Monthly oversight starts after source evidence is ready
Equipment, fuel, labor and materials may post late or to the wrong job; change orders, WIP, retainage and backlog may live outside QuickBooks. A monthly income statement alone cannot establish those project facts or their operational cause.
This page is an educational customer checklist, not a promise that TruePoint performs the close, investigates projects, runs meetings, assigns actions or makes decisions. The customer and its qualified professionals own those responsibilities.
This checklist complements the broader Construction Finance Guide, Construction Job Costing Guide and Construction WIP Schedule Guide.
A supported finding must show its supporting numbers, calculation, significance, confidence and limitations. Missing or inconsistent evidence withholds the conclusion; TruePoint does not insert hidden human review.
Use a readiness gate before interpreting the numbers
Management should know whether the reporting foundation is reliable before discussing performance. Start each review with a compact readiness gate.
| Readiness area | Minimum evidence | If incomplete |
|---|---|---|
| Cash and debt | Bank, credit-card, line-of-credit, and debt balances reconciled to the reporting date | Label cash availability provisional and identify unreconciled items |
| Revenue and billing | Progress billings, deposits, earned revenue, unbilled work, and credits reviewed | Do not treat unapproved or unsupported amounts as earned or collectible |
| Job costs | Material labor, subcontractor, equipment, and material costs posted to the correct jobs | Show affected job margins as provisional and assign correction dates |
| WIP and change orders | Percent complete, estimated cost to complete, approved scope, and billing status confirmed | Separate approved, pending, disputed, and excluded amounts |
| Receivables and retainage | AR aging, disputes, promised dates, retainage triggers, and responsible collector updated | Exclude unsupported receipts from committed liquidity |
| Payables and commitments | Critical vendors, purchase commitments, payroll, taxes, deposits, and near-term obligations captured | State the missing commitment and bound the downside cash exposure |
Use N/A when a measure genuinely does not apply and state why. Use provisional when the measure is required but evidence is missing. Never allow a blank to be interpreted as zero, complete, or low risk.
A 60-minute monthly financial oversight agenda
Keep the meeting decision-led. Review the largest risks and changes rather than reading every line of every report.
| Time | Review | Owner questions |
|---|---|---|
| 0–8 minutes | Close and data readiness | Which balances or jobs remain provisional? What decision cannot rely on them yet? |
| 8–20 minutes | Job margin and WIP exceptions | Which jobs moved materially in margin, cost to complete, over/underbilling, or field progress? |
| 20–30 minutes | Billing, change orders, AR, and retainage | What is approved, billable, billed, disputed, collectible, or waiting on a release trigger? |
| 30–40 minutes | 13-week cash outlook | When is the cash low point, how much headroom remains, and which assumptions could move it? |
| 40–50 minutes | Backlog, capacity, and overhead coverage | Does backlog convert to profitable, fundable work at the expected pace? Is labor or equipment capacity misaligned? |
| 50–60 minutes | Decisions and action register | What will management do, who owns it, when is it due, and what threshold triggers escalation? |
Use the Change Order Cash Flow Guide to distinguish approved, pending, billed, collected, and disputed changes. Use the Retainage Cash Flow Checklist when release timing is a material liquidity driver.
The monthly management pack should connect jobs to cash
A useful pack is concise enough to review but detailed enough to support action. Include the same core views each month so trends and exceptions are visible.
| View | What it should show | Decision supported |
|---|---|---|
| Executive summary | Revenue, gross margin, operating result, cash, working capital, and the three largest exceptions | Where owner attention is needed first |
| Job-margin exception report | Original estimate, current forecast, actual cost, cost to complete, margin movement, and reason | Pricing, scope, execution, or estimate correction |
| WIP schedule | Progress, earned revenue, billings, over/underbilling, backlog, and forecast completion | Billing pace, revenue quality, and job-risk escalation |
| AR and retainage | Aging, disputes, commitments, retainage amount, release trigger, expected date, and owner | Collection priorities and realistic cash timing |
| 13-week cash forecast | Weekly opening cash, receipts, payroll, vendors, taxes, debt, commitments, and closing cash | Spending, hiring, draw, collection, and payment timing |
| Backlog and capacity | Funded backlog, expected start, margin, labor need, procurement need, and cash burden | Whether to add work, people, equipment, or financing |
Every amount should have an explicit unit and reporting date. Ratios should show the numerator, denominator, and period. If the denominator is zero or unavailable, show N/A and name the missing requirement rather than reporting a misleading zero.
