The CIS return is due on the 19th, half the receipts are in the van and nobody is sure which invoices needed reverse charge VAT. Cain & Co takes the bookkeeping for construction companies off your desk, from subcontractor deductions to job costing, handled in the UK by bookkeepers you can pick up the phone to. ISO 9001 certified, with a three month risk-free trial.
Most construction businesses are not short of work. They are short of time to record it. Materials go on a card at the merchant, subcontractors invoice in different formats, and the client pays thirty days after a stage is signed off. By the time anyone sits down with the books, the figures are weeks behind the jobs and cash flow decisions are made on a guess.
Hand the construction bookkeeping to Cain & Co and the records stay current alongside the work. CIS returns go in on time, VAT is treated correctly on every invoice, and you can see what each job is earning while there is still time to act on it. UK construction businesses of every size get the same thing: accurate bookkeeping and a clear view of where the money is.
Speak with us today on 020 8087 1341 or drop us an email at takecontrol@cainandco.co.uk
From 6 April 2026, contractors must file a monthly CIS return even when no subcontractors were paid, unless HMRC was told in advance. HMRC can also cancel gross payment status immediately where a business knew, or should have known, a payment was linked to fraud, with penalties of up to 30% and a five year wait to reapply. Every subcontractor is verified and every return filed on time, with a paper trail showing your checks.
The domestic reverse charge applies to most construction services between VAT-registered businesses within the Construction Industry Scheme, but not to end users such as homeowners. Get it wrong and the VAT is charged twice or missed, and HMRC looks to you to fix it. Each invoice is checked before your VAT return is prepared.
Turnover looks healthy until year-end shows half the profit you expected. A job overran on labour, a site variation went uninvoiced or a retention went unchased. Job costing codes every material, labour and subcontractor cost to its job, so project profitability is visible monthly and retentions are tracked to their release dates.
We are confident enough in our construction bookkeeping to offer a three month risk-free trial. If the work does not reach the standard your business needs, you are not charged. That is three CIS returns’ worth of proof before anything is committed to.
Get us the information we ask for on time and you will not face late filing penalties. If one is issued, we pay it.
Your records are kept current through the year, so there is no pile of receipts waiting at month-end or year-end.
Around 90% of bookkeeping questions get an answer within one hour, and every query is responded to within 12 hours.
We go through your figures and reports in plain English at regular reviews, so you know where each job stands.
Errors are spotted early, before they turn into a compliance problem or a surprise at the filing deadline.
Simple, transparent fees with no hidden costs. Find the same level of service for less and we will match it.
Our team is available all year, including the busy weeks around VAT quarters and year-end.
Every construction business is different; that’s why we offer three flexible, fixed-fee packages.
Each one comes with our 7-Point Guarantee and a 3-month risk-free trial, so you can see the value before committing.
Perfect if you just need the essentials covered.
Most Popular – Best value for growing businesses.
For busy owners who want financial clarity.
Business owners across London and the South East trust Cain & Co with their books. Here is what they have to say about working with us.
Construction bookkeeping covers more ground than most sectors. On top of the day-to-day recording, there are subcontractor deductions to report, VAT rules that change from one customer to the next, and costs that have to land on the right job. Here is how each part is handled.
Every new subcontractor needs verifying with HMRC before they are paid, and each payment needs the right deduction: 20% for registered subcontractors, 30% for unregistered ones and nothing for those with gross payment status. Miss one and the monthly return is wrong.
Subcontractors are verified, deductions calculated, the monthly CIS return filed, and payment and deduction statements issued to every subcontractor on time. Your CIS records match what HMRC holds, so there are no gaps to explain later.
One construction business can have standard rated, reduced rated and reverse charge work running in the same quarter, and the VAT return has to reflect all of it.
Each sales and purchase invoice is coded to the right VAT treatment. Your VAT return is prepared and submitted through Making Tax Digital compatible software, and any invoice that needs correcting is flagged before it reaches HMRC.
Cash flow in construction depends on getting paid for each stage and chasing what is held back. Progress billing and applications for payment only work when the costs behind them are recorded against the right job.
Direct costs and indirect costs are coded to each job, so estimated and actual spend can be compared while the work is still live. Retentions sit separately from standard accounts receivable, with release dates noted so they are invoiced when due.
Directly employed staff, labour-only subcontractors and a director’s salary all need paying correctly, and year-end needs every balance supported.
Payroll is run, subcontractor payments are reconciled, and your accountant receives a clean set of financial records ready for the profit and loss statement and financial statements. Accounts preparation starts on accurate figures rather than a list of queries.
Our Curry & Co nights are relaxed monthly networking events held across Kent, London and the South East, bringing local business owners together over great food and genuine conversation. No awkward pitches, just real connections, quality curry and a friendly atmosphere.
If you know a business that would benefit from better bookkeeping, simply introduce them to Cain & Co. When they join us, we’ll send you a bottle of champagne as a thank you for the referral.
