Building homes ties up cash for months before a single closing. Land, lot development, draws, change orders, and subcontractor bills all need to land on the right house, or you won't know your true margin until it's too late. At Shahbaz & Associates CPAs, we provide accounting, bookkeeping, tax planning, and outsourced CFO services built for home builders.
We work with some of the region's larger home builders as well as growing custom builders and remodelers. Because most of them run their jobs in Buildertrend, we built our process around it: your project data and your books tell the same story, every month.
Buildertrend runs your jobs. Your accounting system runs your taxes and your bank reporting. When the two don't match, builders lose track of margins and spend hours fixing it at year end. We make the connection work.
Accounting and tax support shaped around how each type of builder makes money
Cost-plus and fixed-price contracts, client selections, allowances, and change orders tracked house by house.
Lot, land development, and construction costs capitalized correctly and released to cost of sales at closing.
Shared land and site costs allocated across lots so margin by house and by community is accurate.
Deposits, progress billing, and job costing for kitchens, additions, and whole-home renovations.
Design fees, pre-construction, and build phases tracked separately so each stage shows its true profit.
Land-holding, construction, and rental entities structured and reported together without double counting.
Builders have tax rules most contractors never see. Getting them right can defer or reduce a significant amount of tax.
Qualifying home construction contracts are generally exempt from the percentage-of-completion rules, so income can often be reported when the home is finished. We confirm which of your contracts qualify and set up your books to support it.
Homes built for sale are inventory. We handle capitalizing land, construction, and interest costs, and identify when small-builder exemptions simplify the rules.
Separating land, construction, and rental activity into the right entities (LLC, S-Corp, partnership) to manage liability, self-employment tax, and future sales.
Reasonable compensation planning for S-Corp owners, plus retirement plans that shelter income in strong closing years.
Timing purchases of trucks, equipment, and tools to get the most out of depreciation in the year you need it.
Reviewing homes sold before the 45L energy-efficient home credit's 2026 cutoff to make sure no credit was left unclaimed.
Also hold rentals or develop land? See our real estate investor services. General contractor or specialty trade? See construction & contractors.