Home Services
Cleaning companies and pest control run on crews, routes, and repeat customers. We track job costs and handle payroll so you can focus on the work.
The Industry
You started with a mop and a customer who trusted you. Or a truck and some pest control equipment. You showed up on time, did good work, and word spread. Now you have more customers than you can handle alone. Maybe you’ve hired a crew or two. The phone keeps ringing because you’ve built a reputation in the community.
The work itself hasn’t changed much. But the business side has gotten complicated. Paying people, tracking supplies, figuring out which customers are actually worth keeping, dealing with the IRS. You didn’t sign up to become an accountant. You signed up to build something of your own and do honest work. The financial side just comes with the territory.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Residential cleaning services, maid services, pest control companies, carpet cleaners, window washers. Any home services business in Northwest Arkansas running crews to customer locations on a regular schedule.
What Makes It Complex
What Makes It Complex
Labor is your biggest expense and it varies by job. Supplies get used at different rates. Mileage adds up fast when you’re driving all over Benton County. Some customers pay cash, others want invoices. Recurring customers need different tracking than one-time jobs. Add in employee versus contractor questions and things get complicated quickly.
What We Handle
Job costing matters in this industry because not every customer is equally profitable. That weekly cleaning across town might bring in good revenue but when you factor in drive time and fuel, the margin disappears. We set up your books to show true profitability by customer or by route. You can see which accounts make money and which ones you should reconsider. This kind of visibility changes how you price new work and which customers you prioritize.
Payroll for cleaning crews and pest control technicians needs to be right. Workers need to be classified correctly as employees or contractors, and the IRS has strong opinions about which is which in this industry. We handle payroll processing, tax deposits, and make sure your setup passes scrutiny. For tax prep, we capture mileage deductions, vehicle expenses, supply costs, and the equipment depreciation that often gets missed when owners do their own books.
Job Costing and Customer Profitability
Job Costing and Customer Profitability
QuickBooks configured to track revenue and expenses by customer or route. Labor hours allocated to specific jobs. Supply costs tracked where they belong. Reports showing which customers generate real profit and which ones just keep you busy. Data that helps you make pricing decisions instead of guessing.
Payroll and Tax Prep
Payroll and Tax Prep
Weekly or bi-weekly payroll for your crew with proper withholdings and tax deposits. Worker classification reviewed to avoid IRS problems down the road. Tax preparation that captures vehicle mileage, equipment purchases, supply expenses, and the home office deduction if you run operations from your house.
What Goes Wrong
The most common problem we see is owners who grew too fast to notice their margins shrinking. When you did the work yourself, a $150 cleaning was mostly profit after supplies. Add an employee at $15 an hour for three hours plus drive time plus payroll taxes and that same job might net you $40. Do that math across fifty customers and suddenly you’re working harder than ever but taking home less. Without job costing in place, owners often don’t realize this until tax time when the numbers don’t make sense.
Mileage is the other big one. Home services businesses put serious miles on vehicles driving between jobs. The IRS mileage deduction for 2024 is 67 cents per mile. If you drove 20,000 business miles last year and didn’t track them, you left over $13,000 in deductions on the table. That translates to real money at tax time. We also see worker classification issues where owners pay helpers as contractors when the IRS would consider them employees. That’s a problem that gets expensive fast if it catches up with you.
Growth Without Visibility
Growth Without Visibility
Revenue goes up but profit stays flat or drops. More jobs, more crew, more headaches, but not more money in your pocket. Without job-level tracking you can’t identify which customers or routes are dragging down your margins. You keep taking work that doesn’t pay.
Missed Deductions and Compliance Issues
Missed Deductions and Compliance Issues
Mileage untracked because you’re too busy driving to write it down. Vehicle expenses thrown in a box somewhere. Crew paid as contractors when they should be employees. Cash payments that don’t make it into the books. Tax season arrives and you either overpay or scramble to reconstruct the year.
What Changes
You know what each job actually costs. When a potential customer calls wanting weekly service across town, you can quote a price that makes sense instead of matching whatever the last guy charged. You identify your most profitable customers and routes. You stop saying yes to every job and start being strategic about where you spend your time. Growth becomes intentional instead of chaotic.
The back office stops eating your evenings. Payroll gets processed without you spending Sunday night calculating hours. Your books close monthly so you always know where you stand. Tax prep pulls together cleanly because everything was tracked throughout the year. You get time back to spend on the business or with your family. We handle the numbers. You focus on customers and building something that lasts.
Profitable Growth
Profitable Growth
Job costing data that shows true margins. Pricing new work based on actual costs not guesses. Knowing which customers to prioritize and which routes to optimize. Making decisions with real numbers instead of gut feelings. Building a business that grows profitably, not just busily.
Time and Peace of Mind
Time and Peace of Mind
Monthly bookkeeping handled. Payroll processed and deposits made. Mileage and expenses tracked properly all year. Tax prep that captures every deduction you’ve earned. No more late nights with receipts and spreadsheets. Your books are clean and you can prove it.
Northwest Arkansas's Dedicated Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A Quick Conversation
Tell us about your business and where you need help. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a clear plan and honest price.
