Advisory · 6 min read
Construction CPA vs General CPA
Construction accounting runs on job costing and percentage-of-completion revenue recognition — concepts most general small-business CPAs rarely touch. Here's what a construction specialist does differently, and when the gap actually costs you money.
What a construction CPA handles that a general CPA usually doesn't
- Job costing by project — labor, materials, subcontractors, and overhead allocated per job, not lumped into one P&L
- Work-in-progress (WIP) schedules and percentage-of-completion revenue recognition (ASC 606 for long-term contracts)
- Certified payroll and prevailing-wage reporting for government and public-works contracts
- Retainage tracking — the 5–10% withheld until project completion, on both AR and AP sides
- Bonding and surety-ready financials — contractors need statements formatted the way a bonding company underwrites them
- Workers' comp classification by trade, which materially affects premium cost if misclassified
Where a general CPA falls short
A general CPA can file a correct tax return without any of this — but the business owner loses the operational visibility that job costing and WIP reporting provide. Common symptoms: profitable-looking jobs that actually lost money once overhead is allocated correctly, surprise cash crunches from under-billed work in progress, and bonding applications that get rejected because the financials aren't formatted the way sureties expect.
