FREE WORKBOOK
Trades Bookkeeping Template
Twelve months of profit and loss for a building business, with CIS suffered kept where it belongs rather than buried in the costs.
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Who this workbook is for
Sole traders and small contractors who want a set of books that shows what the business actually made, and that a lender will believe.
Your accounts show a loss and the year felt fine
CIS suffered is tax paid on account, not an expense. Put it through the profit and loss and you understate your profit by the whole amount, then claim the same money again as a credit. On the worked year that turns £21,600 of profit into a £3,960 loss on paper, and it is the paper figure a mortgage broker reads.
Subcontractors and materials are half your cost base
Most bookkeeping templates give you one line for cost of sales. This gives materials and subcontractors their own, because on a building business they are 60 per cent of turnover and knowing which one moved is the difference between a bad month and a bad quote.
You want a monthly figure, not an annual surprise
Twelve columns, month by month, with gross and net margin worked out as you go. The worked year runs at a 10.1 per cent net margin, which is what a real trade looks like rather than what a spreadsheet wishes it looked like.
