Fee before the crew
CPA Round Rock Alternative puts the fee first
The useful order is the fee decided before the crew rolls. Permit first, then the crew, is why this page about Round Rock exists.
See the order
The order the month keeps getting wrong
The expensive order is crew first, permit second, fee doubled, job cost never updated. The cheap order is the permit issued, the fee known, the crew released, the fee already sitting on the job before anyone swings a hammer. We cannot pull a permit for you. We can refuse to let the backwards order disappear inside a month that looks closed.
Dell's headquarters set a work rhythm for Round Rock, early starts and a campus that fills before the coffee cools. Every Texan who has worked a campus schedule knows that pull. We know it as Texans, without a badge at the gate. The books feel that same morning rush. Everyone wants the crew moving. The fee still has to be known first, or the job pays twice for the rush.
A site plan is often the number people forget while they argue about the permit. It starts at 2,000 dollars up to one acre and adds 200 dollars for each acre after. Put it on the job when it is paid. Do not discover it in a draw account at year end. A tenant change at 35 dollars and a reinspection at 75 dollars are small enough to lose and specific enough to name. Naming them is how a job stays explainable.
Before a crew is released we like three lines on a page. The permit status. The fee, doubled or not, as a number you already know. The job code that will carry it. If any line is blank, the month is not ready for that cost, even if the crew is. That is a bookkeeping opinion, not a field opinion. Your superintendent may still roll. The books will then show the choice instead of hiding it.
Payroll setup belongs in the same preparation if the people are new to the provider. Accounts first, then the first run, then a check that the run landed where the mapping said. Releasing a crew onto a job with no payroll mapping is the cousin of releasing them before the permit. Both create a month that cannot be explained without a meeting.
There is a quiet version of the same mistake with deposits. A customer deposit lands, the crew is released because the cash feels like permission, and the permit is still in review. Cash is not a permit. We keep deposits on the balance sheet until the work is allowed and underway, and we do not let that cash masquerade as a fee that was already settled with the city. The city has its own timeline. Your customer's check does not rewrite it.
When the order is right, the close is almost dull. The fee hits for the single amount. The job code is already on the bill. The reconciliation matches. Nobody has to remember a Wednesday. Dull months are the ones that make a return readable. If your months are exciting, it is usually because a document and a crew were allowed to race.
Bring the permit log if you have one, even a messy one. Dates matter more than handwriting. A log that says applied, issued, and started, with three dates, is enough to post the fee with a straight face. A memory of the week is not enough once two jobs overlapped. If the applied date, the issued date, and the start date are already on paper, the call gets shorter. If you cannot, say so, and the first work is reconstructing them from the bank and the city receipt.
Write those three dates on one line before the crew is released, and the month has something to post when the bank shows the fee. A blank line is a reason to wait, not a reason to guess.
The order, continued
Tell us the order
Permit first or crew first. Either answer is usable.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.