The Break-Even Number Every Contractor Should Know
One division tells you the monthly revenue your shop needs before it makes a dollar. How to calculate your break-even point — and the decisions it changes.
Accounting & Bookkeeping
The accounting layer is where most trade contractors lose money — not because the work isn’t profitable, but because the books can’t tell them which jobs actually made money and which didn’t. Augmented Trades covers accounting and bookkeeping for the trades from a contractor’s perspective, not an accountant’s. That means real-world guides to QuickBooks Online setup, chart of accounts structure for construction and field service businesses, job costing that actually works, sales tax handling for contractors (where the rules differ sharply from retail), subcontractor versus employee classification, and the integration layer between your accounting software and your CRM, dispatch, or estimating tools. Every article includes verified pricing, sourced examples, and full affiliate disclosure where applicable.
Labor Burden: What an Employee Really Costs You Per Hour
Your $30/hour tech does not cost $30. How to calculate labor burden — employer taxes, workers’ comp, and non-billable time — with every federal figure sourced.
Electrical Contractor Billing Software (2026): T&M, Flat Rate, and Progress Billing
Electricians get paid three different ways and most billing software is good at one. Seven tools compared on real, sourced pricing — plus where the money actually leaks.
Contractor Markup vs. Margin: How to Price Jobs to Actually Profit
Two contractors can charge the exact same number on a bid and walk away with completely different profit. The difference usually isn’t the price. It’s whether they understood the math behind it. Contractor markup and profit margin sound like the same idea, and plenty of shops use the words interchangeably. They are not the same, … Read more
Job-Costing Software for Contractors (2026): Stop Guessing Your Margins
Most contractors do not lose money on bad jobs – they lose it on jobs they thought were good until the numbers came in. Job costing is the fix: tracking labor, materials, subs, and overhead against each job while it is running, not three months later at tax time. Here is what actually does that … Read more
QuickBooks Online Prices Are Going Up August 1 — What Contractors Need to Know (2026)
If you run your trade business on QuickBooks Online, your subscription is about to cost more. Intuit has confirmed that monthly prices for QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, and Advanced are increasing starting August 1, 2026 (per Intuit’s official pricing-change notice). Here’s exactly what’s changing, who it hits, and what to do before the new rate … Read more
QuickBooks Desktop 2023 Is Dead: The 4 Migration Paths for Trade Contractors (2026)
Intuit shut off QuickBooks Desktop 2023 services on May 31, 2026 — payroll tax calculation, bank feeds, and card processing are gone. Here are the four migration paths for trade contractors, including the free one most coverage skips.
QuickBooks Online for Trade Contractors: Setup Guide and Field Service Integration Stack (2026)
Picking the wrong QuickBooks Online plan is the most common — and most expensive — accounting mistake trade contractors make. This guide walks through which of the four plans actually fits a trade business, how to set up your chart of accounts so job costing works, and which field service tools sync cleanly.