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A short guide for contractors who want to bond bigger and bid bigger. They start because they know how to build. They know how to manage crews, solve problems in the field, keep owners happy, and get jobs across the finish line. The books usually come later. For many contractors, accounting is something you deal with at tax time, when someone asks for receipts, reports, or a return that has to be filed. That view makes sense. But it can also quietly hold a good contractor bac

A guide for surety bond agents and contractors on percentage-of-completion, completed contract, and the small contractor exemption. One area that quietly creates confusion in contractor bond submissions is the tax method used for long-term contracts. A contractor may report taxable income one way and present financial statements to the surety another way. Both can be correct at the same time. The problem is not the difference itself. The problem is when no one explains it bef

Revenue is usually the number contractors want to talk about first. It makes sense. Revenue shows growth. It shows market demand. It shows that the company is winning work, building relationships, and getting more opportunities. So when a contractor has a strong year and revenue increases, the natural assumption is that bonding capacity should increase with it. But that is not always how surety underwriting works. A contractor can grow revenue and still run into the same bond

Working Capital Profit gets a lot of attention in construction. It is the number owners look at first. It is the number banks ask about. It is the number that shows whether the company had a good year or a rough one. But in the surety world, profit is only part of the story. A contractor can show strong net income and still get declined for a bond. That surprises a lot of contractors. It can also surprise agents who are looking at the same financial statements and thinking, “