Bookkeeping for
Electrical
Contractors.
Service calls pay the same day. Commercial jobs pay weeks later, short the retainage. Wire, panels and breakers go on one supply house account for every job at once. We sort it all by job, reconcile every account monthly, and show you which kind of electrical work actually makes you money.
Flat monthly pricing · Cancel anytime · Dedicated bookkeeper
Service, New Build
or Commercial
A service shop, a new construction sub and a commercial bidder run on different cash cycles. Plenty of electrical contractors do some of each. Your books should show each line of work on its own.
Service & Repair Electricians
High volume, small tickets, paid on the spot through your field service app. The work moves fast. The trap is card fees, refunds and truck restocks that never get tied back to the jobs that used them.
- Same-day card payments matched to deposits
- Processing fees recorded, not netted out
- Truck stock restocks tracked
- Revenue split: service, upgrades, EV chargers
- Technician labor by job
New Construction Electricians
Rough-in and trim on homes and buildings for builders and GCs. You carry labor and materials for weeks before the draw pays, so cost to date on each job matters more than the bank balance.
- Billing by phase: rough-in, trim, final
- Builder draws matched to invoices
- Materials coded to the right lot or job
- Change orders and extras billed
- Cost to date vs. contract on every job
Commercial & Public Work
Bid work for GCs, schools and public owners. Pay applications, retainage, lien waivers and prevailing wage jobs all need books kept job by job, with labor tracked by worker and classification.
- Pay applications and retainage receivable
- Lien waivers logged against payments
- Labor hours by job and classification
- Prevailing wage jobs tracked separately
- Union fringe contributions recorded by job
The Financial Headaches
We Fix
Electrical work can look profitable on paper and still run tight in the bank. These are the spots where electrical contractor books usually fall apart.
One supply house bill, every job on it
Your supply house account covers every job at once. When the monthly statement gets booked as one materials expense, job costing is gone. We code each invoice to the job on the ticket and reconcile the statement, returns and credits included.
Retainage that quietly disappears
On commercial work, the GC holds back part of each payment until closeout. If the books only show what got paid, that money drops out of view and nobody chases it. We record retainage as its own receivable, by job, so you always know what's still owed.
Labor that never makes it to the job
Apprentice and journeyman hours are your biggest cost, but payroll usually lands in the books as one lump. Without hours by job, you can't tell whether you bid the labor right. We tie payroll to jobs from your time records so labor shows up where it was spent.
Public work with payroll rules attached
Prevailing wage jobs call for wages and hours broken out by worker, classification and project, often week by week. If your books aren't set up that way, pulling it together is painful. We keep labor separated by job so certified payroll numbers tie back.
Every Month
Everything You Need,
Nothing You Don't
Everything below is set up around how electrical contractors get paid: same-day service tickets, builder draws, and commercial pay applications with retainage. We work in QuickBooks Online and connect to your field service software or work from its reports.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Every account reconciled, every transaction categorized, every month. You get a clean P&L and balance sheet you can read and use to make decisions.
See Full Details →Financial Reporting
A P&L split by service, new construction and commercial work, job cost reports showing margin on each job, and a receivables report that lists retainage on its own.
See Full Details →Bank Reconciliation
Every business account and credit card matched and verified each month. No mystery charges. No unresolved transactions. No surprises.
See Full Details →Accounts Payable & Receivable
We record supply house and subcontractor bills by job, track pay applications and builder draws, and keep a running list of retainage and past-due balances by customer.
See Full Details →Catch-Up Bookkeeping
Months or years behind? We clean it all up before monthly service starts, at a flat price per month behind that we quote up front.
See Full Details →Payroll Support
Payroll runs through Gusto, and Gusto files the payroll taxes and W-2s. We reconcile every run to the books and split apprentice and journeyman labor by job from your time records.
See Full Details →"Dan is crucial to the financial management of my business. I am a busy guy that started a side hustle and it took off. It became too tedious for me to manage bookkeeping, and I decided to outsource that service to create time to focus on my operations, customers, and services."
Electricians
FAQ
Questions we hear from electricians before they sign on with Tides.
Based in Greenville, SC —
Serving Clients Nationwide
100% remote bookkeeping for small businesses across South Carolina and throughout the United States.
Beyond Electricians,
We Serve All These Businesses
Tides Bookkeeping specializes in bookkeeping across 12 distinct industries. Industry-specific expertise means fewer errors, better categorization, and a bookkeeper who already understands how your business makes money.
Finance terms worth knowing
Plain-English explainers, no jargon.
Pull the Wire.
We'll Handle
The Books.
Schedule a free 15-minute call. We'll review your current setup, answer your questions, and give you a flat monthly quote — no pressure.
No credit card required · No long-term contracts · Cancel anytime
Simple, Flat-Rate Pricing
Flat monthly plans scaled to your business — no hourly billing and no surprise invoices. You always know the price up front.
★★★★★ 5.0 · 8 client reviews on Intuit's ProAdvisor directory
✔ Reviewed by Daniel Cope, Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor · Updated August 2026