Expert MRI Construction Accounting For Companies & Contractors

MRI was built for stabilized real estate: leases in force, CAM pools reconciling, tenants billed on schedule. Construction accounting runs on the opposite clock, costs accrue against a job that is not yet finished, and revenue is recognized before anyone signs off on it. Contractors and developer-builders who run job cost through MRI are asking a lease administration platform to carry a WIP schedule it was not built around.

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Construction Accounting Inside MRI

What Changes When You Run This Vertical On This Platform

Where it breaks

Where construction-in-progress stops and the asset starts

MRI's job cost tracking and its fixed asset and lease administration modules are not one system, they are separate modules bridged by a manual handoff. A project sits in construction-in-progress while costs, retainage, and change orders build against a percentage-of-completion estimate. Once the building is placed in service, someone has to close the job, capitalize the final cost, and open a new asset record for depreciation and CAM. If that handoff lags, or happens before the job is actually complete, the WIP schedule and the asset register disagree, and nobody notices until the first CAM reconciliation runs off the wrong basis.

How REA handles it

REA controls the exact capitalization cutover date

REA reconciles the job cost ledger against the percentage-of-completion schedule every month, not at year end, so a job that looks profitable in MRI actually is. We set the in-service date deliberately rather than letting a module default trigger it, so construction-in-progress does not roll into the fixed asset and CAM side of MRI before the project is actually finished. Retainage is tracked as its own receivable or payable, never folded into a lump AP balance. Change orders get a budget revision entered before they get billed, so the percent-complete calculation is working off the current contract, not the original one.

What we check in your MRI instance

In-service date matches actual project completion
Retainage coded as its own line item
Change orders posted before they're billed
Equipment routed to fixed assets, not job cost
WIP schedule reconciled to the GL every month

The Full Scope of the Engagement

Two Pages Carry the Detail

This page covers what is specific to running Construction books in MRI. The complete service scope, process, and pricing conversation live on the two pages below.

The vertical

Construction Accounting

Full scope, monthly process, property types, FAQs and the team on the account.

See the Construction page

The platform

MRI Bookkeeping

What MRI does well, where its accounting breaks, and how REA works inside your own instance.

See the MRI page

Experts In All Property Types

Residential, commercial and everything in between. The asset class changes what the books have to prove, and our teams are staffed accordingly.

Single-Family
Multifamily
Student Housing
Affordable Housing
Community AssociationsSee the page
CommercialSee the page

Check Out What Our Clients Have To Say About Us

Property Managers, Investors & Owner Operators

Client story

Real-estate-only specialists

As REA exclusively specializes in Real Estate, I rest easy knowing my financials are precise every month while saving money at the same time, an invaluable benefit.

SWSteve WilkoOwner Operator

Handed over the whole accounting function

I highly recommend Real Estate Accounting (REA) services from this group. They truly are great and have helped us tremendously at a time we needed it the most. I felt very comfortable giving up all my accounting responsibilities to this team and I'm still glad I made the decision to work with this group. Nothing less than an amazing experience!

TCTracy CollinsProperty Manager

Day-to-day financial operations

REA and team have been nothing but excellent helping our firm with its day to day financial needs. Their expertise, professionalism, and timeliness have made our lives so much easier. We foresee a long relationship with REA and team.

BCBrian CookOwner Operator

230+

Property Accountants

30M+

Commercial Sq. Ft.

Up to 50%

Saved vs In-House

Every month

On-Time Close

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Running Construction On Something Else?

Same Vertical, Different Platform

Frequently Asked Questions

We're a developer-builder. Do we need MRI's job cost module, or should construction costs live somewhere else?

MRI can hold job cost data, but it was not built to run percentage-of-completion the way construction-specific software is. REA typically keeps the WIP schedule as the source of truth, calculated outside MRI, and posts summarized entries into the general ledger. That keeps MRI accurate for what it is good at, CAM and lease administration, without forcing it to run calculations it was never designed for.

MRI doesn't have a dedicated construction retainage field. How do you handle it?

We book retainage to its own receivable or payable account, kept separate from the main AP and AR balances. That stops it from being released early or absorbed into a lump payment, and keeps it visible on the books until the contract terms actually release it. Retainage is not cash in the bank and it is not income yet either, so it needs its own line, not a blended one.

When does a construction job stop being a job and start being a property in MRI?

We set that cutover date deliberately, tied to when the asset is genuinely placed in service, not whenever a module default happens to close the job. Costs incurred after that date belong to operations and CAM, not construction-in-progress. Getting the date wrong in either direction misstates the project's final cost and the property's depreciation basis, and it usually shows up months later during the first CAM reconciliation.

Ready for Accurate Construction Books in MRI?

Schedule a call with our team to talk through your MRI instance, what it is doing to your construction financials, and what REA would take on.