Do roofing businesses need to lodge a TPAR?

Yes. Roofing is a building and construction service, so any business paying contractors, subcontracted roofers, scaffolders, guttering specialists, for roofing-related work must lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) by 28 August each year, reporting total payments made to each contractor during the financial year.

How is GST applied on roofing progress claims?

Standard GST at 10% applies to roofing work invoiced to a GST-registered business or on a taxable supply. Progress claims on larger commercial or multi-stage residential jobs should be invoiced and reported in the BAS period the claim is raised, not when the full job is later paid, which means roofers on the accruals basis need accurate progress billing records to report GST correctly each quarter.

How should a roofing business track materials cost against quotes?

Materials, tiles, metal roofing sheets, sarking, guttering, fixings, should be coded to the specific job in Xero using job tracking or project codes, then compared against the original quoted materials allowance. This is the only way to see whether a job ran over on materials due to wastage, price increases, or underquoting, information that's invisible if materials purchases are just coded to a general expense account.

How is insurance work billed differently to standard roofing jobs?

Insurance repair work is usually billed directly to the insurer or via a scope-of-works quote that's been approved by an assessor, with payment terms and documentation requirements that differ from a standard residential job. These invoices often need to be tracked separately with longer expected payment terms, and any excess collected from the homeowner needs to be recorded and reconciled against the insurer payment.

What KPIs should a roofing business track monthly?

Revenue per job by job type (reroof, repair, insurance, new build), materials cost as a percentage of quoted revenue, debtor days, and the ratio of insurance work to standard retail work, since insurance jobs typically carry longer payment terms and different margin profiles.

Bookkeeping for Roofers in Melbourne

Published August 2026By True Tally Bookkeeping8 min read

TPAR: Roofing Is a Building and Construction Service

If your roofing business pays subcontractors, other roofers, scaffolders, guttering specialists, for work related to roofing, you're required to lodge a Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) each year, due 28 August. The TPAR reports total payments made to each contractor during the financial year, and the ATO cross-matches this against the contractor's own reported income. Missing or inaccurate TPAR lodgement is one of the more common compliance gaps we see in trade businesses that grew from a sole operator into a team using subbies.

GST on Progress Claims

Standard 10% GST applies to roofing work invoiced to a GST-registered business or on any taxable supply. Where it gets more involved is progress claims on larger jobs, commercial reroofs, multi-stage residential builds, insurance restoration, where the GST needs to be reported in the BAS period the claim is actually raised, not deferred until the whole job is complete and paid. On the accruals basis, this means progress billing needs to be accurate and timely so GST reporting lines up with real invoicing activity each quarter.

Job type	Billing pattern	Bookkeeping focus
Standard reroof / repair	Deposit + final invoice	Materials vs quote tracking
Commercial / multi-stage	Progress claims per milestone	GST reported per claim, not on completion
Insurance restoration	Insurer payment + homeowner excess	Separate tracking, longer payment terms
Subcontracted labour	Contractor invoices	TPAR reporting, due 28 August

Watch: TPAR & GST Bookkeeping for Melbourne Roofing Businesses

Read the video transcript

If you run a roofing business in Melbourne and you pay any subcontractors, other roofers, scaffolders, guttering crews, the short answer is you need to lodge a TPAR every year by 28 August, reporting exactly what you paid each contractor. It's one of the most commonly missed obligations as a roofing business grows from solo operator to using subbies regularly.

On GST, standard 10% applies to your work, but progress claims on bigger jobs need to be reported in the BAS period you actually raise the claim, not when the job's finally paid in full. That means your progress billing needs to be timely and accurate.

Materials are the other area worth tightening up, tiles, metal sheeting, sarking, fixings, coded to the specific job so you can see whether it ran over on materials against the original quote, rather than just sitting in one general expense account.

And if you do insurance restoration work, track it separately, insurer payments and homeowner excess have their own payment terms and reconciliation needs.

If you're a Melbourne roofing business and want your TPAR, GST and job costing sorted properly, book a free 20-minute call at calendly.com/truetally, or call 0468 159 950. No silly questions, we've heard them all.

Materials Cost Tracking Against Quotes

Roofing materials, tiles, Colorbond sheeting, sarking, guttering, fixings, should be coded to the specific job in Xero using job or project tracking, then compared against the materials allowance in the original quote. Without this, there's no way to see whether a job ran over due to wastage, a supplier price increase not passed through, or a quoting error, and that pattern repeated across enough jobs quietly erodes margin without ever showing up clearly on the year-end P&L.

Insurance Restoration Work: Different Payment Terms

Insurance repair work is typically billed against an assessor-approved scope of works, paid by the insurer with the homeowner covering any excess. These invoices carry longer, less predictable payment terms than standard retail jobs and should be tracked separately in Xero, both to manage cash flow expectations and to reconcile the insurer payment plus excess against the total invoiced amount.

TPAR deadlines and job costing are easy to lose track of when you're on the roof, not in the office

We set up Xero job tracking for roofing businesses so materials, subcontractors and TPAR reporting are handled without the year-end scramble.

Book a Free 20-Minute Call

KPIs Every Roofing Business Should Track Monthly

✓ Revenue per job, by job type
✓ Materials cost as % of quoted revenue
✓ Debtor days, standard vs insurance work
✓ Ratio of insurance to standard retail jobs

Compliance Calendar for Melbourne Roofing Businesses

TPAR is due 28 August annually. BAS is lodged quarterly, 28 days after quarter end, with GST at 10% on taxable supplies. Superannuation guarantee at 12% applies to any employed staff, paid quarterly by the 28th of the following month. Businesses using subcontractors should confirm contractor versus employee classification annually to avoid superannuation guarantee charge exposure.

True Tally Bookkeeping, Melbourne

We work with roofing and building trades across Melbourne and Victoria on TPAR, job costing and GST compliance.