You also need someone who will build a relationship with you and your business, learning what you value and how you operate. Any accountant who doesn't ensure your accounting reflects your business's goals and increases your bottom line doesn't deserve your business.
At BGW, our team of accounting professionals includes experts in the construction industry and its unique requirements. We are a construction accounting firm in Charlotte, NC, that will help you navigate the complex accounting methods and rules that apply to your industry. Our mission is to help you and your business achieve your goals. We do that with our proven process that sets us apart from other accounting firms. We've honed this process during our more than three decades in the accounting business. It helps us provide a consistent, positive experience for each of our clients.
Our Process
Step One: Initial Meeting
We have an initial meeting with you as a prospective client to see if we are a good fit for you and your business. Unlike many other accountants, we are selective about who we work with. We don't look to sign any construction firm, contractor, or engineering business we can convince to sign on the dotted line. We want to ensure that we can develop a partnership with our clients and that we are a good fit for them. If they want something different from what we offer, that's fine. We aren't for everyone. This initial meeting helps ensure everyone has the same expectations for the relationship. Compatibility is key.
Step 2: Business Lifecycle Gap Assessment
This step assesses your financials, succession and wealth planning, risk exposure, and cash flow. In other words, we get to know you and your company. We want to understand your goals and how to operate. That's not because we are nosy; it's because it's necessary to be familiar with your company to provide you with the best accounting services. Our accounting team asks the questions required to understand your current construction projects and future plans. With that knowledge, we can find the right way to manage your accounts, track your expenses, structure your taxes, and handle your finances.
By understanding your operations, we can spot problem areas, suggest ways to optimize, look for places where you may be close to stepping over regulatory lines, and provide customized, meaningful recommendations.
Step 3: Year One Service Plan
You could also call this a "Year Round Service Plan" because it means we stay engaged for the entire year. This is how we stay abreast of your construction operations. Unlike many accountants, we don't passively wait for you to reach out if you need something. Of course, our door and our email inbox are always open if you need anything. But we will reach out to you periodically throughout the year to check in, ask questions, advise you of relevant changes to regulations or the tax code, and generally ensure everything is running smoothly. We will meet with you quarterly and solicit feedback.
All of this ensures that as your situation changes, your plan remains optimized.
Bonus Step:
Based on your results, you can add additional options to accelerate the value of our services. If you have changes in your focus, your plans shift, you take on additional construction projects, or there are other changes to your needs, we can offer ways to tackle these new challenges.
If these changes involve additional fees, we will be fully transparent with you. We will not present you with surprise bills.
Doing It All
Whatever your accounting situation, BGW has you covered. The diversity of experience, skill sets, and areas of expertise among our employees mean we are positioned to handle a remarkable depth and breadth of accounting needs. Here are just some of the specialists who are part of our team:
- Tax experts
- CPAs
- Bookkeepers
- Wealth planners
- M&A experts
- In-house tax attorney
Our construction CPAs will be involved with every aspect of your financial management. Working with us as your accounting partner will increase your confidence that your actions and accounts align with industry standards, accounting regulations, and IRS rules.
Our Ethos
Everything we do revolves around helping you achieve your business goals. Sure, we want to keep you out of trouble and save you money whenever possible. That's part of keeping your construction business healthy and flourishing. But because we get to know you as a business leader and your company as an industry provider, we can also help with more nuanced goals.
If you hope to bring in new investors, we can help you with valuations and present a compelling picture of your finances. Perhaps you are focused on easing yourself out of some of the operations of your closely held or family business. We can discuss succession planning and ensure you've optimized your estate planning. Whatever your goals, we can help you reach them. And hopefully, have a bit of fun along the way.
All of our leadership team members have started, run, sold, or turned around at least one business. We know what it's like in the trenches and what a company means to its leaders, team members, and community. We bring that understanding to our approach to accounting. You’ll see the difference in the way we respect your determination to sustain your growing company.
