The GO First Blog

Financial Systems

Construction Retainage: How to Track It and Collect What You're Owed

Most construction businesses at $1M–$3M in revenue have $40,000–$120,000 in outstanding retainage sitting uncollected at any given time. Poor tracking in QuickBooks combined with no systematic follow-up means many builders let retainage age past 90 days — and write off 20–30% of it as uncollectible. The setup that prevents this takes under an hour and recovers tens of thousands in cash flow most builders don't realize they're leaving behind.

JobTread

JobTread Template Assemblies: Cut Your Estimate Time from 10 Hours to 2

Most builders using JobTread are still building estimates line by line from scratch on every bid. That's not an estimating problem — it's a missing assembly library. JobTread's template assembly feature lets you save pre-priced groups of items — framing, rough plumbing, tile, drywall — and drop them into any estimate in seconds. Builders who build this library cut per-estimate time by 75% and produce more consistent, defensible numbers.

Financial Systems

Construction WIP Reports: What Builders Need for Banking and Bonding

A Work in Progress report is the financial schedule that shows how much revenue you've earned on active jobs versus how much you've billed. Most builders at $500K–$3M don't produce one — and it's exactly what your bank, bonding company, and GC clients ask for when you want more capacity. Here's what WIP measures, why it matters, and how to build the schedule in under two hours.

Client Communication

Pre-Construction Meeting Checklist: Prevent 80% of Mid-Job Disputes

The 60 minutes you spend on a pre-construction meeting before the first tool hits the ground is worth more than any contract clause. Builders who run a structured pre-construction meeting have fewer disputes, faster change order approvals, and clients who stop calling with questions your portal already answers. Here's the exact agenda — and what to document before you leave the room.

Operations

How to Stop Being the Bottleneck in Your Construction Business

When every PO, client question, vendor call, and site decision runs through you, your business can't grow past what you can personally supervise. The bottleneck isn't capacity — it's decision architecture. Most builders who hit a wall at $1M–$2M are still making decisions they should have delegated 12 months ago. Here's the framework that removes the owner from the daily decision loop without losing quality control.

Financial Systems

Job Costing in QuickBooks for Builders: The Setup That Actually Works

Most builders use QuickBooks for invoicing and taxes but never configure it for job costing. Here's the Customer:Job setup, item structure, and five-code system that delivers real gross margin visibility by project.

Operations

When to Hire Your First Foreman as a Builder

Hire too early and you kill cash flow. Hire too late and you cap growth. Here are the three signals that mean you're ready — plus the 90-day onboarding system that keeps your margins intact.