A general CPA files your taxes. But can they cost a job or catch a missed S-corp election? What a generalist costs NC & SC electrical shops — and when to switch.
Two electricians, same $80,000 job. One clears $14,000. The other clears $3,000 and can't say why. The difference usually isn't the work. It's who's keeping the books.
Most electrical shops in the Carolinas start with a general CPA. Someone local. A fine person who files a clean return. But that same CPA also works on restaurants, dentists, and law firms. Your shop runs on jobs, not months. That gap costs real money. Here's where.
A good general CPA covers the basics well:
For a small shop with one location, that can be enough. The trouble starts when your money moves job by job.
Your work isn't steady monthly sales. It's bids, change orders, retainage, and crews spread across sites. A generalist rarely tracks any of that. Four places it leaks.
Job costing means tracking the labor, material, and burden on each job. Then you see real profit per job. Burden is the true cost of an hour of labor — wage plus taxes, comp, and benefits. Without it, every job lands in one big bucket. You can't tell the $14,000 job from the $3,000 job until the year ends. By then it's too late to bid the next one right.
Once your shop clears about $80,000 in profit, an S-corp election can cut your self-employment tax. That tax is 15.3% on profit. A generalist who files plain returns all day often never brings it up. On $120,000 of profit, that can be thousands left on the table each year. Your numbers decide it — talk to us first.
Retainage is the 5–10% a GC holds back until the job closes. WIP means work in progress — the value of jobs you've started but not closed. A general CPA books income when cash hits. That makes a great year look bad and a thin year look rich. Your tax bill and your bonding both suffer.
Section 179 lets you write off a truck the year you buy it, instead of slowly over time. Buy the bucket truck in December or January and the tax swing is large. Timing takes someone watching your number all year, not once in April.
We'll be straight. A general CPA can be the right call when:
If that's you, keep your CPA and save the money. But most shops outgrow that fast. Add a second crew, chase bigger bids, and the job-by-job money gets hard to see.
Some firms pitch construction accounting. That's better than a pure generalist. But a plumber, a framer, and an electrician don't run the same money. We work one trade in two states. So we already know:
Division 26 is the code number for electrical work. It's our name because it's all we do.
It's probably time to switch when:
The report isn't the product. The answer is: which jobs paid, what to bid next, when to hire. That's what a shop needs to grow.
Book a call. We'll read your last return and your books, and show you what a generalist missed. If a general CPA is fine for your shop, we'll tell you. Book a tax strategy call.
This is general information for electrical contractors in NC and SC, not tax advice for your shop. The right move depends on your numbers — talk to us first.
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