Heavy Highway Contractor

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Subcontract Accruals

  • 1.  Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 3 days ago
    Edited by Chris Graham 2 days ago

    Curious as to how others would handle this issue. We are a prime contractor for the FDOT so we follow their cutoffs. Typically I ask our subs to send us their invoices by the Friday after the cutoff so we can review and approve in a timely manner. So November's cutoff was 11/16 with a 11/21 requested receipt date. 

    Frequently we will have subs miss this cutoff and, for example, send invoices dated 11/26 for work performed 10/19 - 11/16 to us on 12/10. Our PMs know they performed the work and billed accordingly in November without having said invoice in hand.

    In order to rectify would you:

    a. Accrue the cost 11/30, reverse 12/1, and post invoice in December upon receipt in December

    b. Reopen November and post in November upon receipt in December 

    c. Do nothing in November and post in December upon receipt



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    Chris Graham CCIFP
    Operations
    Cone & Graham, Inc.
    Tampa FL
    (813) 623-2856
    cgraham@conegraham.com
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  • 2.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    We do work for PADOT.  Typically, we process a subcontractor pay app based on what is being processed for payment by PADOT only.  We don't use our subcontractor's invoices for this reason exactly.  When or if a subcontractor invoice is received, we attach it to our sub pay app, if it matches what we processed.  If there is a discrepancy, once it is reviewed and verified, we will add it to the next month's application.



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    Kim Niswender
    Controller
    Baseline Contracting, Inc.
    Coplay PA
    (610) 799-5859
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  • 3.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago
    Thanks Kim, that is a path we are considering as well but currently we would have so many discrepancies with our subs that I think it would cause quite the mess, but an end goal for sure. 

    Chris Graham

    Cone & Graham, Inc.

    Office: 813-623-2856

    CGraham@conegraham.com


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  • 4.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    Chris,

    We accrue the costs at 11/30 and then reverse 12/1, and post the invoice to December if we have already closed November. For reference, we are a DOT paving contractor and we use Vista for our ERP.



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    Steven Altobello CPA, CCIFP
    Chief Financial Officer
    Shilling Construction Company
    Manhattan KS
    (785) 776-5077
    saltobello@shilconst.com
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  • 5.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago
    Thanks Steven, we use Spectrum so that process is a bit more manual for us. My understanding is that with Vista there is a specific period end module/feature to handle these - is that correct. 

    Chris Graham

    Cone & Graham, Inc.

    Office: 813-623-2856

    CGraham@conegraham.com


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  • 6.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    I do not use what Vista provides for an extra period. When doing JC Adjustments, I can select it as an Auto Reverse and then initiate those reversal entries in the next month.



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    Steven Altobello CPA, CCIFP
    Chief Financial Officer
    Shilling Construction Company
    Manhattan KS
    (785) 776-5077
    saltobello@shilconst.com
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  • 7.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    Thanks Steven

     

    Chris Graham

    Cone & Graham, Inc.

    Office: 813-623-2856

    CGraham@conegraham.com

     

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  • 8.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    I'd push for option A, this is the common practice and what I'd call best practice to truly be accrual accounting and provide more accurate and reliable WIPs/forecasting. The over/under whiplash with option c is rather tiring and can become a point of frustration amongst the exec team. The flipside is educating your PM team to properly accrue (conservative leaning) and have a process in place to ensure the sub is actually invoicing you, because it can become a challenge when they don't invoice for a month or 2 (which I have never understood this kind of invoice lag from subs but it happens all the time). 

    (Sidebar, tell Robbie an old colleague says hello!)



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    Eric Heidman
    VP of Project Management
    Landmark Excavating
    American Fork UT
    (470) 707-8653
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  • 9.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    Thanks Eric – I will let Robby know!

     

    Chris Graham

    Cone & Graham, Inc.

    Office: 813-623-2856

    CGraham@conegraham.com

     

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  • 10.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    We don't do any highway work but do have a lot of subcontracts. We use GCPay to manage their AIA's, which they usually submit by the 25th and GCPay has a 'no later than' setting which we set as the 30th. So on the 1st we're ready to export of of GCPay and right into Vista SL module.



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    Richard Larson
    Controller
    The Anderson Company LLC
    Manassas VA
    (703) 217-7993
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  • 11.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    What happens if they do not meet the date, but you have billed the owner for their quantities because you have gotten confirmation in the field? Do you all accrue?

     

    Chris Graham

    Cone & Graham, Inc.

    Office: 813-623-2856

    CGraham@conegraham.com

     

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  • 12.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    Hi Chris,

    We don't accrue..our contracts are mostly %-complete for billing on SOV, we don't have to deal with quantities. But when the GC cuts our billed amount we do have to make adjustments into the following month. Usually we just post the subs' AIA's as submitted, then make adjustments in the subsequent billing cycle. So there may be some mis-match between what GC pays us vs what we pay subs.

     

    A blue and black logo  Description automatically generated

     

    Rich Larson / Controller

    office 703.393.4989 / cell 703.217.7993

    12150 TAC Court, Manassas, VA  20109

    www.theanderco.com

     

     






  • 13.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    As mentioned earlier, we work for PADOT.  We post a sub payment application in AP based on what we are billing out to PADOT and make any adjustments in the next period for any discrepancies between our calculated sub payment application and the invoice that is subsequently received, assuming that the discrepancies are approved for payment.  While an accrual for job cost will get you the amounts you need for your WIP, it will not accurately reflect your true AR to AP ratio.  Not showing the accrual in AP can adversely affect cash flow projections.



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    Kim Niswender
    Controller
    Baseline Contracting, Inc.
    Coplay PA
    (610) 799-5859
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  • 14.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    Thanks for the detail Kim – when you say adjustments in the next period what do you mean specifically? Journal entries to credit/debit job cost to get the prior pay app in line with what is received?

     

    Chris Graham

    Cone & Graham, Inc.

    Office: 813-623-2856

    CGraham@conegraham.com

     

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  • 15.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago

    It would be an adjustment to the AP sub pay app entry, directly in AP.  We use Viewpoint Spectrum.  To clarify, this is our process:  

    • Get approved pay quantities from DOT for the period.
    • Create all related subcontractor pay apps for the period, based only on the pay quantities from DOT.
    • Receive the sub's invoice (late or never sometimes).
    • Review the sub's invoice against what was already processed in AP in 2nd step. 
    • If there are differences between what we entered in step 2 versus their submitted invoice, the discrepancies are reviewed by a PM, and either approved or rejected.
    • If the differences are approved, we create an additional sub pay application to bring the amount we already entered in line with their submitted invoice.  (If we used pay app #25035-02 as the invoice # in step 2, then this additional sub pay app would be posted in the next period as #25035-02A.)

    This ensures that not only are we capturing the costs in the proper period, but that our AP is not understated either.  This helps to maintain accurate cash flow projections.  



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    Kim Niswender
    Controller
    Baseline Contracting, Inc.
    Coplay PA
    (610) 799-5859
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  • 16.  RE: Subcontract Accruals

    Posted 2 days ago
    That makes sense, we use Spectrum as well, thank you for sharing! 

    Chris Graham

    Cone & Graham, Inc.

    Office: 813-623-2856

    CGraham@conegraham.com


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