filings happen, and you stop thinking about deadlines.

  • Payroll run on your schedule
  • Federal and state deposits remitted
  • 941, 940, DE-9, DE-9C, DE-34, W-2s
  • Certified payroll for public works

Job costing & advisory

The part most bookkeepers skip, and the reason clients hire us.

  • Labor, materials, and subs tagged by job
  • Gross margin on every job, every month
  • Labor efficiency by crew member
  • Cash flow forecasting and pricing review

How it works

A rhythm, not a scramble.

The same cycle every month. You always know what's owed from you and what's coming back.

By the 5th

You send, we take it from there

Statements, receipts, and invoices go into the secure portal. If your bank supports read-only access, we pull them ourselves and you send nothing.

By the 15th

Your numbers land

Profit and loss, balance sheet, and the job profitability report. In plain language, with the two or three things worth your attention flagged at the top.

Your schedule

Payroll runs

Weekly, biweekly, or semimonthly. Deposits go out on time, quarterly filings happen without a reminder from you, and new hires get reported inside the 20-day window.

Every quarter

We actually talk

Which kinds of work are carrying the business, where pricing has slipped behind cost, and what the next quarter looks like on cash. Monthly if you're on CFO Partner.

Pricing

Flat monthly fees. No hourly billing, no surprises.

Final pricing depends on your transaction volume, account count, and crew size. We'll quote you in writing after one call — and show you how we got there.

Essentials

$450

per month

For owner-operators who need clean books and reliable monthly numbers.

  • Transactions categorized and reviewed
  • Accounts reconciled monthly
  • Monthly close
  • P&L and balance sheet by the 15th
  • Annual 1099 filing
  • Email support

Up to 150 transactions / month
Up to 3 accounts

Growth

$750

per month

For contractors running a crew who need job-level visibility.

  • Everything in Essentials
  • Costs tagged by job
  • Monthly job profitability report
  • Sales and use tax filing
  • Quarterly review call

Up to 300 transactions / month
Up to 5 accounts · up to 30 jobs

CFO Partner

$1,400

per month

For owners making real decisions about pricing, hiring, and growth.

  • Everything in Growth
  • Labor efficiency by technician
  • 13-week cash flow forecast
  • Budget to actual variance
  • Work-in-progress schedules
  • Monthly strategy call

Up to 800 transactions / month
Up to 8 accounts · unlimited jobs

Payroll administration Up to 3 employees, payroll software included. Add $20 per month for each additional employee. Certified payroll for public works projects is $300 per month per active project.
$150 / month

If your books are behind, we bring them current first as a separate one-time project, quoted in writing before any work begins. Recurring service starts once you're caught up.

Who you're working with

One person. The one who does the work.

Lumera Advisory is Michael Paniagua. I've spent my career in corporate financial planning and analysis — building forecasts, running variance analysis, and answering the question every business owner eventually asks: where is the money actually going?

I started this practice because job-based businesses get handed the same generic bookkeeping as a retail shop, and it doesn't fit. If you bill by the project, you live or die on job margin. If your books can't show you that, they're not doing their job.

You'll work with me directly. Not a junior, not a rotating account manager, not an offshore team. That's also why I keep the client list small.

En español

Servicio completo en español.

Contabilidad, nómina y análisis de costos por trabajo — todo disponible en español, sin intermediarios ni traductores.

Sus estados financieros, su reporte de rentabilidad por trabajo y nuestras llamadas trimestrales pueden ser completamente en español si lo prefiere.

Get started

One call. We'll tell you what it costs.

Bring your last three months of statements and a rough idea of your job volume. Thirty minutes, no obligation, and you'll leave with a real number instead of a range.

Send an email