Free Tool: QBO Setup Audit

Is your QuickBooks actually
set up for construction?

8 yes/no questions about how your QuickBooks is really configured. See what each setup gap costs you per year and the fix that closes it.

Built for contractors 8 questions Takes 2 minutes

Watch first · 45 seconds

Why a generic QuickBooks can't see your jobs.

A quick word from Joe on what separates a QuickBooks set up to run a construction business from one that just files a tax return, and what these 8 questions are really measuring.

How this works

Each question is a thing QuickBooks should be doing if your books are going to run a construction business, not just file a tax return. Click a question to toggle Yes or No based on how your QuickBooks looks today. The score, the dollar cost of each gap, and your top 3 fixes update live.
Each question carries a setup-impact weight from 1 to 5. Your score out of 32 is weighted, so the foundational items (job tagging, burdened payroll, the cost-of-goods structure) move your grade more than the optional ones.

Your annual revenue (so we can size the dollar impact)

The dollar cost of each gap scales with your revenue. We use construction-industry benchmark percentages. See the methodology link below the score.

The 8 questions

Your setup score

F
0 of 32 setup points.
Toggle each question to Yes as you confirm your QuickBooks is doing it. Your grade and the cost of the gaps update as you go.
Estimated annual cost of the gaps
$0
at $400k revenue
Total estimated impact of the questions you answered "No". 7 of the 8 questions are dollarized; 1 (location tracking) is a qualitative flag.
Based on construction-industry benchmarks (CFMA, BLS, IRS, AICPA, Intuit). See methodology ↓
How we calculated this, sources and method

Each dollarized question maps to a percentage-of-revenue cost range pulled from public construction-industry benchmarks. The on-screen number is the midpoint times your revenue band. The range below it spans the published low-to-high estimates.

QBO setup gaps overlap (a bad cost-of-goods structure, missing job tagging, and items posted to Income all damage the same job-cost numbers). To avoid double-counting, each rate is sized as that gap's marginal contribution, not the full downstream leak.

Q3 (location tracking, which QuickBooks lets you rename to Division) has no clean industry dollar figure, because the cost depends entirely on whether you run multiple divisions or branches. It is scored for setup but flagged separately, not added to the dollar total.

The "fixable in" hours next to each gap are our setup-time estimates, not an industry benchmark.

#Gap% of revenueSource basis

Caveat. These are estimates from industry benchmarks. Your actual cost depends on your trade mix, job size, and operations. The full methodology and the step-by-step setup checklist are on the resources page.

Want this audit in your inbox as a PDF report?
Generate your scored report and email it to yourself. The step-by-step checklist and Excel mirror are in the free toolkit below.

Your top 3 fixes

Once you have any "No" answers, the three highest-dollar gaps appear here in order. Walk this list when you sit down with your books, these are the fixes that actually move the number.

All 8: what each one means

Companion toolkit

This screen grades your setup. The toolkit fixes it.

The audit scores your QuickBooks in two minutes. The free QBO Setup Audit Toolkit is what you use after: the step-by-step setup checklist (PDF) for each fix, plus the Excel audit workbook so you can re-check your score after every change.