Guides
Simple bookkeeping for a moving company: job numbers, cash and the seasonal reserve
Bookkeeping for a moving company: a short account structure coded to job numbers, the four week cash cycle, and the seasonal reserve that quiet months require.
What to take away
- Code every cost to a job number where one exists. A mover whose books show only monthly totals can tell you the business made money and never which work made it.
- The cash problem in this trade is a timing problem. Payroll runs weekly, materials are consumed before invoicing, and the season delivers most of the year's revenue in a few months.
- Materials and pads are the two lines most often mis-handled: one is consumed per job and should be coded there, the other is an asset that quietly disappears.
- Deposits are the cheapest working capital a mover can get, and they are also somebody else's money until the work is done. Treat them accordingly in the books.
The account structure
Keep it short. A long chart of accounts in a small yard produces miscoded entries, not insight.
Accounts Coded to a Job
Coded to a job
- Revenue
- Yes
- Direct labor
- Yes, by hours
- Direct materials
- Yes
- Vehicle running
- By truck and job
- Vehicle fixed
- —
- Facility
- —
- Claims
- Yes, to the job
Not coded to a job
- Revenue
- —
- Direct labor
- —
- Direct materials
- —
- Vehicle running
- —
- Vehicle fixed
- No
- Facility
- No
- Claims
- —
| Group | Accounts | Coded to a job? |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Moving labor, access charges, materials sold, packing, storage, specialty handling | Yes |
| Direct labor | Crew wages, payroll taxes, workers' compensation | Yes, by hours |
| Direct materials | Cartons, paper, tape, mattress bags consumed | Yes |
| Vehicle running | Fuel, tires, repairs | By truck, and by job where practical |
| Vehicle fixed | Payments or lease, registration, insurance | No |
| Facility | Yard or warehouse rent, utilities | No |
| Insurance, non-vehicle | General liability, cargo, property | No |
| Compliance | Authority renewals, permits, filings | No |
| Office | Software, phone, advertising, professional fees | No |
| Claims | Deductibles and settlements paid | Yes, to the job that caused them |
Two decisions inside that table do most of the work. Splitting revenue so access charges are visible on their own line tells you whether access is being charged at all. Coding claims to the job that produced them makes the true cost of a bad move visible next to its revenue.
Where the job number earns its keep
A cost with a job number can be compared to the revenue from the same job. A cost without one can only be compared to the month. That difference is what lets you say which services, which crews, and which building types actually pay, which is the arithmetic the measures in the software and KPI guide rest on.
Three costs that are usually coded to the month and should be coded to the job: materials consumed, claim settlements, and any subcontracted specialty work. Coding materials and claims to the job also feeds the profit margin and break-even math in named variables.
The four-week cash cycle
Lay the month out in weeks rather than as a total. The shape below is what a local mover typically faces.
The Four-Week Cash Cycle
- Week oneQuiet, payroll runs, materials bought ahead
- Week twoBooking for month end, deposits arrive
- Week threeWork builds, payroll and fuel rise
- Week fourStacked days, largest payroll and revenue
- Month rollsWeek four payroll still to clear
- Week one. Quiet in most markets, because moves cluster at month end. Payroll still runs. Materials are bought ahead of the busy weeks. Cash out, little in.
- Week two. Booking activity for month end. Deposits, if you take them, start arriving. This is the week the month is won or lost commercially.
- Week three. Work builds. Payroll rises. Fuel and materials consumption rise with it.
- Week four. The stacked days. The largest payroll of the month, the largest fuel spend, and the largest revenue, arriving as jobs complete rather than evenly. Overtime, if you run it, lands here.
Then the month rolls and week one arrives again with the payroll from week four still to clear. That overlap is the cash pinch, and it repeats twelve times a year regardless of how profitable the business is.
The seasonal version of the same problem
Household moving concentrates in the warm months because leases and closings do. Fixed costs do not concentrate anywhere. A yard that spends its peak surplus during the peak will meet the quiet season with the same rent, the same vehicle payments, and the same insurance, and far fewer crew-days to pay for them.
Work out what the quiet months cost as a block and hold that amount back from the peak. Treat it as committed, not available.
The expansion and market guide assumes this seasonal reserve exists before any second-market talk. Opening a second yard in a good summer with no reserve is how a profitable business fails in February.
Payroll is the line to watch weekly
Crew wages plus payroll taxes and workers' compensation are the largest cost in the business and the least deferrable. Two habits keep it under control. Reconcile hours from the job sheets against the payroll register every week: hours that appear in payroll and not on a job sheet are either unbilled work or a recording failure.
And decide before the season how many crew you will carry through the quiet months. That decision, covered in the hiring and training guide, is really a cash decision wearing a staffing costume.
Deposits, and what they are
If your contract and your regulator allow deposits, they are the cheapest working capital for a mover. You get money before the crew is paid, from the customer whose work it funds. State what the deposit is for and when it is returned.
In the books, keep deposits visible rather than blended into revenue. That way a month that looks strong on cash is not mistaken for a month that was strong on work.
Materials and pads: two different problems
Materials are consumed per job and should be coded there. When they are coded to the month, packing looks more profitable than it is and the materials line looks like overhead.
Pads, dollies, and straps are different. They are equipment with a life, they walk off trucks, and they are almost never counted. A yard that counts pads on and off daily will find the shrinkage; a yard that does not will replace its inventory annually and record it as a supplies expense without ever asking why.
What the tax side requires
The Internal Revenue Service's guidance on what kind of records should I keep leaves the choice of system to the business provided it clearly shows income and expenses, and asks that documents supporting purchases, sales, payroll, and assets be kept. A job-numbered ledger with the job files behind it satisfies that comfortably.
Separately, costs tied to operating authority, permits, and filings belong in their own account. The licensing and compliance guide treats renewals as a calendar item, and the books are where you find out what that calendar costs.
The financial records are also customer records
A mover's ledger sits next to invoices carrying home addresses, move dates, and inventories. Whoever has access to the books usually has access to those too. Manage it as a control: named accounts rather than a shared login, access removed the day someone leaves, and a backup you have restored from at least once.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's resources for small and medium businesses cover those basics for an organization this size. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's small business quick-start guides give a practical starting point for deciding which risks to address first.
A monthly close that takes an hour
- Reconcile payroll hours against job sheets.
- Code any unassigned cost to a job or to a fixed account, with nothing left in a suspense line.
- Post materials consumed against the jobs that used them.
- Enter claims paid against the job that caused them.
- Print the fixed cost total and the paid crew-days sold. Those two numbers are the month.
Common questions
Cash or accrual?
Ask an accountant who knows your size and your state. What matters for management is the weekly cash view, and you need it under either method.
Do I need moving-specific accounting software?
No. You need job numbers that reach the books. Any ledger that accepts them will do.
How much reserve should I carry into the quiet season?
The fixed cost block for the months you expect to be slow, worked out from your own accounts rather than a general rule.
What is the most common bookkeeping mistake in a new yard?
Coding materials and claims to the month instead of the job. Both hide which work is actually paying.
