IMAAR Associates provides bookkeeping services in Houston, TX for oil & gas service companies, energy contractors, and specialty trade subcontractors who need clean, job-costed books without carrying a downtown Houston office on the payroll. Your books are handled by a dedicated bookkeeping team and reviewed by a US-licensed CPA — delivered remotely, the same way we serve businesses across the country, at offshore pricing instead of a Houston hourly rate.
Houston runs on two overlapping economies: the oil & gas sector — exploration and production companies, oilfield service providers, midstream operators, and equipment rental businesses — and the general and specialty contractors who build and maintain the infrastructure around them. Both share a bookkeeping problem that off-the-shelf small-business software handles poorly: income and costs that need to be tracked by job, well, or contract, not just lumped together by month.
Oilfield service companies often bill day rates or per-job invoices tied to a specific well or client, with 1099 subcontractors, rented equipment, and fuel costs layered into each job. Construction and specialty trade contractors — electrical, mechanical, pipeline, industrial maintenance — need job costing that tracks labor, materials, and subcontractor spend against each contract so you actually know which jobs are profitable, plus retainage tracked separately from regular receivables so it doesn't inflate your cash picture. We build your QuickBooks Online or Xero file around job costing and class tracking from the start, not bolted on after the fact.
Revenue and costs tracked by job, contract, or well so you see real margin per project, not just a company-wide number.
Subcontractor payments tracked and reconciled cleanly, with year-end 1099 reporting handled as part of your monthly bookkeeping.
Retainage held back on contracts is tracked separately from standard receivables, so your cash position stays accurate.
Texas has no state income tax, on individuals or on pass-through business income. For Houston's energy contractors and construction subcontractors, whose revenue is often lumpy — a strong quarter tied to a big well-servicing contract followed by a slower one between jobs — that matters more than it does for a business with steady, level income. There's no state withholding table to plan payroll around and no state estimated-tax voucher schedule to add to your calendar; what you owe is driven by federal self-employment and income tax, plus Texas's entity-level franchise (margin) tax if your LLC or corporation's revenue crosses the applicable threshold.
That simplicity doesn't reduce the need for accurate books — if anything it raises the stakes on getting job costing right, since there's no state income tax return forcing a full reconciliation of your numbers every year the way there is in states with a state filing. Clean monthly books mean you know your real margin by job, not just your bank balance on a given day, and your CPA has exactly what's needed for federal quarterly estimates and the Texas franchise tax report when it applies.
We don't have a physical office in Houston, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. What we offer instead is a dedicated bookkeeping team supported by a US-licensed CPA reviewer, delivered securely through the QuickBooks Online or Xero account you already use — the same setup whether your business is based in the Energy Corridor, Pasadena, or a jobsite trailer out past Katy. Skipping the downtown-office overhead is a large part of how we keep pricing flat and predictable instead of billing an hourly rate that punishes a busy month or a big contract award. It's a different model than hiring in-house bookkeepers in Houston, Texas, but built to deliver the same accuracy without the added overhead.
Pricing is based on transaction volume, number of jobs or wells tracked, and whether catch-up work is needed first — never an open-ended hourly rate. Get a custom quote after a short call about your current books.
Bookkeeping tailored to Houston's contractor and energy-services mix is the foundation — these related pages go deeper on specific needs:
No — we don't have a physical office in Houston or anywhere else in Texas, and we won't pretend otherwise. Our bookkeeping is delivered remotely by a dedicated team and reviewed by a US-licensed CPA, the same way for every Houston business whether you're based in the Energy Corridor, the Woodlands, or a jobsite trailer. Skipping local office overhead is a big part of how we keep pricing flat instead of billing a Houston hourly rate.
Yes. We set up job costing and class tracking inside QuickBooks Online or Xero so income and costs are tracked by well, contract, or job — not just company-wide by month — including 1099 subcontractor payments, equipment costs, and retainage tracked separately from regular receivables. That gives you real per-job margin, which matters when revenue swings project to project.
It removes state income tax withholding and estimated-payment planning from your calendar, which simplifies one piece of the picture — but it doesn't reduce the need for accurate books. With lumpy, project-based income common in energy services and contracting, clean monthly job costing is what tells you your real margin, and it's what your CPA needs for federal quarterly estimates and the Texas franchise (margin) tax report if your entity's revenue crosses that threshold.