Receipts do not belong in the van door. Photograph them on a receipt capture app from site and they are in your books without waiting for a month-end envelope. We work in Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, inside your existing bookkeeping software rather than a separate system. Your records stay where you keep them and you can see every entry as it is posted.
With several sites live at once, a cost coded to the wrong job hides an overrun on one project and flatters another. Separate job codes for every contract, reconciled monthly, give you project costs and project budgets you can rely on when you price the next tender.
Clean records count when a lender, bonding provider or main contractor asks for accounts. Financial statements built on accurate bookkeeping hold up to questions. Figures that need restating do not.
If you work under CIS, a contractor may be taking 20% off every payment before it reaches you. For a sole trader, those deductions are set against the tax bill through Self Assessment. A limited company offsets them against its PAYE and CIS liabilities during the year.
Every payment and deduction statement is matched to your records, so what has been deducted is claimed back in full rather than left with HMRC.
If you work under CIS, a contractor may be taking 20% off every payment before it reaches you. For a sole trader, those deductions are set against the tax bill through Self Assessment. A limited company offsets them against its PAYE and CIS liabilities during the year.
Every payment and deduction statement is matched to your records, so what has been deducted is claimed back in full rather than left with HMRC.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started in April 2026 for sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000, and the threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027. That means digital records and quarterly updates to HMRC instead of one tax return a year.
Keep the books in MTD compatible software from the start and each quarterly update becomes a check of figures already in place rather than a scramble.
Paul Cain has worked in finance since the early 1990s and has spent years helping business owners get on top of their books. Cain & Co provides construction bookkeeping services from the UK, with ICB qualified bookkeepers who understand how CIS, reverse charge and retentions affect a construction business.
Call us today on 020 8087 1341 or email takecontrol@cainandco.co.uk to talk through what your practice is carrying.
Paul regularly takes on personal walking challenges to raise money for children’s hospital wards, diabetes charities and other causes that matter deeply to him and the local community.
These challenges are a simple but meaningful way Paul supports his own wellbeing, pushes himself personally and gives back to the people and causes that have helped him and others in similar positions.
A construction bookkeeper records every financial transaction in the business and ties it to the right job. That covers supplier invoices, subcontractor payments, sales invoices, bank reconciliations and payroll.
The construction bookkeeping process adds three things most sectors do not have: CIS deductions and monthly returns, domestic reverse charge VAT, and job costing across multiple projects. A good construction bookkeeper also tracks retentions and flags when a job’s costs are running ahead of its budget.
The result is a set of bookkeeping records your accountant can use without rework, and figures you can run the business on in between.
Three things changed from 6 April 2026. Contractors must file a monthly return even when no subcontractors were paid, unless HMRC was notified of an inactive period in advance. HMRC can now cancel gross payment status immediately where a business knew or should have known a payment was connected to fraud. If gross payment status is cancelled on those grounds, the wait to reapply has gone from one year to five.
If you pay subcontractors, the nil return rule affects you directly. If you hold gross payment status, the due diligence rules matter more, because losing it means 20% or 30% taken from every payment you receive.
Verification records for every subcontractor and a return filed every month, including the nil months, are the practical defence.
Not always. A sole trader with no subcontractors, who is not VAT registered and works direct for homeowners, has fairly simple books. Decent bookkeeping software and an hour each week may be enough.
Once you pay subcontractors, register for VAT or run more than one job at a time, the picture changes. CIS, reverse charge and job costing are where general bookkeeping tends to slip. The errors show up as penalties or lost margin rather than obvious mistakes.
If you are unsure which side you sit on, call us on 020 8087 1341 and we will tell you straight.
Our construction bookkeeping starts from just £299 per month. The final price depends on your transaction volume, how many subcontractors you pay, how many jobs run at once, and whether payroll and VAT are included.
You will find cheaper bookkeeping services online. The difference is what sits around the price: UK-based bookkeepers you can call, HMRC penalties covered if you give us what we ask for on time, and a three month trial before you commit. If you find the same level of service for less, we will match it.
Ask for a price and we will quote from your real volumes rather than a band.
It depends on how the business is set up. Most sole traders now use the cash basis by default, recording income when it is received and costs when they are paid. That keeps the books simple but can hide what a long job is earning.
Limited companies use accruals accounting. Where a contract runs across a year-end, construction accounting under UK standards usually recognises revenue by stage of completion, supported by a work in progress schedule.
For day-to-day control, the method matters less than job costing. Your accountant will confirm the right revenue recognition for your accounts, and clean records make that conversation quicker.
Yes. Each sales invoice is checked against the reverse charge rules: whether the customer is VAT registered, whether the work is reported under CIS, and whether the customer is an end user.
Reverse charge invoices must show that the customer accounts for the VAT rather than charging it. On the purchase side, reverse charge VAT on subcontractor invoices is accounted for correctly in your return, so it is neither missed nor claimed twice.
Mixed invoices, where some work is reverse charge and some is not, are where most mistakes happen. Those get checked line by line.
