My Observation

For the past year and a half I have been working for a small construction company helping out in the administrative department. With the responsibilities that I was given I was also able to learn and contribute to the accounting department as well. Being involved in the financial side of the company has made me see that incentives are highly involved in the revenue of the company. The way the company makes profit is based on the amount of jobs they can get. Therefore getting jobs is a betting system, almost like gambling. Whoever has the best price and resources win the job.

               The process of bidding a job is exciting and stressful. It’s all about getting the best companies to support you in this bid. Getting these companies to be on your side is the best part. You have to persuade these companies with incentives to work with you. Seeing the way the company depends on other small companies and job bidding's made me realize that their revenue is based on what they have to offer. The moment of truth, the moment you sit down and declare the prices your company can offer is exciting and scary.

               My first bid is what caused me to love construction accounting. It can be very stressful at times, but exciting. Sitting down with the estimator of the company and delegating the numbers with that person is what caught my attention. I’ve always liked the feeling of being in charge. Seeing the controller tell him his budget and how the company’s revenue could increase if we got this job was nice. I was able to go to one of the bid meetings; it’s a huge room full of several general contractors. Every one of these general contractors is also bidding for this job. They all present this envelope that contains their proposal to the person in charge. Basically the lowest bidder wins, there are always other specifics involved with the decision making but for the most part that is the main one. The moment they told us that we were the lowest bidder was exciting. Walking back to the office and celebrating a win is what started my curiosity in construction accounting.