Accounting for plumbers — built for the way the work actually flows.
Job costing, materials markup, technician pay, and the tax planning that keeps cash from disappearing during the slow months. For Denver-area plumbing companies running 1–25 trucks.
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Plumbing books look nothing like the books for a marketing agency or a restaurant. Cash comes in lumpy — a $14,000 sewer line one week, three $200 service calls the next. Materials are 30–55% of revenue, and if you cannot tie material cost back to the job that consumed it, your margin is a guess. After-hours and weekend dispatch fees throw off labor cost reporting if they are not coded right.
We have run the books for residential service plumbers, new-construction plumbers, and commercial mechanical contractors. The accounting framework that works is the same: real job costing, accurate technician burden, and a chart of accounts that matches how the money actually moves through a plumbing business.
What we handle for plumbing companies
- Monthly bookkeeping with industry-specific chart of accounts: parts, fixtures, fittings, equipment, truck expense, dispatch, after-hours premium.
- Job costing in QuickBooks Online, ServiceTitan, or Jobber — material cost, labor hours, and overhead allocation per job so you see real margin per ticket.
- Payroll for technicians including flat-rate vs hourly hybrid models, on-call premium, and prevailing-wage tracking for commercial jobs.
- Sales tax on materials sold to end customers (Colorado treats plumbers as contractors-with-resale, which has specific rules).
- 1099 prep for subcontractors at year-end.
- Equipment depreciation on trucks, machines, and cameras — Section 179 and bonus depreciation timing.
- Quarterly tax planning with cash-flow projections that account for seasonal slow periods.
Software we work in for plumbing
- ServiceTitan — for shops with 5+ trucks and dispatch complexity. We reconcile the ServiceTitan-to-QuickBooks sync monthly to catch the differences nobody warns you about.
- Jobber — for smaller shops (1–4 techs). Easier to set up, lower monthly cost, fewer customization options.
- Housecall Pro — solid alternative to Jobber, especially for residential service.
- QuickBooks Online + QuickBooks Time — when the field-service platform is overkill but you still need labor tracking.
Pricing
| Shop size | Typical setup | Monthly fee |
|---|---|---|
| Owner + 1 tech | Jobber, 1 service vehicle | $400 – $600 |
| 3–8 techs | ServiceTitan or Jobber, multiple trucks | $700 – $1,200 |
| 9–25 techs, multi-state | ServiceTitan + complex job costing | $1,200 – $2,500 |
A 7-truck residential service plumber thought their gross margin on after-hours emergency calls was 60%. After we re-coded the technician overtime burden into job cost, the actual margin was 38%. They still raised after-hours rates 12% — not because the original number was a lie, but because the corrected number told them what the rate needed to be.
If you are a one-truck owner-operator under $200K, a quarterly cleanup is enough.
If you have 2+ techs and you want real margin per job, monthly bookkeeping with job costing pays for itself.
If you are scaling past 5 trucks, add monthly CFO advisory to keep cash flow ahead of payroll.
Real job costing, real margins, real tax planning.
From $400/month for a small shop. We know ServiceTitan, Jobber, and Housecall Pro — and we know what each gets wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Do you know ServiceTitan?
Yes. We reconcile ServiceTitan to QuickBooks Online monthly and we know the specific places the sync goes sideways — invoice voids, refund reclasses, payment-method mismatches. We have several plumbing clients running on ServiceTitan today.
How do you handle materials markup?
We code materials to a "Cost of Goods Sold — Materials" line and the markup flows through revenue. At month-end we calculate materials margin as a separate KPI from labor margin. Most plumbing shops have very different margins on the two, and you cannot price intelligently if they are bundled together.
What about Colorado sales tax on plumbing work?
Colorado treats plumbers as contractors for new construction and retailers for repair/replacement work that includes parts sold to the customer. The distinction matters for sales tax — we set up your platform to charge correctly based on job type so you are not over- or under-collecting.
How do you handle technician pay?
Flat-rate, hourly, or hybrid (typical for residential service). We run payroll through Gusto or QuickBooks Payroll, track overtime correctly under FLSA fluctuating-workweek rules where applicable, and split labor into the right job-cost categories so your P&L tells you the truth.
Can you help with bonding and insurance audits?
Yes. Bond company audits and workers comp audits both ask for wage reports broken down by class code and subcontractor payments separated from employee wages. We provide the report in the format your insurer or bond company expects.