Construction Industry

The construction industry is booming, with the need for good financial services never more important. Okanagan’s construction companies face many challenges; here are just a few we can assist your company with.

Managing Paperwork

Purchase orders, invoices, monthly statements, contractual agreements, time-slips, packing slips, whatever the document may be – there are a lot of them in the construction industry, and no obvious movement towards a paperless environment. One of the most eye opening things about the volume of paperwork in the construction industry is the number of hands that each document passes through. In the average construction company a packing slip is received by the foreman, passed then to the project manager, then passed onto the receptionist, then the accountant, then back to the project manager and then back to the receptionist for filing. This is hugely inefficient, and allows for the document to be lost, damaged, duplicated or mishandled. Suggesting and helping you to implement more efficient systems for document control is just one of the things we can assist you with.

Payroll Headaches

There are many variables in the typical construction company: salaried vs waged employee, in town vs out of town rates, travel time vs normal time, LOA vs per diem, etc etc. No one pay period will be the same as the other, and many nuances will appear out of the blue. Not only are there these variables, but there are also fairly outdated time tracking methods being used. Forman fills out a time-slip for all of the workers on a job site, and then passes it onto the project manager (who may or may not have been on the job site that day) for approval. Sound familiar? We can help you to understand more efficient and more effective ways of tracking time, paying employees correctly and keeping your payroll costs down.

WCB/CRA Compliance

First we hope your company is complying with Worksafe practices already, but if not, or if any of this is unclear to you, please reach out to us. Ensuring you have the correct WCB reporting and remittance systems in place is imperative. It can save you from huge financial hardships – not to mention lawsuits.

Further to this, there are PST and GST requirements that effect BC companies. The rules need to be abided by and monthly/quarterly/annual reporting requirements need to be met. We can help to advise you which period of time is most advantageous to your company. Source deductions can also be complicated, especially if you do not have a payroll expert working within your company. We offer the solutions that prevent you having to worry about those headaches.

Job Costing

In the world of construction there are two important types of reporting: accounting and project management reporting. Accounting for a construction company means that the financial statements need to be recorded accurately for tax and GAAP purposes. On the flip side, project managers are less concerned about how the income statement for the entire company looks – and more concerned about how much money was made or lost on specific jobs. Have you considered switching from Sage 50 to Sage 100, or even Sage 300? Do you understand the differences between all of these? We can help you to establish the best systems for you to be using to help separate your accounting and project management reporting in an efficient way that maintains the accuracy of information and reduces the amount of data entry.

Risk and Taxes

In the world of construction, no project is a certainty to make money. Things can happen that are beyond the control of your company, and you need to be prepared for any outcome. Having an organizational structure which enables you to reduce risk or even pass it off to other entities is a great strategy for nullifying the threat of huge or risky projects. These separate entities can also be a great way to shelter assets and strategize with regard to taxes. Getting the share structure right is also very important. These are all areas of expertise that we possess the knowledge to best support you and your business.