Bookkeeping for home services.
FigureWise keeps books for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and landscaping companies with the field realities built in: job-level profitability, customer deposits handled correctly, seasonal cash swings forecast, and technician payroll with overtime done right.
The numbers to watch.
| # | Metric | |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Gross margin by service lineInstall, service, and maintenance behave like different businesses. Margin by line reveals which one deserves your next hire and which needs repricing. | Install, service, and maintenance behave like different businesses. Margin by line reveals which one deserves your next hire and which needs repricing. |
| 02 | Revenue per truck (or per technician)Trucks and techs are your capacity. This number tells you whether to add capacity or fill the capacity you have, which are very different investments. | Trucks and techs are your capacity. This number tells you whether to add capacity or fill the capacity you have, which are very different investments. |
| 03 | Maintenance agreement revenueRecurring service agreements are the stabilizer against seasonality and the base a buyer would pay a premium for. Tracking the base monthly shows if it is compounding or churning. | Recurring service agreements are the stabilizer against seasonality and the base a buyer would pay a premium for. Tracking the base monthly shows if it is compounding or churning. |
| 04 | AR days on invoiced workResidential work often pays on completion, but commercial and builder work does not. Watching collection speed by customer type shows where your working capital is going. | Residential work often pays on completion, but commercial and builder work does not. Watching collection speed by customer type shows where your working capital is going. |
Where home services books go wrong.
01
No idea which jobs actually made money
A replacement install, a service call, and a maintenance visit have wildly different economics. When labor, materials, and equipment all land in one bucket, you cannot see that one service line subsidizes another, or that a certain job type should be repriced or dropped.
02
Seasonality whipsawing cash
HVAC peaks with the weather, landscaping with the season. Revenue can swing dramatically between months while trucks, insurance, and payroll stay constant, and companies without a seasonal cash forecast finance the slow months with panic.
03
Deposits, financed jobs, and progress payments
Customer deposits are liabilities until the work is done, and third-party financing pays you net of dealer fees on its own timeline. Booked carelessly, both distort revenue and make the tax picture wrong.
04
Technician payroll with overtime, callbacks, and spiffs
Overtime across long summer weeks, on-call pay, performance bonuses, and warranty callback time all complicate payroll. Errors show up as compliance risk and technician turnover at the same time.
What we put in place.
- Job- and service-line-level tracking so installs, service calls, and maintenance each show their own margin.
- Customer deposits and financed sales booked correctly, with financing fees broken out so you see their real cost.
- A seasonal cash forecast built from your own history, so slow months are planned for rather than survived.
- Payroll handling overtime, on-call pay, and bonuses accurately, every period.
- AI flags supplier price creep and duplicate invoices from high-volume vendors; a human bookkeeper verifies before the close.
Home Services, answered.
Better decisions start here.
A free, no-commitment review of your home services books.