Construction P&L Template

Once the structure is set, enter your monthly revenue and direct costs from your job cost reports or accounting software. The Job Cost Summary sheet is worth filling out project by project: enter each active job's contract value, change orders, and actual costs, and the sheet calculates gross profit and margin per job automatically. This is the view that tells you whether individual projects are performing to their bid margins — information that the monthly total doesn't surface on its own.

A construction P&L needs a structure that reflects how the business actually earns revenue. Contract revenue should be split by contract type — fixed-price jobs carry different risk and margin profiles than cost-plus work or time-and-materials billing. Change orders should be tracked separately because they often have higher margins than the original contract scope and represent a meaningful revenue line for active contractors. On the cost side, the split between direct labor, materials, subcontractors, and equipment rental matters: subcontractor costs can run 30–50% of revenue on some projects, and tracking them as a percentage of revenue helps you see whether your reliance on subs is growing and what that means for your gross margin.