Turn exceptions into an accountable action register
The action register is the bridge between reporting and management. Limit it to items that can materially affect margin, cash, capacity, risk, or a committed decision.
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Exception | Electrical subcontract cost on Job 241 is $38,000 above the current estimate |
| Evidence and confidence | Approved invoices received; field completion estimate is provisional |
| Financial effect | Forecast job margin declines from 24% to 19%; potential $22,000 additional exposure |
| Decision | Validate remaining scope before accepting additional non-billable work |
| Owner and due date | Project manager by September 18; controller review September 19 |
| Escalation threshold | Owner review if expected margin falls below 18% or exposure exceeds $25,000 |
| Follow-up result | Open until evidence is attached and forecast is updated |
Carry unresolved items forward visibly. Do not close an action because the meeting ended. Close it when the required evidence exists, the forecast or report is updated, and management has accepted the result.
Evidence gaps that require customer or qualified-professional work
Recurring monitoring must stop when the data cannot support a conclusion. TruePoint does not substitute an employee, contractor, Controller, advisor or support agent for missing close, project, contract, forecast or decision work.
- Incomplete close or unreconciled accounts prevent reliable historical comparison.
- Missing project, labor, material or commitment records prevent job-level cause analysis.
- WIP without approved progress and cost-to-complete evidence cannot support a job conclusion.
- Change orders, retainage and disputes require contract and legal evidence outside QuickBooks.
- Backlog, hiring, equipment and financing decisions require approved forward assumptions.
This checklist is not assurance, tax advice, legal advice, a lender calculation or a substitute for reconciled records and contract review. Unsupported measures must remain unavailable rather than being estimated into a product conclusion.
Separate autonomous monitoring from contractor finance ownership
The $99/month Autonomous Watchtower monitors supported conditions in current QuickBooks Online evidence: margin compression, payroll or contractor-cost growth, receivables deterioration, customer concentration, expense anomalies, cash or liquidity deterioration, and source-data inconsistencies.
| Need | Responsible path | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Private first-pass screening | Free Financial Leak Calculator | Educational browser-based estimate; it is not a conclusion, forecast or subscription recommendation. |
| Recurring supported-condition monitoring | $99/month Autonomous Watchtower after the scope and readiness check | Every finding shows supporting numbers, calculation, significance, confidence and limitations. Insufficient evidence withholds the conclusion. |
| Job-cost schedules, WIP, forecasts, close ownership and decisions | Your team or an independent qualified professional | TruePoint does not perform or hide this human work inside the product. |
QuickBooks evidence alone does not prove field progress, equipment utilization, cost to complete, unapproved change orders, contract interpretation or future cash timing. The customer remains responsible for those records and for every management decision.
Check for supported financial leaks first
Run the private calculator, then use the readiness check to determine whether current books can support autonomous monitoring. No sales call or human review is required.
Check for Financial Leaks Check Watchtower ReadinessFrequently asked questions
What should a trade contractor review financially each month?
An educational review can cover close readiness, job margin, WIP, billing, change orders, retainage, receivables, forecasts and backlog, but each measure requires authoritative source evidence.
How is oversight different from bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping records and reconciles activity. Oversight uses approved evidence and qualified judgment; it is not automatically performed by monitoring software.
What if job-cost or WIP information is incomplete?
Do not publish or rely on the conclusion. Identify the missing evidence and have the customer or its qualified professional correct and approve the source records.
Does the Watchtower provide controller-level support?
No. It autonomously monitors supported historical QuickBooks conditions and never hides routine human close, project, forecast, meeting, decision or follow-through work inside the product.