Garage Door Chart of Accounts: A Complete Template for Install and Service Companies
Garage door companies run two businesses on one truck. The service business is springs, cables, rollers, and openers: high volume, same-day, margin made on stops per day and parts markup. The install business is doors: ordered to size, deposited, delivered weeks later, margin made on the door price and hours per install. Almost every garage door company books both to one Sales account and one Labor account, and then wonders why the numbers move when the mix does.
This is a working chart of accounts for a garage door company, account by account, with the reason each one exists.
Free download: Garage door chart of accounts template (CSV), the structure in this guide as 54 numbered accounts with types, subtypes, and a one-line note on why each exists. Imports into QuickBooks Online, Xero, and most accounting software. No email required.
Why the default template fails garage door companies
Doors sit in a warehouse before they are sold. Expensed on purchase, your cost lands in the month you stocked, not the month you installed, and a full warehouse reads as a bad month.
Install and service have nothing in common except the truck. One labor account and one revenue account hide which one is carrying the other.
Leads are expensive. Garage door is one of the most contested lead markets in home services. If lead fees are buried in marketing, you cannot see cost per booked job, which is the number that decides whether a lead source is worth keeping.
Income accounts
| Account | What belongs in it |
|---|---|
| Door install revenue, residential | New and replacement residential doors; your highest ticket |
| Door install revenue, commercial | Commercial sectional and rolling doors |
| Opener install revenue | Opener sales and installs; often sold with a door, worth seeing alone |
| Service and repair revenue | Springs, cables, rollers, openers, off-track calls; your volume line |
| New construction revenue | Builder and contractor work; lower margin, higher volume, net 30 |
| Maintenance plan revenue | Annual tune-up plans, earned per visit |
| Parts and accessories revenue | Remotes, keypads, weather seal, over-the-counter parts |
| Other income | Rebates, referral fees, scrap |
The split that matters most is install from service. Once they are separate, you can see that service at 60 percent gross margin is subsidizing installs at 30, or the reverse, and price accordingly.
Cost of goods sold
| Account | Why it is separate |
|---|---|
| Doors | Door sections and hardware, from inventory when installed |
| Openers | Opener units, from inventory when installed |
| Springs and repair parts | Springs, cables, rollers, hinges, drums used on service calls |
| Direct labor, install | Burdened tech cost on installs |
| Direct labor, service | Burdened tech cost on service calls, kept apart so service margin is its own number |
| Subcontractors | Framing, electrical, specialty subs on installs |
| Permits and inspections | Where required, especially commercial |
| Warranty and callback cost | Free return visits and warranty parts; the quality signal per tech |
| Freight and delivery | Distributor freight on door orders |
| Financing and dealer fees | Fees on financed installs, costed to the job that carried them |
Doors and openers go through inventory. Buy them to an asset account, relieve them to COGS on install. A monthly count of what is in the warehouse and on the trucks is enough to keep it honest.
The balance sheet accounts most operators are missing
| Account | Why it exists |
|---|---|
| Inventory, doors and openers | Large-ticket stock that should not touch COGS until installed |
| Inventory, springs, rollers, and parts | Truck stock and shop parts, counted so cost per service call is real |
| Customer deposits | Deposits on ordered doors; not revenue until installed |
| Deferred revenue, maintenance plans | Prepaid tune-up plans, earned per visit |
A door deposit is a liability until the door is on the house. Doors are ordered to size and can take weeks; the deposit is released to install revenue on the day of the install, and if the order cancels, the refund or forfeit is a recorded decision.
Operating expenses
Standard, with two garage-specific lines: lead fees apart from general marketing, so cost per booked job is visible by source, and sales commissions apart from office salaries. Workers' compensation gets its own line; torsion springs are in the work and the premium reflects it.
Setting it up without breaking your history
- Change at a period boundary, the start of a quarter or year.
- Rename before you create. If "Sales" becomes "Door install revenue, residential," renaming keeps the history.
- Merge rather than delete.
- Map old to new in writing before you touch anything.
- Count the warehouse on the boundary date and book it to inventory. It will move a chunk of the prior period's COGS onto the balance sheet, which is where it belonged.
What good looks like
- What is install gross margin, residential and commercial, after doors, labor, and freight?
- What is service gross margin, after parts and service labor?
- What do we pay per booked job from each lead source?
- What did callbacks cost, and which techs generated them?
- How much door inventory are we carrying, and how many weeks of installs is that?
The garage door chart of accounts template (CSV) has all 54 accounts numbered and ready to import. For the other trades, see the HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, pest control, and landscaping versions.
*Written by Austin Semple, a former controller: three years in audit, seven running the books for small businesses, and the founder of Poof. Poof holds deposits as a liability and releases them on completion, costs financing fees to the job that carried them, and closes the books within five business days or the next month is free. Start a 30-day trial, no card required.*
Frequently asked questions
What is a chart of accounts for a garage door company?
It is the list of every account your books can post to: income, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity. For a garage door company the structure decides whether you can see install margin apart from service margin, what a door in your warehouse costs you before it is sold, and what you are actually paying per lead in one of the most expensive lead markets in home services.
Should doors and openers be inventory or cost of goods sold?
Inventory when purchased, cost of goods sold when installed. A door bought in March and installed in April is a March asset and an April cost. Expensed on purchase, your COGS lands in the month you stocked, your install margin swings with your buying, and a warehouse full of doors looks like a bad month.
Why separate service labor from install labor?
Because they are different businesses. Service is high-volume, low-ticket, and margin depends on stops per day and parts markup. Install is low-volume, high-ticket, and margin depends on the door price and hours per install. One labor account averages them into a number that describes neither, and a busy install month hides a service line that is losing money.
How should I book a deposit on an ordered door?
As a customer deposits liability when the money arrives, released to install revenue when the door is installed. Doors are ordered to size and can take weeks; booking the deposit as revenue on receipt puts income in the month you took the order, not the month you did the work, and leaves revenue on the books if the order cancels.
Can I import this template into QuickBooks or Xero?
Yes. The CSV has 54 numbered accounts with account types and subtypes in the columns QuickBooks Online and Xero expect. Import at a period boundary, rename existing accounts rather than creating duplicates, and map the old accounts to the new ones in writing before you touch anything.
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