Licensed trades deserve licensed accounting.
You hold a license the state can pull, carry insurance that audits your payroll, and run a business that’s half service calls and half construction contracts. Your books should be kept by a firm that’s licensed too — and that knows those two halves have different economics.
Service and construction are different businesses. Your books should know it.
One margin hiding two
Demand service calls and new-construction contracts carry different pricing, labor economics, and risk. Books that lump them together can’t tell you which side is making the money — ours split them, down to margin per truck.
Journeymen, apprentices, and helpers
Trades payroll has layers: licensed journeymen, registered apprentices, helpers, and the occasional sub. Each has its own compliance and cost profile — and your workers’-comp audit will check whether you classified them right.
Vans coded like commuter cars
Service vans are rolling warehouses, not commuter vehicles — and the deduction strategy (actual costs vs. mileage, depreciation, heavy-vehicle rules) should be chosen per vehicle, not defaulted. Get it right at purchase; it’s hard to fix later.
Parts, inventory, and the taxable line
Truck stock, job materials, and Texas sales tax on the mix of labor and parts: small categorization habits that compound into real tax differences over a year of tickets.
The full stack, in the truck.
Tax Preparation
Business and owner returns prepared together and CPA-signed, with the trade-specific schedules handled correctly.
Tax Preparation →Bookkeeping & Margin by Truck
Monthly closes with service and construction split, materials separated from labor, and margin visible per crew and van.
Bookkeeping →Tax Planning & Vehicle Strategy
Van and equipment purchases timed to your income, with the vehicle-deduction method chosen deliberately for each unit.
Tax Planning →Forecasting & Growth Decisions
When the next van, the next hire, or the shop lease pencils out — answered with a forecast instead of a feeling.
Analysis & Forecasting →Entity & S-Corp Analysis
The self-employment-tax math for a shop that’s grown past one truck — run on your actual numbers before any election.
Entity & S-Corp Analysis →Trades Payroll
Journeymen, apprentices, helpers, and overtime-heavy months handled cleanly — with records that stand up to a workers’-comp audit.
Payroll →Questions the trades actually ask.
Should I deduct my work van by mileage or actual costs?
Per vehicle, on purpose. Mileage is simple and can win for lighter use; actual costs — fuel, insurance, repairs, and depreciation — usually win for a heavily-used, well-equipped service van, especially in the year it’s purchased. The catch is that the choice made in a vehicle’s first year constrains later ones, so it deserves a decision, not a default.
When does hiring my first W-2 employee beat using subs?
When you control the schedule and the work — because at that point the law may already consider them an employee regardless of what the check says. Economically, a steady book of service calls usually favors a W-2 helper or apprentice; overflow and specialty work favor genuine subs. We price both paths with the employment taxes included, so the comparison is honest.
My workers’-comp audit is asking for payroll records. What do they want?
Payroll by classification: who did what kind of work, for how much, with overtime broken out — plus certificates for any subs you’re claiming shouldn’t count against your premium. Clean payroll records turn the audit into an afternoon; reconstructed ones turn it into a premium adjustment. This is one of the quiet payoffs of books kept properly all year.
Does Texas sales tax apply to my service work?
Sometimes — and the line runs through distinctions like residential versus commercial work and repair versus new construction, with the parts-and-labor mix mattering too. It’s genuinely one of the trickier compliance areas for Texas trades, and the cost of guessing wrong compounds ticket by ticket. We sort your typical job types into the right buckets once, then keep the filings on schedule.
Ready when you are. Virtual or in-office.
Every tax return prepared and signed by a licensed CPA or IRS Enrolled Agent. Everything runs through the secure portal and e-signature.
Free 15-Minute CPA Consultation
Fifteen minutes with Kevin Hemingway, CPA. We discuss your tax or accounting needs, determine whether our firm is a good fit, and you leave with an estimated fee range and next steps. This consultation is for engagement evaluation and does not include tax advice, tax planning, or detailed analysis of specific tax situations.
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A paid, flat-fee review of your prior return and current books, ending in a prioritized action list you keep either way.
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