911 Bookkeepers is a Baton Rouge bookkeeping and payroll firm built specifically for electrical contractors — residential service, commercial build-outs, and industrial contracts. We handle your books, run your payroll, and give you a clear picture of where your money is going, so you can stay focused on the work that actually pays. We use Xero for bookkeeping and Patriot Payroll for payroll.
The owner of 911 Bookkeepers is a licensed paramedic and former HVAC field technician who built this firm around one idea: bookkeepers should understand the trades, not just file the paperwork. That job-costing methodology — tracking labor, materials, and margin at the individual job level — applies directly to electrical contracting. We separate residential service from commercial and industrial contract work, track retainage and draw schedules so cash flow reflects reality, and make sure labor burden, benefits and overhead, is actually priced into every bid. A generalist bookkeeper won't ask those questions. We do.
If you're trying to understand electrical contractor bookkeeping before you hire anyone — here's the part most generalist firms skip. These are the three things that separate trades-specific bookkeeping from a standard small-business setup.
Commercial and industrial electrical jobs commonly carry retention clauses, typically 5–10% held back until final completion, along with draw schedules tied to project milestones. If your books treat a draw the same as a fully collected invoice, your cash position looks better than it actually is. We track what's invoiced, what's collected, and what's retained separately, so you know exactly what's available versus what's tied up in work you've already completed.
Scope additions happen constantly on commercial jobs, an extra circuit here, a panel upgrade there, and if they're not tracked and invoiced separately, that labor and material gets absorbed into the original contract price. Job costing that flags change orders as they happen, rather than trying to reconstruct them at closeout, is what keeps that work from quietly eating your margin.
Your crew's true hourly cost isn't just their wage, it's wages plus payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, and other overhead. Bidding jobs off wage alone consistently underprices labor-heavy electrical work. We calculate actual labor burden so your bids reflect what a job really costs to staff, not just what you're paying an electrician per hour.
Is electrical contractor bookkeeping different from regular small-business bookkeeping?
Yes — mainly in job costing and how cash is tracked. Electrical contractors need to separate residential, commercial, and industrial work, and account for retainage and draw schedules, which a generic bookkeeping setup typically doesn't capture.
How do you handle retainage on commercial electrical contracts?
We track retainage separately from collected revenue, so your books and cash flow forecast reflect what's actually available versus what's held back until the job closes out and final inspection is signed off.
Do you work with electrical contractors outside Baton Rouge?
Yes — all work is delivered remotely through Xero, so we serve electrical contractors across Louisiana and Wisconsin, in addition to our home base in Baton Rouge.
What is labor burden and why does it matter for bidding?
Labor burden is the fully-loaded cost of an employee, wages plus payroll taxes, workers' comp, and benefits, not just the hourly wage. Bidding a job off wage alone almost always underprices labor-heavy work and quietly erodes margin.
There are two kinds of electrical contractors we talk to. The first group is doing their own books — reconciling at midnight, dreading tax season, making pricing decisions on gut feel. The second group has a bookkeeper or CPA, but that person handles dentists and restaurants and retail shops too. They don’t know what retainage is or how a draw schedule works. Both groups end up flying blind. 911 Bookkeepers is the alternative — one firm, built specifically for trades, that treats your financials like a first responder treats a scene: with speed, accuracy, and no guessing.
We price by scope, not by the hour. When you come on as a client, you know exactly what you’re paying every month — whether we log two hours or twelve. No surprise invoices. No tax-season scramble fees.
All work is delivered remotely — secure client portal, real-time access to your financials in Xero, and a direct line to your bookkeeper. No waiting for callbacks. No “your account manager will be in touch.” When your books need attention, you call 911.
Book a free 20-minute call. We’ll look at where you are, tell you what we can fix, and give you a straight answer on whether we’re the right fit.