The chart of accounts I use for modular construction clients

This is the modular construction chart of accounts I set up for my clients. It’s built for companies that build in a factory, set on the customer’s land, and recognize revenue as the job progresses (percentage of completion). It imports straight into QuickBooks Online.

Why I built it

The default QuickBooks chart of accounts was designed for a typical small business. A modular company is half factory and half construction site, and those two halves need to be measured differently. When factory costs, field costs, and office costs share the same generic accounts, your margin is one number that doesn’t tell you where the money went.

This chart fixes that.

What it gives you

• Costs split by activity. Production, logistics, install and set, sitework, and rework, each with a labor account and a non-labor account. You can see which stage is eating your margin.
• Job margin and factory coverage as separate lines. Factory overhead sits below direct margin, so a pricing problem and a slow plant don’t look like the same problem.
• A structure for percentage of completion. Contract assets, contract liabilities, and uninstalled materials, laid out the way your lender, your surety, and a GAAP review expect to see them.
• A clean, consistent setup that’s easy to code to and easy to read.

What’s included

• A ready-to-import QuickBooks Online file
• A preview of the P&L and balance sheet in this format
• Step-by-step import instructions

If you’d like help setting it up, or someone to run the books on it every month, that’s what we do.