There are a lot of applications and software packages available to assist small and mid-sized businesses with bookkeeping. Unfortunately, many of those digital tools don’t anticipate the way that construction companies do business as they pay for an extensive slate of ongoing expenses in the field, while spending little time in the office. Construtax, an accounting firm based in Oakville, Ont., not only specializes in construction accounting, but assists each client to adopt the digital tools that can best help them to accurately capture costs and expenses. That not only makes tax preparation simpler for both the company and the accountant, but offers the potential for reducing their tax bill.
“Smaller contractors and sub-contractors with two to 10 employees are typically at that mid-point where they need bookkeeping and accounting services, but aren’t large enough to hire in-house staff to take care of it,” says Marcos Lopes, president of Construtax. “Often, they come to us at the end of a tax year with a shoe box full of receipts and ask us to do the detective work in hunting through their claims.”
Construtax will search through the paper records, but it’s a costly and time-consuming process and often doesn’t capture the full range of expenses a construction company might be entitled to.
“We offer clients a better way by helping them to adopt time-saving tools that will help them to keep their books, capture expenses and track employee hours,” says Lopes. “Often, clients will tell us that this has saved them as many as 20 hours per week, and allows them to provide better records at tax time.”
Construtax client Gotech Communications Inc. is a small, London, Ont.-based company specializing in directional drilling. Lopes worked with the company to determine that three products would streamline its bookkeeping:
- Receipt Bank, which allows users to photograph receipts and invoices on their smartphones as they receive them;
- Plooto, a program that streamlines payables and receivables; and
- TSheets, a web-based and mobile app that tracks employee hours to determine accurate payrolls.
Each of the digital products imports data directly into a QuickBooks Online account, from which Construtax draws tax filing data.
Gotech has been on the Construtax plan for a little more than a year, but has already seen significant results.
“Working with Construtax, I’ve become more organized and save a lot of time on bookkeeping work,” says Gotech owner Bruno Silva. “I buy a lot of diesel, gas and equipment on a daily basis, but when you’re working, you often misplace the receipts. Using the digital app to snap photos of my receipts, I’ve been able to claim all of them. Over just one year, I’ve saved $15,000 in taxes just by capturing all of my costs accurately.”
Lopes points outs that his accounting firm specializes in tax strategies that can help construction firms to maximize deductions and make the most effective use of other available tax regulations.
“But we can only deliver the best results if we have accurate information to work with going in,” he says. “Long ago, small companies might have believed that shoe boxes full of receipts were the best they could do. With the easy-to-use digital tools available to construction companies today, they can do much better. That means we can charge less in hourly billings to prepare and file their taxes and help them to claim every deduction they’re entitled to.”
This content is sponsored by Construtax Accounting in collaboration with ConstructConnect™ Media. To learn more about Construtax, visit www.construtax.com.
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