Homer GCs, framers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, and excavation crews build inside a season that Alaska, not the calendar, decides. We handle job costing, multi-crew payroll, the W2/1099 mix, draws, retainage, and the freight-heavy materials line so you can stay on the jobsite instead of buried in QuickBooks.
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Construction in Homer runs on a short, brutal season and a supply chain that has to cross an ocean or a mountain range to reach you. Here is how Tides builds books for the trades across the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
Homer crews build on bluffs above Kachemak Bay, work around erosion and drainage issues, and race a season that gives them maybe five good months. That compresses the year: crews are flat out from breakup through freeze-up, then the work shifts to interiors, weatherization, mechanical retrofits, and whatever can be done indoors. A December P&L and a July P&L are describing two different businesses, and blending them hides which jobs actually made money. We track every project as its own P&L — materials, labor, subs, equipment, and draws all tied to the right job — so the season tells you the truth.
Materials are the other Alaska problem. Freight, barge scheduling, and air cargo can add a punishing percentage to a materials invoice, and if freight is dumped into a single lump expense account, your job costs are fiction. We split labor from materials per job, land freight and mobilization on the job that incurred it, and track remote-site costs — camp, per diem, travel, and equipment barge-in — separately from local work around the Homer Spit. Retainage, change orders, progress billing, and lien waivers get tracked the way commercial GCs actually need them.
On tax: Alaska has no state sales tax and no state personal income tax — but more than 100 boroughs and cities levy their own sales tax, and that is where Alaska bookkeeping actually gets interesting. Homer stacks a city sales tax on top of the Kenai Peninsula Borough's 3% — a combined rate that lands in the 7–8% range as of 2026, one of the higher local rates in the state. Confirm the current combined rate and the borough's transaction cap with the City of Homer. That matters to a contractor because whether your labor, materials, or the full contract price is taxable depends on the local ordinance — and it changes at a city line. Alaska also has a corporate income tax on C-corps (there is no personal income tax), and seafood businesses deal with the fisheries business tax on top of everything else.
Payroll is the last piece. Crews here mix W2 employees and 1099 subs, work remote sites, rack up mileage across the Sterling Highway and Pioneer Avenue, and burn through the supply house every morning. We keep 1099s clean all year, reconcile mileage and equipment, and hand your CPA organized records instead of a shoebox. Tides is a 100% remote bookkeeping firm — we work with Homer businesses over secure bank feeds, QuickBooks Online, and an encrypted client portal, so there is nothing to drop off and no meeting to drive to. See the full local picture on our Homer bookkeeping services page, or the wider the Kenai Peninsula Borough overview.
Whether you're a solo tradesperson or running a crew, we build the bookkeeping system around how your business actually operates.
Managing subs, materials, timelines, and client billing all at once means your finances can get out of control fast. We track job-by-job profitability so you always know which contracts are worth taking.
Service calls, parts, warranties, and variable crew sizes create a bookkeeping puzzle most generalists can't solve. We understand how trades businesses operate.
Mowing, hardscaping, irrigation, tree services — high-volume, recurring contracts with equipment-heavy operations. We keep the numbers straight so you can grow your route.
Contractors and trade businesses face financial challenges that general bookkeepers routinely miss. Here's what we hear from nearly every new client.
You finish a job and it feels like a win — but after materials, labor, and subs, did you actually make money? Without job costing, you're guessing.
Big projects pay on draw schedules. Slow seasons hit hard. Without visibility into your cash position, you can't plan ahead or make smart hiring decisions.
Paying subs by check, Venmo, or cash through the year — then scrambling in January to figure out who gets a 1099. We track it all in real time.
Running to Home Depot on a personal card. Paying subs from a personal account. It feels fine until your CPA tells you it'll cost extra to sort out.
Every Tides plan includes all seven core services. Contractor clients also get specific treatment for job costing, subcontractor tracking, and equipment depreciation.
Every account reconciled, every transaction categorized, every month — without exception. You receive a clean P&L and balance sheet you can actually understand and use to make decisions about your business.
Monthly reports that show your income, expenses, and profit by category and by job — so you always know where you stand and can make smarter business decisions.
Every business account and credit card matched and verified each month. No mystery charges. No unresolved transactions. No surprises.
We track vendor bills, subcontractor payments, and outstanding invoices so your cash flow stays healthy and nothing gets missed or paid twice.
Months or years behind? We clean it all up before we start your regular monthly service — no matter how far back the backlog goes.
If you have crew members or pay subcontractors, we coordinate payroll processing and keep your tax filings clean and on schedule.
"Working with Tides has given our contracting business the financial clarity we never had before. We finally know which jobs are making money and which ones aren't."
Questions we hear from contractors and tradespeople before they sign on with Tides.
Remote-first bookkeeping headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, serving small businesses across Alaska and the rest of the United States.
Tides Bookkeeping specializes in bookkeeping across 12 distinct industries. Industry-specific expertise means fewer errors, better categorization, and a bookkeeper who already understands how your business makes money.
Schedule a free 15-minute call. We'll review your current setup, answer your questions, and give you a flat monthly quote — no pressure.
No credit card required · No long-term contracts · Cancel anytime