In this episode of “If Walls Could Talk,” W&C Group Publisher Jill Bloom is joined by Adams & Reese’s Trent Cotney. This time around, we discuss year-end legal details, risk mitigation and taxes. 

What does every contractor need to know as they wrap up the year?

A lot of contractors are focused in getting dollars in the door and revenue numbers balanced but things also slow down. This is a good opportunity for managers to think about all the different things to do for your business in regards to mitigate risk for the year to come. 

First thing is to look at corporate records: Did you properly maintain business and risk? You want to think about what expenses and what to defer. Once New Year’s strikes, you want to make sure you’re focused on the year end. 

In regards to risk mitigation: there’s three core sets of documents that every contractor needs:

1. Your contracts for upstream/downstream
2. Employee documents, manuals and policy/procedures
3. Safety

“Now is a perfect time to survey your year. Identify all the problems you have. If there was an issue you had with a subcontract, check out that contract,” said Cotney. “What can I do better next year. The goal is not to repeat mistakes from 2022-2023.”

So, for all those contractors that have these issues in order, what should be the first thing everyone should get in place for next year? 

“I would make sure that as the new laws in your state change, that you already have a plan in place,” Cotney said. “Make sure you have your HR policies in place.”

Listen more to this episode as Cotney outlines goals for next year.