Facility Services
Contract-level profitability, trust accounting, and multi-site payroll for property managers, building maintenance, and security companies.
The Industry
Facility services businesses manage operations across multiple locations with contracts that all look different. A property management company in Nashville might oversee 50 rental units across a dozen properties, each with its own rent rolls, maintenance budgets, and owner distributions. A building maintenance firm runs preventive contracts at office parks, retail centers, and medical buildings while fielding emergency repair calls that weren’t part of the original scope. Security companies staff guards at different sites with different shift schedules, different billing rates, and different coverage requirements. Every contract is its own profit center, and your books need to reflect that.
The common thread is labor. Payroll is the single largest expense for nearly every facility services company, often consuming 50 to 70 percent of revenue. Guards work overnight shifts with differential pay. Maintenance techs drive between buildings and that windshield time is costing you even though you can’t bill for it. Property managers coordinate dozens of vendor relationships while making sure each expense gets charged to the right property so the owner report at month end is accurate. When labor allocation is off, everything downstream is wrong.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Property management companies, commercial and residential building maintenance firms, security guard services, janitorial contract companies, and facility management operations. Any business in Franklin or Nashville that manages properties, buildings, or sites for other people on an ongoing basis.
What Makes It Complex
What Makes It Complex
Multiple contracts running simultaneously with different billing structures. Labor spread across locations and shifts. Vendor expenses that need allocation to specific properties or contracts. Trust accounts holding tenant security deposits. Service agreements with different scopes, renewal dates, and pricing. Revenue that looks steady on paper but varies with season and emergency call volume.
What We Handle
Every contract gets set up as its own job or class in QuickBooks so revenue and expenses flow to the right place. Property managers need monthly owner statements showing rent collected, maintenance expenses incurred, and management fees earned on each property. Building maintenance companies need to see which contracts are profitable after labor, parts, and travel are properly allocated. Security firms need guard hour tracking reconciled to billing so you’re not providing more coverage than you’re charging for. We build the chart of accounts and tracking structure so these numbers are available without you having to dig through spreadsheets every month.
Payroll is where things get detailed. Security companies have guards at multiple posts with varying pay rates and shift differentials. Maintenance crews work across different properties and their time needs allocation to the right contract. We handle the payroll processing, tax deposits, and filings. On the vendor side, property managers work with dozens of contractors for plumbing, electrical, landscaping, and general repairs. We track vendor payments, make sure W-9s are on file before the first check goes out, and prepare 1099s at year end. Tax preparation accounts for fleet vehicle depreciation, equipment write-offs, and the deductions that facility services businesses qualify for but often miss.
Contract and Property-Level Tracking
Contract and Property-Level Tracking
Revenue and expenses tracked by contract, property, or job site. Monthly owner statements for property managers generated from the books rather than assembled by hand. Profitability reporting by service agreement for maintenance and security companies. QuickBooks configured to give you contract-level visibility without manual workarounds or separate spreadsheets.
Payroll and Vendor Management
Payroll and Vendor Management
Multi-site payroll with varying rates, shift differentials, and proper labor allocation by contract. Vendor invoice tracking matched to the right property or service agreement. W-9 collection and 1099 filing for subcontractors and repair vendors. Tax preparation that captures vehicle costs, equipment depreciation, and operational deductions specific to facility services.
What Goes Wrong
The most common issue is running the books as one big bucket. Revenue from all contracts goes into one income line. Expenses get categorized by type but not by contract or property. You know you spent $14,000 on parts last month, but you have no idea how much went to the office park contract versus the apartment complex. A property management company bills owners for maintenance expenses but can’t clearly show which invoices relate to which property. The owner asks about a $2,400 plumbing bill and you spend an hour searching through bank statements trying to find the answer.
Trust account problems are particularly dangerous for property managers. Tennessee requires that tenant security deposits be held properly. When operating funds and trust funds get mixed together, or when deposits aren’t tracked by tenant, you’re exposed to legal liability you might not even realize you’re carrying. Building maintenance companies take on emergency work outside the contract scope, handle it immediately because the client is upset, and then forget to invoice for it. A few missed invoices per month adds up to tens of thousands in lost revenue over a year. Security companies discover that guard hours at a particular post have been exceeding the contracted amount for months, but nobody caught it because billing and scheduling weren’t being compared.
No Visibility by Contract
No Visibility by Contract
All revenue and expenses lumped together making it impossible to tell which contracts are profitable. You renew a building maintenance agreement at the same rate for three years without realizing that labor and supply costs have pushed it into negative territory. Decisions about pricing, staffing, and growth end up based on gut feeling because the data isn’t there to back them up.
Unbilled Work and Commingled Funds
Unbilled Work and Commingled Funds
Emergency repairs and extra guard hours that never make it onto an invoice. Property management trust accounts mixed with operating funds creating compliance risk. Vendor invoices paid from the wrong account or allocated to the wrong property, making owner reports unreliable and creating confusion at tax time when nobody can untangle what belongs where.
What Changes
You see profitability by contract, by property, and by service type. The office park maintenance agreement that felt busy turns out to run at 31% margin while the apartment complex you were thinking about dropping actually generates 18% more profit per labor hour. Property managers produce clean owner statements every month without scrambling. Security companies reconcile guard hours to contract terms and billing, catching overages before they become a months-long pattern that eats into margin.
Trust accounts are clean and separated from operating funds with tenant deposits tracked by unit. Vendor expenses properly allocated so when an owner asks about a charge, the answer takes 30 seconds instead of an hour of digging. Payroll processed on schedule with labor costs flowing to the right contracts automatically. Tax returns prepared by someone who understands facility services and captures fleet vehicle deductions, equipment depreciation, and the operational expenses that generic accountants often miscategorize. You spend less time on financial administration and more time managing properties and winning new contracts.
Contract-Level Decisions
Contract-Level Decisions
Profitability data by contract and property that informs pricing, renewal negotiations, and growth decisions. You know which service agreements to keep, which to renegotiate, and which to walk away from. Staffing decisions backed by actual labor cost data rather than estimates. Bidding on new work grounded in what similar contracts have actually cost you to service.
Financial Order and Tax Strategy
Financial Order and Tax Strategy
Trust accounts maintained properly with clear tenant-level tracking. Owner statements produced directly from the books instead of assembled manually each month. Payroll allocated correctly across sites and contracts. Tax preparation that maximizes deductions on vehicles, equipment, and operational costs. Quarterly estimates that prevent April surprises and keep cash flow predictable throughout the year.
Greater Nashville's Trusted Financial Partner
The Next Step:
A Quick Conversation
Tell us about your business and where you need support. We'll listen, figure out what makes sense for your situation, and give you a straightforward quote.
