#trades
Track trades, investments, and portfolio transactions
Effective January 1, 2026, California SB 517 amends Business and Professions Code Section 7159 to require every home improvement contract to include a yes/no subcontractor checkbox, a statutory disclaimer when the answer is yes, and that same disclaimer on every change order — with the prime contractor still responsible for completing the job.
Residential duct cleaning runs roughly $25–$50 per supply vent (about $75 for returns) and dryer vent add-ons average $145, so a one-line invoice hides your margin. This guide itemizes base fees, vent counts and add-ons, costs the four buckets behind each job, capitalizes a $9,000 vacuum rig instead of expensing it as supplies, and tracks the five KPIs — revenue per vent, revenue per tech-hour, upsell attach rate, callback rate, revenue per truck per day — that decide whether the next rig pays for itself.
How a fire extinguisher service company should structure its books around the NFPA 10 calendar — separate revenue lines for annual tags, recharges, 6-year internal maintenance ($30–$60 per unit) and hydrostatic testing ($20–$100 per unit), deferred revenue for prepaid contracts, MACRS depreciation for vans and recharge rigs, and the route-density KPIs that decide whether the truck earns money.
How elevator service companies job-cost full-maintenance and exam-and-lube contracts per unit — booking prepayments as deferred revenue, costing callbacks at a burdened CET mechanic rate of 85 to 100 dollars an hour rather than the 52-dollar wage, carrying truck stock as inventory, and pricing renewals from twelve months of callback history.
A roofing WIP schedule ties revenue to work actually completed rather than to when you invoiced — percent complete equals costs to date divided by total estimated costs, and earned revenue equals percent complete times revised contract price. This guide walks a $192,000 TPO re-roof through the math, explains over- versus under-billing, retainage receivable and warranty accruals, and covers when Section 460 forces percentage-of-completion for tax (roughly $31 million in average gross receipts for 2026, or contracts running past two years).
Solo mobile detailers can hit 60-80% gross margins, but only by tracking job-level costs — consumables, water, van depreciation, and labor — categories a generic "Supplies" bucket obscures.
Gutter cleaners charge $0.75–$2.50 per linear foot, but healthy 35–50% residential margins depend on height-tier pricing, route-level job costing, and an off-season cash reserve. A practical bookkeeping guide covering second-story multipliers, revenue per route-hour, insurance costs, and Section 179 equipment deductions.
Landfill tipping fees rose about 10% this year to a national average near $62 per ton — enough to erase a demolition contractor's 5–10% margin on a single misestimated job. How to job-cost disposal fees as their own line item, build a disposal contingency into every bid, and book scrap-recovery revenue against the right project.
Form 8697 look-back interest settles the gap between estimated and actual results on long-term contracts reported under the percentage-of-completion method — the IRS recomputes prior-year income with final figures and charges or refunds interest only, without reopening those returns. This guide covers who must file under IRC Section 460, the three-step calculation, the separate-filing rule for interest refunds, and what the Excel PCM calculator the IRS released on May 29, 2026 does and doesn't do.
How sign shops use job costing to price channel letters, vinyl, and wraps profitably — tracking direct materials, direct labor, labor burden (roughly 15%+ over base pay), and an hourly overhead rate, with a pricing formula and common profit leaks like unbilled design revisions and install overruns.
Jobber ($25–$249/month) fits growing teams of 5–20 technicians, Housecall Pro ($49–$300+/month) suits solo operators under $500K revenue, and ServiceTitan's 5–10× higher cost only pays off past $2M or multiple locations. Here's how to match the platform to your current size — and the per-job fees, data lock-in, and paywalled support to check before signing.
Commercial diving companies that depreciate saturation systems on a flat calendar schedule, lump hazard pay and depth pay into a single wages line, or book topside support crew as overhead routinely misprice their bids — this guide covers usage-based depreciation for saturation gear, the diver pay stack, and job-costing topside labor specific to commercial dive operations.
