What is project-based accounting?
Project-based accounting tracks revenue and expenses at the individual project or job level rather than just at the company level. Instead of knowing your business made money last month, you know exactly which projects made money and which ones lost it.
Standard accounting tells you your total revenue was $150,000 and expenses were $120,000. Project-based accounting tells you Project A brought in $80,000 with $50,000 in costs while Project B brought in $70,000 with $70,000 in costs. The difference matters when you’re trying to decide which types of work to pursue and which clients are actually worth keeping.
Construction companies, professional service firms, and anyone who does project work needs this approach. A general contractor running five jobs simultaneously can’t make good decisions if all costs go into one bucket. An architect with multiple client projects needs to know if that renovation design took twice as long as estimated. A San Diego marketing agency needs to track whether retainer clients are profitable or if scope creep is killing margins. A bookkeeping service that understands your industry can help you see these numbers clearly.
The setup happens in your accounting software. QuickBooks Online has a Projects feature that lets you assign income and expenses to specific projects. QuickBooks Desktop uses jobs within customer records. Either way, every transaction that relates to a project gets tagged so you can pull reports showing profitability by project.
What you track depends on your business. Direct costs like materials, subcontractor payments, and equipment rentals are straightforward. Labor is where it gets more complex. You need time tracking so hours worked on each project flow into your accounting. Some businesses also allocate overhead like rent and utilities across projects, though this adds complexity that may not be worth the effort for smaller operations.
The reports are where the value shows up. A job profitability report shows each project’s revenue, direct costs, gross margin, and percentage. You can see which jobs performed well and which underperformed. Over time, you build data that helps you estimate more accurately and spot unprofitable work patterns before they become habits.
For construction businesses specifically, project-based accounting often expands into full job costing with cost codes, budget tracking, and work-in-progress reporting. This gets more detailed but follows the same principle of understanding profitability at the job level so you can price future work better and stop taking on projects that drain your resources without delivering returns.
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More Questions
Should my bookkeeper have industry experience?
Industry experience isn't strictly required, but it matters significantly for businesses with specialized needs. A bookkeeper who knows your industry already understands your chart of accounts, key metrics, and common compliance requirements.
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Bank statements are essential. Credit card statements, prior tax returns, and existing bookkeeping records also help. You probably won't have everything perfectly organized, and that's okay.
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Keep financial records like bank statements, receipts, and invoices for at least seven years. You'll also need tax returns, business formation documents, contracts, and employee records if you have staff.
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The biggest difference is fund accounting. Nonprofits track money by restriction type and allocate expenses by function. Financial statements use different names and there's no owner equity, just net assets.
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At minimum, run the Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement every month. Add A/R and A/P aging reports if you invoice customers or have vendor bills. The key is actually reviewing them, not just generating them.
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QuickBooks Online is the standard for property managers and integrates with most property management platforms. But the software matters less than setting it up to track income and expenses by property.
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