You didn't get into construction to sort receipts. You got in to build, to run a crew, and to make a living doing work you're good at. Somewhere along the way, the books became a pile of paper on the truck seat and a nagging question you keep pushing to next week: am I actually making money on this job?
This is the plain answer. Here's the bookkeeping a BC construction company actually has to keep, and what "handled properly" looks like when it's done right.
The records every BC construction company has to keep
Start with the basics. Every construction company, whether you're a two-person crew or running three trucks, needs the same foundation:
- A business bank account and credit card used only for the business. No mixing. Ever.
- Every sale, invoice, and progress billing, matched to the job it belongs to.
- Every expense with a receipt, categorized, not just tossed in a folder.
- Payroll records for every employee, including hours, wages, deductions, and remittances.
- GST/PST records on everything you charge and everything you buy.
- WSBC records tied to your workers and your reported payroll.
That's the floor. If any one of those is missing or months behind, you don't have books. You have a guess.
Accurate books, reconciled every month
Accurate books mean your bank account, your credit card, and your loan balances match what the software says. That's what a reconciliation is, and it's the single best signal that your bookkeeping is real and not just a list of transactions someone typed in.
For a construction company, reconciliation is where job costing lives or dies. If you're running a renovation in Langley and a service contract in Abbotsford at the same time, your books have to show what each job actually cost: materials, labour, subcontractors, equipment. Otherwise you finish the year busy and broke, with no idea which jobs paid and which ones ate your margin.
Job costing that shows you where the profit went
A construction company doesn't have one profit number. It has a profit number per job, and per type of work. The bookkeeping that matters tracks:
- Revenue billed against each job
- Direct materials and supplies
- Labour hours and wages charged to the job
- Subcontractor costs
- Equipment and vehicle costs, allocated fairly
When those are tracked properly, you stop guessing. You can look at a finished job and know whether it was worth taking, and you can price the next one with your eyes open.
Payroll and remittances, done on time
Payroll is where construction companies get hurt fastest. You have hourly crews, overtime, sometimes seasonal workers, and every pay period you owe source deductions, CPP, EI, and provincial remittances to the CRA.
Miss a remittance deadline and the penalties add up quietly. Get payroll right and it's just part of the rhythm: every pay run processed accurately, every remittance filed on time, every T4 and record of employment ready when you need it. That's bookkeeping you don't have to think about.
GST, PST, and WSBC filings
In BC, you have three filing obligations that trip owners up:
GST/PST. You charge GST on most construction services and PST on some materials and goods. You also claim input tax credits on what you buy for the business. Filing on time keeps the CRA and the province off your back, and keeps money you're owed flowing back to you.
WSBC. WorkSafeBC premiums are based on your reported payroll and your rate class. Your bookkeeping has to feed accurate payroll numbers into that report, and you need to file and pay on schedule to stay in good standing.
Corporate tax filings. Year-end, T2, and any instalments. These depend entirely on how clean your books are through the year. Messy books mean expensive accountant hours and a scramble every spring.
Monthly statements, so you're never flying blind
At minimum, you should get monthly financial statements: a profit and loss, a balance sheet, and a cash position you can actually read. Not a 40-page dump. A clear picture of what came in, what went out, and what's left.
If you're doing $1 million or more in revenue and running a team, monthly numbers are not a luxury. They're how you decide whether to hire, whether to buy a machine, and whether that big job is actually as good as it looks.
What "handled properly" actually means
Handled properly looks like this: your books are current, not three months behind. Your accounts are reconciled. Your payroll and remittances are filed on time. Your GST, PST, and WSBC obligations are met. And when you have a question about a job, a tax bill, or your cash flow, someone answers it straight instead of handing you a spreadsheet and wishing you luck.
That's the whole point. Accurate bookkeeping isn't about paperwork for its own sake. It's about knowing exactly where your profit is going, so you can keep more of it.
The bottom line for BC construction owners
You need accurate books, reconciled accounts, payroll and remittances handled, GST/PST and WSBC filings filed on time, and monthly statements you can read. Get those right and the rest of the business gets easier to run.
If your books are behind, or you're not sure whether they're right, that's not a failure. It's just the next thing to fix. At Cornerstone Compliance, we do bookkeeping and payroll exclusively for BC trades and landscaping companies, with three transparent packages and no surprise invoices. No jargon, no fluff, just the numbers straight.
If you're tired of guessing where the profit goes, book a free call and we'll walk through what your business actually needs.