Yes. Every deduction a contractor takes should come with a payment and deduction statement. Those statements are matched to your records each month, missing ones are chased, and the full amount is counted.
For sole traders, CIS deductions are set against the tax bill on the Self Assessment return, and any overpayment is repaid. For limited companies, deductions are offset against the company’s PAYE and CIS liabilities through the year, which helps cash flow rather than waiting for year-end.
Missing statements are the most common reason money is left with HMRC. Keep every statement you receive and send it to us.
Retentions are recorded separately from standard accounts receivable, by job, with the release dates from the contract. Usually between 5% and 10% of each payment is held back until practical completion, with part often held through the defects period. When a release date arrives, the invoice goes out rather than waiting for someone to remember.
Variations are a job costing issue. Extra work agreed on site needs recording against the job as it happens, so it can be priced and invoiced before the final account. Costs that do not match the original budget get flagged, which is often the first sign of an unbilled variation.
Across multiple projects, uncollected retentions can add up to a large sum. Tracking them is one of the quickest ways good bookkeeping pays for itself.
You can switch at any point. We need access to your bookkeeping software or bank statements, your last VAT return, your CIS registration details and subcontractor list, and any receipts and invoices not yet recorded.
If the records are behind, they are brought up to date first and then kept current. There is no minimum standard of records we expect before starting, so a carrier bag of receipts is a starting point rather than a problem.
The first month is usually the busiest. After that, the routine is sending receipts as they come in and answering the occasional query.
Yes. Lenders, bonding providers and main contractors running supplier checks all ask for accounts, and some ask for management figures during the year. Financial statements built on accurate bookkeeping hold up to those questions.
Records also have to be kept for years after the event.
Limited companies keep accounting records for six years from the end of the financial year, sole traders for at least five years after the 31 January deadline, and CIS records for at least three years from the end of the tax year.
Organised, up-to-date financial records turn each of those requests into a quick download rather than a week of searching.
Parts of the job, yes. Bank feeds match transactions automatically, receipt capture apps read supplier invoices, and bookkeeping software suggests how to code common costs. That removes a lot of data entry.
What it does not do well is judgement. Deciding whether an invoice falls under the reverse charge, whether a worker is employed or self-employed for CIS, or which job a cost belongs to still needs a person who understands the construction industry.
We use the automation where it saves time and check the parts that carry the risk. You get the speed of the software with a bookkeeper answerable for the result.
Provide the information we ask for on time and you will not face late filing penalties. If one is issued, we cover the cost.
Errors are corrected at our expense, and we tell you about them rather than waiting for HMRC to. With the tougher CIS rules from April 2026, finding a problem early matters more than it used to.
Most filing problems start with missing information, so anything outstanding is chased well before each deadline.
Xero, QuickBooks and Sage all handle CIS and reverse charge VAT and work with Making Tax Digital. The right choice depends on what you already use and what your accountant prefers.
Dedicated construction accounting software adds deeper job costing, but many small construction firms do not need it. A general package set up with a separate code for each job, a construction-specific chart of accounts and a receipt capture app covers most of what a builder or subcontractor needs.
We work inside your existing software, so there is nothing to migrate if you already have one set up. Tell us what you use when you get in touch.
Long project lifecycles are the main reason cash flow management is harder in construction than in most sectors. Material costs, subcontractor payments and wages go out weekly or monthly. The client pays on applications for payment, often thirty days or more after the stage is valued. CIS and VAT payments to HMRC fall due on fixed dates whatever the client has paid.
Cash flow forecasting built from your accounts payable, expected payment dates, retention releases and tax obligations shows the gaps weeks before they arrive. Reviewed monthly, it lets you monitor cash flow across ongoing projects, time material orders and decide how much to hold as a cash reserve for late payers. That reserve keeps a healthy cash flow and helps maintain financial stability when a client stretches their terms.
A forecast is only as good as the records underneath it. Accurate bookkeeping records, kept current, are the financial foundation for every construction finance decision, from taking on a bigger contract to buying plant. Ask for a cash flow forecast alongside your monthly figures.
Treat each of your construction projects as its own small business. Every job gets its own code in your construction bookkeeping software, and every material cost, labour hour, subcontractor invoice and plant hire charge is posted against it. General business expenses such as the van, insurance and office costs sit separately and are shared across jobs as overheads. Posting costs weekly rather than in a batch is the simplest way to maintain financial accuracy.
Accurate job costing depends on site and office talking to each other. The project managers who agree variations and order materials need to pass that on the same week, not at month-end. Subcontractor paperwork belongs in the same place: CIS verification details, UTRs and insurance certificates kept alongside the payment records. That way, checks under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) can be evidenced if HMRC asks.
Project based accounting is the core of effective construction bookkeeping. Set up properly, it gives accurate financial reporting on each job and on the overall financial performance of the business. You can compare complex project budgets against project expenses while work is live, and price the next tender on real financial data. That financial transparency is what separates successful projects from ones that only look profitable on paper. Send us your current job list when you start and each one is coded from day one.
