Home Improvement & Remodeling
You're great at building kitchens. The books shouldn't be the part that keeps you up at night.
Remodeling contractors run complex project-based businesses with almost no financial infrastructure. Northstar gives you job-level visibility so you know exactly where your money is going and can grow with confidence instead of gut feel.
Remodeling is a business, not just a trade. Your finances should reflect that.
I have no idea which jobs actually made money.
You price on experience and gut feel, but after materials, labor, subs, permits, and callbacks, you have never calculated your true margin on a completed job. Without job-level data, profitable and unprofitable projects are invisible.
Materials costs keep surprising me.
You quoted a job six months ago and lumber is up 15%. The tile the client picked is backordered and the replacement costs 40% more. Your original estimate is underwater and nobody adjusted the budget.
I'm chasing deposits and payments manually.
Some clients pay on time, others stall until you threaten to stop work. You have no system for tracking what is owed, collected, and overdue across all active projects.
I want to hire but don't know if I can afford it.
You know you need a project manager to stop running every job yourself. But you have never modeled what a $75K salary does to your margins or how many additional jobs you need to cover the overhead.
What your finance team looks like with Northstar.
Your dedicated finance pod handles project-based accounting, job costing, and cash flow forecasting built around the way remodeling actually works: change orders, material price shifts, and variable client payment timing.
Monthly close with project-level P&L
Books closed by the 15th with every job broken out individually showing revenue, materials, labor, sub costs, and overhead. You see exactly which projects made money.
Job costing and margin tracking
Actual costs tracked against your estimate for every active job. When a project drifts from budget, you know while there is still time to adjust.
Deposit and progress payment management
Every deposit, draw, and final payment tracked across your project portfolio so you always know what is collected, outstanding, and overdue.
Materials cost tracking and budget-to-actual
Material purchases reconciled to specific jobs with flags when actuals deviate from estimates. Price spikes and client upgrades are visible immediately.
Hiring and overhead modeling
We model the full cost of a new PM, estimator, or office coordinator, including salary, benefits, insurance, and vehicle, then show you the additional jobs needed to cover the overhead.
Cash flow forecasting
Remodeling cash flow is lumpy: deposits come in waves, material purchases spike, and final payments depend on punch lists. We forecast around your actual project schedule.
Tax strategy for contractor-owners
S-corp election, reasonable compensation, vehicle and equipment deductions, retirement plans, and year-end planning. Contractor-specific opportunities most generalist CPAs miss.
Growth planning and capacity analysis
How many jobs can you run at once? When does a PM hire pay for itself? When does an office make sense? We model these decisions so you grow deliberately.
What this looks like in practice.
The Situation
A residential remodeling company doing $2.8M in revenue believed they were operating at a 22% gross margin based on QuickBooks reports. The owner was working 70-hour weeks running every job and wanted to hire a PM but did not know if the business could support the overhead.
What We Did
We built job-level tracking that allocated labor, materials, subs, permits, and overhead to each project. The analysis revealed three cost categories being missed entirely: callback labor, materials waste, and permit fees. We also modeled the true cost of adding a PM.
The Result
True gross margins were 11%, not 22%. After tightening estimating, implementing change order tracking, and building waste into budgets, margins improved to 19% within two quarters. The owner hired a PM with a model showing breakeven at 2.5 additional jobs per month. Revenue was up 30% within six months.
I always thought I was making good money. Turns out I was leaving almost half my margin on the table because I never tracked costs at the job level. Now I actually know what my business is worth.
Remodeling Company Owner
Residential Contractor
Resources for remodeling business owners.
How to Price a Remodeling Job Without Leaving Money on the Table
A financial framework for calculating true overhead, markup, and margin so your estimates actually cover what they need to.
ReadMaterials Cost Tracking: The System Your Bookkeeper Isn't Using
How to track material purchases by job, flag budget overruns in real time, and stop losing margin to untracked waste.
ReadCan You Afford to Hire a Project Manager? A Financial Model
The math behind your first key hire: what it really costs, how many jobs cover it, and when the investment pays for itself.
ReadRemodeling Overhead Calculator
Enter your fixed costs and see your true overhead rate per job compared to industry benchmarks.
Try ItTake the First Step
Let's talk about your remodeling business.
Every engagement starts with a conversation about your project pipeline, margins, and biggest financial questions. If we are the right fit, we will show you what your finance team looks like.
Or call us directly: 888.999.0280
Schedule a Remodeling Finance Consultation
Tell us about your business and we'll reach out within 24 hours.