0120: Contractors Success Map Spouses Doing Bookkeeping Leads To Divorce

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0120 And It Will Be About Contractors Who Turn Their Wives Into Construction Bookkeepers Are Headed For Divorce

There is a storm brewing on the horizon and I have to address it before it is too late in an effort to help save a few good marriages. Lately there has been a surge of contractor's spouses who have left and filed for divorce and a lot more are on the edge.

Girlfriends do not have as many reasons to stay so they usually pack up and leave early.

I was very fortunate to meet a wonderful woman in high school, Sharie, and we married the year after we graduated while I was attending college majoring in accounting.

As it happened I was raised in a family that earned a living as contractors. Sharie and I spent many years working side-by-side starting, owning and operating several construction companies so this article comes from the heart as someone who lived it.

One fine sunny day in 1991 after I had been especially arrogant and short-tempered Sharie said to me: "Enough is enough! You need to get somebody else to do the contractor bookkeeping because I am done!"

That was a serious wake-up-call. Suddenly I had a major problem and needed to develop a Contractors Bookkeeping Services System because using QuickBooks as a check register was not going to work especially since I needed to hire a bookkeeper right away.

In six short months I developed a simple rudimentary contractors bookkeeping system which has evolved to the professional contractors bookkeeping services system it is now and I sincerely believe it helped save our marriage and perhaps could help save yours too!

Here is what I see repeated many times over. Contractors cross the line and begin treating their spouses as indentured servants who should be grateful for a place to live, food to eat and a bed to sleep in exchange for:

Providing the much needed contractor bookkeeping services including:

• Job Cost Reports
• Financial Reports
• Process Payroll
• File Monthly And Quarterly Tax Returns
• Balance The Checkbook
• Filling Out Loan Applications
• Tracking Employee Loans
• Issuing Invoices To Your Customers
• Riding herd over subcontractors
• Working with suppliers and vendors
• Keeping Track Of The Bills
• Paying The Bills
• Reconciling Checking, Savings And Credit Card Accounts
• And Several Dozen More Construction Accounting Chores

This Is In Addition To Maintaining A Clean And Tidy Home:

• Doing the shopping
• Being the chief cook and bottle washer
• Running errands
• Taking care of the children and pets
• Playing nurse when a family member is sick
• Planning and preparing for holidays, birthdays anniversaries and special events
• And juggling dozens of other chores and tasks

After a while all spouses get worn out, run down frustrated, depressed, and emotional and in some cases desperate enough to take radical actions to relieve the unbearable pain even to the point of suicide.

In most cases you, the contractor, are not at fault; because you are being hammered by customers who are doing everything they can to drive the price of everything and everyone into the ground in what they see as a battle and a twisted attempt to get something for nothing, dare I say entitlement? I have a suggestion how to fix that later in this article.

Here Are The Dirty Dozen Issues Your Wife Is Facing:

#01 You do not understand there is a world of difference between construction accounting and regular accounting. If you would like to learn about what makes construction accounting different from regular accounting please visit www.FastEasyAccounting.com/ca

#02 You start the business and ask your wife to "do the books" saying "It should only take 10 minutes a day” and not knowing any better she agrees with you.

#03 Very quickly she begins to realize she is in trouble and way over her head because she doesn't understand construction accounting let alone how it can be done in “10 minutes a day”.

#04 Her resentment toward you starts to build inside her like a small camp fire and grows into a raging wild forest fire as she is faced with the prospect of feeling a failure because she let you down or perhaps feeling like she lied to you about being able to handle the contractor bookkeeping services. Now she is concerned you may begin to doubt her honesty and her worth as a person.

#05 She does not know that it takes 10,000 hours of training and practice to become skilled in regular accounting let alone the additional 10,000 hours of training and practice required to become a highly skilled construction bookkeeper and another long grueling set of years of training and practice that it takes to become a construction accountant.

#06 Worse yet if she has any experience in regular accounting then she is lead to believe that construction accounting is no different that is recipe for disaster.

#07 She is deathly afraid of filling out the dozens of state, federal and local tax forms that need to be filed every year. What if there is an audit? What if she paid too much tax, too little tax, filed a return late? The taxes will not bankrupt you but the fines and penalties can and it will all be blamed on her.

#08 She has to constantly ask you and your construction workers for paperwork and you say "stop nagging me and the other employees" which causes hurt feelings for everyone involved.

#09 All day your spouse is being interrupted while trying to get the bookkeeping done. Friends and neighbors call or drop by to visit. Customers call about when you will be at their house to finish their job, suppliers calling for money, kids need lunch, rides to activities and on it goes.

#10 Frantic invoicing issues as you remember you need to send an Invoice to a customer to get paid and you forgot so you add that to her overloaded workday.

#11 You ask for Financial and Job Cost Reports and get upset when she says they are not ready. What she is really saying is "I don't know to generate accurate reports" which causes more tension and hurt feelings for both of you.

#12 When you do get Financial and Job Cost Reports your first response is to argue with them and blame your wife for not getting them right. You say "There is no way we are that far in debt" or "What do you mean that last job didn't make any money?" "I needed that new truck and now you are telling me we are out of money". Continual hurt feelings make her numb then she slides into depression which turns into despair and finally the love is gone.

I could go on for many more pages and never cover all of the reasons making your wife do your construction accounting was the reason they gave up asked for a divorce.

The answer is simple. We have helped save a lot of marriages by working with contractor’s wives and showing them how to do the things they are good at like managing the money, paying the bills, customer service and other management tasks and letting us take care of the contractors bookkeeping services.

Most of the time the contractor ends up making more money because everyone does what they are good at doing and they have 24/7 access to all of the reports they could ever want with our web based contractors bookkeeping services financial reporting tool.

I trust this podcast helps you understand that outsourcing your contractors bookkeeping services to us is about more than just “doing the bookkeeping”; it is about taking holistic approach to your entire construction company and helping support you as a contractor and as a person.

We Remove Contractor's Unique Paperwork Frustrations

We understand the good, bad and the ugly about owning and operating construction companies because we have had several of them and we sincerely care about you and your construction company!

That is all I have for now and if you have listened this far please do me the honor of commenting and rating podcast www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast Tell me what you liked, did not like, tell it as you see it because your feedback is crucial and I thank you in advance.

You Deserve To Be Wealthy, Because You Bring Value To Other People's Lives!

I trust this will be of value to you and your feedback is always welcome at www.FastEasyAccounting.com/podcast

This is one more example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that and a lot more valuable to construction contractors like you so stop missing out and call Sharie 206-361-3950 or email sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

Thinking About Outsourcing Your Contractors Bookkeeping Services?

Click On The Link Below:

www.FastEasyAccounting.com/hs

Need Help Now?

Call Sharie 206-361-3950

sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

In closing, I want to caution you that we may or may not be a good fit for your contracting company. This guide will help you learn what to look for in outsourced construction accounting.

Thank you very much and I hope you understand we really do care about you and all contractors regardless of whether or not you ever hire our services.
Bye for now until our next episode here on the Contractors Success MAP Podcast.

Warm Regards,

Randal DeHart | Contractors Accountant

We Remove Contractor's Unique Paperwork Frustrations