P&L template for a contracting business
A free, self-calculating profit & loss spreadsheet set up for a contracting business: type your statement lines on one tab and the monthly P&L builds itself, with guidance for the categories this trade actually uses.
- Free Excel file preloaded for a contracting business; works in Google Sheets and Numbers too.
- Type transactions once; twelve monthly P&L columns calculate themselves.
- Category guidance for this trade: materials (cogs), subcontractors, equipment & tools, and more.
- Transfers, card payments, and owner draws get an excluded section so they never inflate or deflate profit.
- Prefer not to type? RapidPnL builds the same P&L from your statement PDFs in minutes, reconciled to the penny, for $49.
Excel format (.xlsx), about 25 KB, free, no email required.
Download the templateWhat income looks like for a contracting business
Job payments arrive as large, irregular deposits: checks, wires, sometimes card payments through an invoicing app. Progress draws land mid-project, retainage arrives months after the work, and deposits for unstarted jobs show up before you have bought the first stick of lumber. Reconciliation discipline matters here more than in any other trade, because a missed $18,000 deposit is not a rounding error. Customer deposits for future work still count as cash-basis income when received; the report's basis note says so, and your tax preparer decides any adjustment at filing time.
In the template, every deposit gets entered as a positive amount and categorized as Sales & Services Revenue (or Other Income when it genuinely is not sales). The monthly columns then show your revenue pattern at a glance, which is the first thing a lender reads.
The expense categories that matter
Lumber yards, big-box hardware, plumbing and electrical suppliers. On a contractor's P&L this belongs in cost of goods so that gross margin means something.
Checks and transfers to subs, usually the biggest expense after materials, and the line your 1099s come from.
Tool purchases show as expenses on a cash-basis management P&L. Large equipment may be capitalized on the tax return, so big-ticket items get flagged for your preparer.
General liability, workers' comp, and bond premiums. Premium auditors reconcile these against your payroll and sub payments at renewal.
Trucks, fuel, tolls, dump fees. Constant small debits that add up to a real line by year end.
The part most templates get wrong
Transfers between your own accounts, credit card payments made from checking, owner draws, and loan principal are cash movements, not income or expenses. A homemade P&L that counts them reports the wrong profit, and it is the first thing an experienced reviewer notices. This template gives those categories a dedicated excluded section below the P&L: the cash stays tracked, the profit stays honest.
The honest test of any hand-built P&L is reconciliation: for each account and month, the beginning balance plus every line you entered must equal the printed ending balance. The Start-here tab walks through the check. If typing and checking a year of statements is more weekend than you want to spend, the contracting business P&L guide shows what the finished product looks like, and RapidPnL builds it from your statement PDFs in minutes.
Upload the PDFs and get a management-use profit & loss in minutes, with every statement reconciled to the penny. $49 for 3 months, then $9 each additional month. Full refund if we can't reconcile.
The free statement is read, categorized, and reconciled on screen before you pay anything. One per person; no card required.
Common questions
Materials (COGS), Subcontractors, Equipment & tools, Insurance & bonding do most of the work on this trade's P&L. The template's Start-here tab explains each one, and the dropdown carries the full chart of accounts so nothing gets forced into the wrong bucket.
Record what actually lands on the bank statement. Job payments arrive as large, irregular deposits: checks, wires, sometimes card payments through an invoicing app. Enter each deposit as a positive amount under Sales & Services Revenue; processor fees that appear as separate debits get their own expense line.
Same engine and formulas, tuned for a contracting business: the Start-here tab lists the categories that matter for this trade and why, and the Transactions tab opens with example entries that look like this business's real statement lines.
Other industries
- Cleaning business →
- Restaurant →
- Food truck →
- E-commerce business →
- Landscaping business →
- Trucking business →
- Salon →
- Consulting practice →
- Handyman business →
- Photography business →
- Auto repair shop →
Written by a licensed CPA. This guide is general information, not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice, and does not create a professional relationship. Lender requirements and bank websites change; confirm specifics with your lender and financial institution. RapidPnL reports are cash-basis summaries generated from customer-provided data for management use only, not audited or CPA-reviewed. © 2026 RapidPnL LLC.