THE BACKLOG THAT KILLS CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES.
Winning new work speeds up a cash crisis when your working capital can't fund the mobilization cost. Every project you sign needs cash before the first pay app collects, for labor, material, equipment, and overhead. If you win $2M in new contracts this month and don't have the working capital to fund the first 60 to 90 days of cost, then the backlog that looks like growth is a cash drain running faster than your ability to collect.
The verified civil client story in the CONTROL book is this same setup. $5M in year two revenue, growing fast, maxed lines of credit, an SBA loan, and a personal line secured against the house, all while winning work. The business was profitable on paper and the backlog kept growing. The owner was 8 days from missing payroll. Nothing in that picture was a profit problem, which is why cutting price or chasing more work would have made it worse. What was missing was the cash requirement of the backlog, calculated before the contracts got signed.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Backlog is the signed work you haven't built yet, and every dollar of it carries a cash requirement that comes due before the first pay app collects.
Most subcontractors think of backlog as a good thing, and it is, as long as the working capital is there to fund it. The problem is the lag. Every project in your backlog has a cash requirement that hits on day one of mobilization, not on the day the pay app gets approved.
If you're signing three projects in the same quarter, the working capital requirement stacks. The backlog grows and the cash shrinks. You look busier than ever and feel broker than ever, because you are.
Slowing down new work for 60 days to let receivables catch up is sometimes the fastest path to stability. A civil contractor we worked with did that. He paused new project starts for two months, collected $310K in overdue AR, paid off two lines of credit, and then resumed bidding from a cash positive position. The backlog felt smaller and the business was safer.
HOW A GROWING BACKLOG DRAINS THE BANK.
Mobilization cost exceeds available working capital
You signed the contract and your crew starts Monday. The material supplier wants a 50% deposit on the pipe, the equipment company wants the first month's rental up front, and payroll runs in week one. Your available line of credit is $120,000 and the mobilization requirement is $180,000, so you draw everything you have and you're already $60,000 short before week two starts. Multiply that across two or three simultaneous project starts and the math breaks fast.
Growing revenue creates growing overhead before the revenue collects
To win $8M in work, you hire a project manager at $95,000, you add an estimator, you rent a bigger yard, and you buy a truck. Your overhead goes up $250,000 a year before the $8M of revenue turns into billings. The overhead is monthly and fixed while the revenue waits on billing cycles. If those new projects mobilize slowly or take longer than planned to reach billable milestones, you're funding the bigger overhead out of working capital for months.
Bidding optimistically creates work that never covers cost
In a competitive market it's tempting to sharpen the pencil to win work and fill the schedule, because a full crew beats a crew sitting idle. That isn't always true. Work that doesn't cover direct cost plus overhead plus a target net margin is cash negative from day one. If your gross margin on new work is 12% and your overhead rate is 14%, you're losing 2% on every dollar of revenue before a single thing goes wrong in the field.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
On a $600,000 civil project, your first 6 weeks of cost might run $80,000 in labor, $120,000 in material, $40,000 in equipment cost, and $18,000 in overhead. That's $258,000 funded before your first pay app even reaches the GC's desk, and another 30 to 45 days before you see a check. To mobilize that one job, you needed $258,000 or more in working capital on day one.
HOW TO KNOW IF YOUR BACKLOG IS SAFE TO FUND.
Before signing any new contract, CFOS runs a working capital check. It asks one question: does the available line of credit headroom plus expected AR collections over the next 60 days cover the mobilization cash requirement for this project? If yes, sign it. If not, delay the start date, negotiate a mobilization payment, or pass on the work.
THE OUTPUTS, NAMED.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing, no payroll, and no add-ons.
Pricing
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the job costing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
