Home Services

Service call businesses with mixed recurring and one-time work where job costing reveals which calls actually make money.

The Industry

Home service businesses run on a mix of one-time calls and recurring contracts. Pest control companies might have hundreds of monthly treatment agreements generating predictable revenue alongside emergency wasp nest removals that happen once and never repeat. Garage door businesses deal with repairs like broken springs and opener replacements while also bidding new installations that require parts inventory and longer labor hours. Handyman services take on whatever comes through the door. Fixing a leaky faucet, assembling furniture, patching drywall, and minor remodels all in the same week. Each job type has different material costs, labor time, and profit potential.

The common thread is technicians in trucks responding to service calls across the Wasatch Front. Drive time between jobs eats into profitability. Parts and materials get pulled from the truck or the shop. Some jobs are quick wins while others turn into money pits when hidden problems show up mid-repair. Seasonal swings hit hard too. Pest control peaks in spring and summer when bugs are active. Garage door calls spike when temperatures drop and cold-stressed springs snap. You need to know which jobs make money and which ones just keep technicians busy.

Who This Covers

Pest control companies, garage door installation and repair, handyman services. Any home service business in Utah running technicians on service calls throughout the day.

What Complicates It

Mix of recurring contracts and one-time emergency calls. Parts inventory that varies by job type. Drive time between service calls that nobody bills for. Seasonal revenue swings. Multiple technicians running multiple jobs daily. Pricing that needs to cover materials, labor, drive time, and overhead but usually gets set by gut feel.

What We Handle

Job costing tracks every service call so you see actual profitability by job type and technician. That recurring pest control contract at $45/month looks solid on paper, but what does it actually cost after drive time, chemical usage, and tech labor? You need to know. Garage door parts get tracked so you know what inventory sits on the trucks and what went into each specific job. Handyman services need a system that captures the wide variety of materials used across different job types without creating an administrative nightmare.

Recurring revenue gets recognized properly for pest control and maintenance contracts. Monthly treatment agreements spread revenue over the service period instead of creating income spikes when clients prepay quarterly or annually. Accounts receivable tracking follows up on outstanding invoices from property managers and commercial clients who run on net 30. Payroll handles multiple technicians with different rates, overtime during busy seasons, and varying schedules. Tax prep captures vehicle depreciation, equipment costs, and material expenses that often get understated or missed entirely.

Job Costing by Service Type

Each service call tracked with labor hours, materials used, and drive time. See which job types generate healthy margins and which ones barely break even. QuickBooks configured to show profitability by technician, job type, and customer so you know where money actually comes from.

Recurring Revenue and Cash Management

Pest control contracts and maintenance agreements recognized over the service period for accurate monthly reporting. Accounts receivable tracking for commercial clients. Parts inventory monitored so you know what each truck carries and what gets used. Payroll for technicians with varying schedules and overtime during peak seasons.

What Goes Wrong

Service businesses often don’t know their true job costs. You charge $89 for a pest control visit and assume you’re making money because the tech is only on site for 20 minutes. But that visit also took 25 minutes of drive time plus $12 in chemicals. Your tech makes $24/hour. After labor and materials, you’re left with maybe $32 before vehicle costs, insurance, marketing, and office overhead. Some jobs are winners. Some are losers. Without job costing, you treat them all the same and wonder why margins stay thin despite staying busy.

Inventory walks off trucks or gets used without being recorded. Garage door companies stock springs, rollers, and openers on service vehicles. If techs don’t log what they use, your inventory numbers are wrong and your job costs are understated. You think you made $150 on that spring replacement but the parts cost never hit the job. Pest control chemicals need tracking too. Prepaid annual contracts recorded as income when payment arrives make January look great and August look terrible even though you’re doing the same work every month. You can’t tell if the business is actually growing because revenue timing distorts the picture.

True Costs Hidden

Service call pricing based on guesswork not actual data. Drive time and vehicle expenses ignored in profitability calculations. Materials expensed when purchased not when used on specific jobs. What seems like a profitable job type might be underwater once you account for everything that goes into completing it.

Revenue Timing Distorts Reality

Annual contracts counted as income upfront creating misleading monthly performance. Seasonal swings get exaggerated because revenue recognition is off. Cash flow looks unpredictable when it doesn’t have to be. You can’t see real trends because prepayment timing dominates the numbers.

What Changes

Every service call shows true profitability after labor, drive time, materials, and overhead allocation. You can see which job types make money and which ones need price adjustments or should be dropped entirely. That $89 pest control visit either works financially or it doesn’t, and you know exactly why. Techs running efficient routes get identified. Job types that consistently lose money get repriced. You stop guessing at what to charge because you have data from actual completed jobs telling you what things really cost.

Revenue gets recognized as services are performed so monthly financials show real business performance regardless of when customers pay. Seasonal patterns become visible without being distorted by prepayment timing. Parts inventory gets tracked so costs hit the right jobs and you know what’s actually on each truck. Tax returns get prepared by someone who understands service business operations and captures vehicle depreciation, equipment costs, and materials properly. You have financials you can use to make decisions about adding technicians, buying another truck, or expanding into new service areas.

Pricing Based on Real Numbers

Job costing shows actual costs by service type, technician, and customer. Profitable jobs get protected and prioritized. Money-losing jobs get repriced or eliminated from your offerings. Routes and scheduling get evaluated for drive time efficiency so techs spend more time on billable work.

Clear Monthly Performance

Revenue recognized when earned showing true business trends across seasons. Inventory tracked so parts costs hit the right jobs and nothing disappears unaccounted. Financial statements that reflect real profitability month to month instead of numbers distorted by payment timing or seasonal fluctuations.

Utah's Construction Bookkeeping Specialists