Industries
Construction and job costing
Finbryn sets up job costing for Saudi contractors so profitability is visible by project rather than only by month, tracking retentions, withholding tax on subcontractor and consultant payments, and GOSI and Mudad payroll across sites. We work inside Xero alongside your site management platform and close each month promptly.
Management report
Illustrative client · August 2026
SAR
| 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-level profit and loss hides which job is losing money
A contractor running several sites at once needs to know which contract is profitable and which one is bleeding cash, and a single company-wide profit and loss cannot answer that. Labour, materials and subcontractor costs have to be assigned to the job that generated them as they are incurred, not sorted out weeks later from a pile of site invoices.
Finbryn builds the chart of accounts and job list around how the contractor actually prices and runs work, then codes costs to jobs from the start. When a variation order changes the contract price, it lands in the job cost report immediately rather than sitting as a side conversation the numbers never catch up to.
Withholding tax and retentions
Payments to a non-resident subcontractor or consultant with no permanent establishment in the Kingdom trigger withholding tax under Article 68 of the Income Tax Law, at rates that vary by payment category, commonly cited around 5% for items like rent or loan charges and 15% to 20% for management fees or technical services, and the monthly withholding return is due by the 10th of the following month. We track which payments trigger withholding before the invoice is paid, not after ZATCA asks about it.
Retentions, the percentage a client holds back until completion and the matching percentage held back from subcontractors, are tracked in their own accounts rather than buried inside ordinary receivables and payables, so a job's real cash position is not distorted in either direction.
Payroll across sites
A multi-site contractor's workforce mixes Saudi employees carrying the full 21.5% GOSI contribution with non-Saudi employees carrying only the 2% occupational hazards branch, and every worker's wage has to move through the Wage Protection Programme via Mudad regardless of which site they are assigned to that month.
Working with Finbryn
Our delivery team reconciles job costs weekly against the site management platform and closes the group report on a fixed cycle, with figures reviewed by a senior reviewer and a corporate CFO. Zakat and tax returns, including the withholding return, are prepared by our team and filed by the taxpayer or a licensed tax agent. Pricing is published on our pricing page, and contractors setting up job costing for the first time start with a scoped catch-up project ahead of ongoing monthly bookkeeping.
Questions
Frequently asked questions: Construction and job costing
Do you track withholding tax on payments to subcontractors or consultants?
Yes, where a payment is made to a non-resident with no permanent establishment in the Kingdom. Rates vary by category and we confirm the applicable rate before the payment is treated as final, with the monthly return prepared for filing by the 10th of the following month.
How do you track retentions held by clients and owed to subcontractors?
Both directions are tracked in their own accounts, separate from ordinary receivables and payables, so the contractor's true cash position on a job is not distorted either way.
Can job costing flag a project running over budget before it finishes?
Yes. Actual cost is compared against the original job budget as costs are entered, so a project drifting over budget is flagged while there is still time to act.
Do you handle GOSI and Mudad payroll across multiple sites?
Yes. Saudi and non-Saudi employees are contributed at their respective GOSI rates, and every worker's wage across every site moves through the Wage Protection Programme via Mudad.
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.