Rebuilding Reyes Construction's Books From Scratch
Outsourced bookkeeping and job-cost reporting gave leadership real-time visibility into margins for the first time — replacing books that hadn't been reconciled in over a year.
Growing Fast, Flying Blind on Job Costs
Jordan Reyes had grown Reyes Construction Group from a two-truck operation to a crew running six active jobs at once, but the books hadn't kept pace. Bank feeds were months behind, expenses weren't tagged to jobs, and nobody could say with confidence which projects were actually profitable.
The business was busy and revenue was up year over year, but Jordan had no real visibility into margin. Decisions about which bids to chase were being made on instinct, not numbers.
Where the Business Stood
active jobs running simultaneously
since books were last reconciled
job-costed reports available
Reyes Construction came to Ledger after a referral from another contractor client. The initial review found bank accounts unreconciled for over a year and no job-costing structure in place at all — every expense sat in one general pool with no way to trace it back to a specific project.
What We Did
Reconstructed a Year of Transactions
We rebuilt the books from bank and card statements, categorizing over a year of backlogged transactions.
Rebuilt the Chart of Accounts Around Jobs
We restructured the accounting system so every expense could be tagged to a specific project from day one forward.
Set Up Monthly WIP Reporting
We implemented work-in-progress schedules so job margin is visible every month, not just at closeout.
Trained the Office Manager on Ongoing Coding
We trained Jordan's office manager to code new expenses correctly, keeping the system clean going forward.
How We Supported the Business
What Changed
to fully reconcile the books
jobs now tracked with real margin data
of new expenses correctly job-coded
Within two weeks, Reyes Construction had a fully reconciled set of books and, for the first time, a clear view of margin on every active job. Jordan now reviews a monthly WIP report before deciding which bids to chase, instead of relying on gut feel.
What Other Business Owners Can Learn
A books cleanup is often faster than owners expect — most of the delay is in starting, not the work itself.
Job costing only works if the chart of accounts is built around it from the start, not bolted on later.
Real-time margin visibility changes which jobs a contractor chases, not just how they're reported after the fact.
“We moved our books over during a messy growth quarter. Their team had everything reconciled and reporting cleanly within two weeks, exactly as promised.”
Jordan Reyes, Founder, Reyes Construction Group