Bookkeeping for Calgary Professional and Engineering Firms

Bring the contract into the reporting routine

Fee caps, milestones, retainers and client purchase orders affect what the owner needs to see each month. We connect billing records to a schedule of work awaiting approval and distinguish customer advances from settled invoices. Revenue recognition follows the policy agreed with your accountant.

Direct labour and subcontractor costs can be tracked by engagement where source records support the allocation. The resulting comparison should explain scope changes, unrecovered expenses and time spent on work that has not yet been approved.

Keep the close focused on decisions

A monthly package can show receivables, pending billing, project costs and cash commitments alongside the financial statements. Partners or managers can then assign the next approval, collection or write-off review to the appropriate person. Client confidentiality and access are addressed in the agreed document process.

Illustrative example: an engineering milestone

A Calgary practice completes a design stage but the customer needs an updated purchase order before accepting the invoice. Recording the pending milestone and the responsible client contact makes the delay visible. It also prevents the project's apparent cash surplus from hiding payroll required before the next payment.

Questions about this work

Put this into practice

• Collect accepted invoices →
• Track engagement costs →
• Consulting approval checklist →