Our A+ Better Business Bureau rating is a source of great pride. It reflects our clients' satisfaction with the services we provide and the way we provide them. We know that keeping that rating requires continuing to please our clients. That starts with CPA services, without no surprises: no surprise bills, no sudden upcharges, and no dip in service quality. We are just as devoted to your team after years of service as we were on day one. Our A+ rating means you never get the B-team substitution.
Our accounting services will help your construction business increase revenue, decrease expenses, improve cash flow, and mitigate and manage risk. We haven't done our job if you don't have a greater sense of peace about the direction of your business and your ability to meet your goals, whatever those may be. With BGW helping you oversee the finances and accounts of your construction company, you can expect far-reaching, positive changes to your business and your state of mind.
The Southern Way
BGW's core values are quality, integrity, responsiveness, and professionalism. North Carolina's southern hospitality seeps into everything we do. Politeness, kindness, charitable nature, and sincere charm characterize the American South. They also characterize our approach to the accounting profession and our relationships with our clients.
North Carolina's motto is esse quam videri, which means "to be, rather than to seem." We take that seriously. Other accounting firms want to seem interested and helpful so they can capture your business. The reality is that their main interest is padding their own accounts. We don't just want to seem conscientious, ethical, and accessible; we ensure we are those things. Being, not seeming: it's the North Carolinian way and the BGW way.
We promise each client that we will strive to deliver more tangible value than we charge for. We work tirelessly to set your expectations high and then exceed them. If all this makes it seem like we are the right construction accountants for you, let's talk about what we can be and do for your business.
What is Construction Accounting?
Construction accounting uses specialized methods to track expenses from multiple construction projects. Construction accounting methods help you record profits and costs associated with different contracts. This approach gives you a clear picture of how each project affects your company's overall financial picture and operations.
How Is Construction Accounting Different from Traditional Accounting?
All types of accounting have certain fundamental similarities. At its core, accounting is the process of tracking all of a business's or individual's financial transactions. Certainly, construction accounting does that. However, the types of transactions and the methods required to track them differ.
Construction accounting requires tracking multiple jobs simultaneously. You may be pulling initial permits on one project, mid-way through construction on another, and awaiting a building inspector to sign off on the final approval of a third.
With traditional accounting, profits are usually tracked annually or by quarter. A retail store looks at its sales, expenses, and earnings for the last 12 months to understand where it stands. Given that construction projects can last for several years, tracking on those timelines wouldn't make sense. Construction accounting tracks these multi-year projects so that when they are finished, you have an accurate picture of how the project fared.
Your accountant may also track progress billings, non-billable costs, customer deposits, and other facets of a business operation that may not apply to non-construction businesses.
Here are just some of the ways BGW's construction accounting experts can help your company:
- Determining when you can defer taxable income
- Finding carryback losses that will decrease your taxable income
- Minimizing tax complications resulting from multi-state operations
- Reducing property tax liability through asset inventory
- Performing internal controls reviews and audits
- Calculating your section 199 deductions
- Enhancing your revenue recognition practices to allow investors to understand your company
- Reducing use and sales tax compliance issues
- Decreasing the tax burden of key employees by implementing the most tax-efficient compensation structures
- Managing your potential liability risks
- Tracking labor costs
- Performing regulatory compliance reviews to ensure you are following all required and recommended practices
- Planning the most tax-efficient succession strategies and structures
This list is far from comprehensive but gives you an idea of the services we can offer. If there are things on this list you don't understand or have never heard of, that's fine. In fact, that's the point of hiring a construction accounting firm. You shouldn't be expected to understand the nuances of the Percentage-of-Completion method versus the Completed-Contract method for recognizing revenue. Leave that to us.
Frank Lloyd Wright also said, "No stream rises higher than its source." We know your construction business is the source of jobs and livelihood for many people. It's also a source of pride and legacy. We want to be the accounting firm that helps your company rise as high as possible. With us on your team, your business can reach new heights while your stress levels fall.
