Bookkeeper vs Controller vs CPA for Contractors: Who Owns What

You have a bookkeeper. You have a CPA. So why can nobody tell you which jobs are making money, or whether you can make payroll in six weeks?

Because those are not bookkeeping questions, and they are not year-end tax questions. They are controller questions. Most subcontractors hire the first two roles and accidentally skip the middle one. Then they wonder why the stack feels expensive and still useless for running the business.

I am Lena Hanna, CPA and Enrolled Agent. I work with construction subcontractors as a fractional controller. This is a plain map of who owns what, where the gaps usually sit, and how to fix the gap without hiring three full-time people.

The short answer

If you only have bookkeeper + April CPA, you have recording and compliance. You do not have an operating finance seat.

What a bookkeeper owns

A good construction-aware bookkeeper keeps the engine running:

• Bills and vendor payments
• Bank and credit card categorization
• Payroll entries (or coordinating with a payroll provider)
• Clean-enough QuickBooks so reports can exist at all
• Basic reconciliations

That work matters. Without it, nothing else is reliable.

What bookkeeping is not: telling you whether Job 214 is underwater this week, whether underbilling is eating your cash, or whether you should take the next GC package. When owners ask those questions and get "I'll have to dig into it," the role has been stretched past its design.

What a CPA owns

Your CPA (or EA) owns tax and, when engaged for it, planning:

• Individual and business returns
• Estimated taxes
• Notices and filings
• Entity questions (S-corp vs LLC and similar)
• Year-round planning if that is part of the relationship

Many CPA relationships for contractors are still built around the annual return. That is fine for compliance. It is a poor substitute for weekly job visibility. Your CPA is not failing you when they cannot produce a live WIP from memory in October. That was never the engagement.

I am a CPA and EA myself. I say this plainly because contractors deserve an honest split: tax skill and controller skill overlap, but they are not the same weekly job.

What a controller owns

The controller seat is the missing middle for many growing subcontractors:

• Monthly close you can trust
• Job costing that matches how you actually work (labor burden, equipment, change orders, overhead)
• WIP and billing position (underbilling / overbilling in plain English)
• Cash forecasting for the next 60 to 90 days
• Reports formatted for you first, and for a bank or GC when needed
• A standing conversation: here is what changed, here is what to do

Controller work turns clean books into decisions. That is the part most owners think they bought when they hired "a bookkeeper who knows QuickBooks" or "a CPA who does contractors."

Why the combo still leaves you stuck

A common setup:

1. Bookkeeper keeps QuickBooks current.
2. CPA files the return in the spring.
3. Owner still rebuilds spreadsheets on Sunday night to guess at cash and job profit.

Nothing in that stack owns the weekly operating loop. So you get:

• Profit on the P&L that does not match cash in the bank
• Jobs that "look fine" until retainage and change orders catch up
• Tax estimates based on incomplete job reality
• Panic when a bank, GC, or payroll week asks for numbers you do not have ready

The fix is not "fire everyone." The fix is to name the missing role and staff it at the right size.

Who should do what in a small sub shop

A practical split for many smaller subcontractors:

• Bookkeeper: transactions and payables discipline (in-house, part-time, or outsourced)
• Controller (often fractional): close, jobs, cash, WIP, monthly operating review
• CPA / EA: returns and tax strategy, fed by controller-quality numbers instead of a shoebox in March

You do not need three full-time salaries. You need clear ownership so questions stop bouncing between people who were never hired to answer them.

Fractional controller vs hiring full-time

A full-time construction controller often runs $150K to $200K plus benefits, and good ones who know WIP are hard to find. Many smaller subcontractors need the thinking, not a five-day desk.

Fractional controller support means that operating layer on a fixed monthly fee. At LNH CPA PLLC, most contractor clients pay $3,500 to $8,000 per month depending on transaction volume, active jobs, and complexity. It sits between bookkeeping and a full-time hire: more than categorization, less than a $150K seat you do not need yet.

How to tell which gap you have

Ask yourself:

1. Are transactions mostly current, but I still cannot name true job profit this week? → Controller gap (books may be fine).
2. Are bank feeds a mess and vendors months behind? → Bookkeeping gap first. Controller work on top of chaos wastes money.
3. Are books decent and jobs visible, but estimated taxes and entity questions still a yearly surprise? → Tighten the CPA / EA planning relationship, and feed it better monthly numbers.
4. Am I personally the only person who can explain cash and jobs? → You are acting as the unpaid controller. That role needs a name and a cadence.

Start with the real gap. Do not buy a fancy forecast if the register is six weeks behind. Do not expect April tax prep to fix weekly job bleed.

Homepage question, answered straight

People ask: "What's the difference between a bookkeeper, a CPA, and a controller?"

• Bookkeeper records the past.
• Controller runs the present so you can decide.
• CPA settles you up with the tax system and helps you plan around it.

You can have all three without drama. Trouble starts when one person is silently expected to be all three.

Next step

If you want a straight read on which gap you have, book a free Contractor Financial Control Review. We can discuss your current setup and whether cleanup, bookkeeping, or controller-level oversight may fit your needs.

Book a Contractor Financial Control Review

If transactions are recorded but no one owns the close, job margins or cash forecast, my fractional controller services explain how I work alongside your existing bookkeeper and tax preparer.