Industries
Construction and job costing
Finbryn sets up job costing so a UAE contractor can see profitability by project rather than by month, tracking retentions held by both clients and subcontractors, variation orders and cross-emirate VAT on a mainland or free zone entity. We work inside Xero alongside a site management platform and close by business day five.
Management report
Illustrative client · August 2026
AED
| Line | Aug | Jul | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 142,380 | 131,904 | +10,476 |
| Cost of sales | (51,260) | (48,115) | (3,145) |
| Gross profit | 91,120 | 83,789 | +7,331 |
| Payroll | (46,300) | (45,900) | (400) |
| SoftwareNoted | (6,480) | (5,490) | (990) |
| Rent | (8,000) | (8,000) | 0 |
| Other operating | (9,215) | (9,870) | +655 |
| Net income | 21,125 | 14,529 | +6,596 |
Reviewer's note
Software is up on last month after two seats were added mid-month. Revenue includes one milestone invoice that will not repeat next month.
Illustrative. An example of the document, not a client's figures.
Exceptions report
Where the books usually hurt
Labor, materials and subcontractor costs get lumped into general expense accounts instead of assigned to a job
Work in progress does not get calculated, so profitability on active jobs is a guess until the job closes
Retainage held by customers or owed to subcontractors gets buried in accounts receivable and payable
Change orders change the contract price but never make it back into the job cost report
A company-wide profit and loss does not tell a contractor anything useful
A contractor running several sites across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah at once needs to know which project is profitable and which one is losing money, and a single monthly P&L cannot answer that question. Labour, materials and subcontractor costs need to be coded to the job that generated them as they happen, not sorted out weeks later from a stack of supplier invoices.
Finbryn builds the chart of accounts and job list around how the contractor actually quotes and runs work, then codes costs to jobs from the point they are incurred. When a variation order changes the contract value, the job cost report reflects it immediately rather than as a side conversation that never makes it into the numbers.
Retentions and subcontractor payments
UAE construction contracts commonly hold back a retention percentage, often 5% to 10%, until practical completion or the defects liability period ends, and the contractor typically holds back a matching percentage from subcontractors. Left buried in ordinary trade debtors and creditors, retentions make a job's true cash position look better or worse than it actually is, right when a contractor needs an accurate number to plan the next phase. We track retentions owed to the contractor and owed by the contractor in their own accounts, separate from standard receivables and payables.
VAT, Corporate Tax and free zone contracting
Construction services are standard-rated at 5% VAT once the AED 375,000 mandatory registration threshold is crossed, and a contractor working across mainland and free zone entities, such as a JAFZA-based equipment company billing a mainland project company, needs intercompany VAT treatment handled correctly rather than assumed away. Corporate Tax applies at 9% on taxable income above AED 375,000, filed within 9 months of the tax period end, and a free zone contractor selling into the mainland typically falls outside Qualifying Free Zone Person treatment on that mainland-sourced income, a distinction that affects which income actually carries the 0% rate.
Working with Finbryn
You keep the Xero file, integrated with the site management platform your team already uses. A named pod handles your account, with a recorded handover memo if that pod changes, and books are reconciled weekly with the close by business day five. Contractors setting up job costing for the first time typically start with a catch-up project to rebuild the chart of accounts and assign historical costs to the right jobs, priced separately from ongoing monthly bookkeeping, with pricing published on our pricing page and terms in your engagement letter.
Questions
Frequently asked questions: Construction and job costing
Do you track retentions owed to subcontractors as well as those held by clients?
Yes. Both directions are tracked in their own accounts, so the contractor's true cash position is not distorted either way.
Can variations or change orders be reflected in job cost reports immediately?
Yes. When a variation adjusts the contract price or scope, the job cost report is updated to reflect the revised figures straight away.
How do you handle billing between a free zone equipment company and a mainland project entity?
Intercompany invoices between related entities are tracked with their VAT treatment applied correctly, rather than assumed to be VAT-neutral simply because the entities share ownership.
Does our free zone entity keep 0% Corporate Tax on mainland construction work?
Generally no. Income earned from mainland-sourced construction work typically falls outside Qualifying Free Zone Person treatment, which is why separating mainland and free zone revenue in the books matters for the tax position, not just for management reporting.
Can job costing flag a project running over budget before it finishes?
Yes, actual cost is compared against the original budget for each job as costs are entered, so a project drifting over budget is flagged while there is still time to act.
Can you set up job costing if we have never tracked it before?
Yes, this usually starts with a catch-up project to rebuild the chart of accounts and job list before ongoing job costing begins.
Do you calculate work in progress each month?
Yes, percentage-of-completion or completed-contract calculations can be built into the monthly close depending on how the contractor already recognizes revenue.
What are the common bookkeeping challenges for a construction and job costing business?
Beyond the basics, retainage held by customers or owed to subcontractors gets buried in accounts receivable and payable and change orders change the contract price but never make it back into the job cost report come up often in this industry. We build the chart of accounts and reconciliation process around those specific patterns rather than a generic template that ignores how the business actually operates.
What software do you support for construction and job costing?
We work inside QuickBooks Online and Procore, along with the other tools listed on this page that are common in the construction and job costing industry. If you have no file yet, we set one up in your name so you own it from day one.
Related services
- BookkeepingMonthly bookkeepingOngoing monthly bookkeeping: transactions sorted into categories, accounts reconciled and month-end reports delivered in the software you already use.
- BookkeepingCatch-up and cleanup bookkeepingMonths or years of books brought up to date and reconciled, with a written record of every adjustment, so monthly bookkeeping can start from a clean base.
Next step
Talk to the team that would run your books
A short call covers your setup, your software and what a first month would look like. You get a written scope and price after it.