Best CFO for Marine Contractors
The best CFO for a marine contractor already understands port authority pay cycles running 60-90 days, barge and crane mobilization costs that hit before any billing milestone, and what sureties need to see to increase bonding capacity. A $13.5M marine GC we worked with went from a $2.3M valuation to $5.5M in 9 months after we installed per-project job costing and cleaned the books. Net profit doubled from 7% to 14% on the same revenue. The right CFO already knows how to do this. A generic CFO learns it at your expense.
Marine contracting - ports, waterways, marine structures, dredging - has a financial profile unlike anything in standard commercial construction. Projects are large. Clients are often government entities or port authorities. Pay cycles are long by design. Equipment is specialized and expensive to mobilize. Diving operations, barge positioning, and tidal work windows create cost structures that do not map to standard construction accounting. The right CFO for a marine contractor has already seen all of this and built systems around it.
Marine-Specific Financial Control
60-90 Day Pay Windows Built Into the Forecast
Port authorities, Army Corps of Engineers, and state transportation agencies pay on procurement schedules - not business logic. Net 60 is standard. Net 90 happens. On a $5M marine project billing $400K per month, that lag means $800K-$1.2M of earned revenue permanently in the pipeline. The right CFO builds the 13-week cash forecast around those payment windows so you see cash gaps 8-10 weeks out - not when payroll is due Friday.
Barge, Crane, and Dive Team Costs Recovered Up Front
Marine mobilization is front-loaded cash. Positioning a crane barge, mobilizing a dive team, staging materials at a waterfront yard - all of it happens before the first billing milestone triggers. A properly structured SOV includes equipment procurement and mobilization as a separate front-loaded line item billed at contract execution. Most government clients will approve it. The right CFO structures every SOV this way by default.
Clean Per-Project Reporting Is What Sureties Require
Marine contractors who want to grow their aggregate bonding capacity need clean WIP schedules, per-project job costing, and 12+ months of documented profitability. A $13.5M marine GC we worked with had four accounting staff, no job costing, and no per-project reporting. Once we built the structure, net profit went from 7% to 14% on the same revenue - and the company unlocked $7M in aggregate bonding it could not access before.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Two tiers based on trailing 12-month revenue. No hourly billing. No payroll. No add-ons.
- ControlQore setup and job costing structure
- Books migrated to start of last taxable year
- Full-service bookkeeping and bank reconciliations
- Monthly job cost reports
- Everything in Core Financial
- Monthly CFO advisory meeting
- Controllership and WIP reporting
- Cash forecasting and AR follow-up rhythm
- Strategic accountability
Onboarding: 60 days. Full pricing by revenue band
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
