Meet your Amatics Team
Christina Riekenberg, CPA on Accounting for Construction Companies
Christina is a CPA and Shareholder at Amatics. She received a B.S. in Business with an emphasis in Accounting from the University of Montana. With 22 years of professional experience, she offers expertise to business and individuals on tax planning, tax preparation, and consulting. She began her accounting career in the private industry, something she views as an advantage when it comes to understanding how a client’s business functions. This background has shown how her “inputs” (numbers going into the software program) impact the “outputs” (i.e. tax returns and financial statements).
Christina loves living in Bozeman because, “You can drive 15 minutes and be in the mountains.”When she is not at Amatics, you can finder her traveling, watching her kids play sports, camping, and listening to audible books.
Christina holds a particularly unique experience in the area of construction accounting and shared a few of her thoughts:
Why would a potential client choose Amatics over another accounting firm?
We are a full-serivce accounting firm and we try to provide options for the client. We are large enough to have plenty of resources, yet small enough to provide the interaction and timeliness clients want.
Why is it important for those in the construction sector to work with a construction-specific accountant?
There are different methods of accounting contractors can take advantage of for financial statement preparation and income tax reporting. Oftentimes, contractors are trying to satisfy the requirements of a bonding company and/or bank, which require one method of accounting, while a different method may be more advantageous for income tax purposes.
But, can’t any accountant take care of a construction company’s needs?
An accountant who is not familiar with the methods of accounting available for construction clients may end up causing the client to lose a bond or loan due to not reporting according to the bonding or bank requirements. Or, they may cause too much tax to be paid by not selecting the correct method of accounting. Selecting the correct entity type is also important.
What is one piece of advice you give every construction client when it comes to creating a accounting system for their company?
A few pieces of advice: Develop realistic bids that include overhead costs and be sure to compare this to the actual cost upon completion. Keep the bonding company happy by not over-billing on one job to fund the next job. Purchase a software package that includes a job-costing module to track costs by job.
Any other thoughts on construction accounting and what these clients need
to know?
Hire a bookkeeper who understands and has experience with job-costing.