Cash Flow for Interior Contractors
Commercial interior contractors doing tenant improvement work lose cash to three gaps: material and millwork procurement deposits that hit before any SOV billing milestone, TI schedule delays that push completion billing while labor and material costs keep running, and multi-party approval chains on pay apps that slide draws 30 days when any one approval is missed. On a $2M interior contractor doing TI work, $250K--$400K of working capital can be committed to material deposits and pipeline receivables simultaneously.
The cash flow problem for interior contractors is a timing problem in three places at once. Material deposits are out the door before installation starts. TI milestone billing is hostage to a schedule driven by the landlord. Multi-party pay app approvals take as long as they take. When all three run without a 13-week forecast and a billing structure built to survive TI volatility, the bank account provides no useful information about what is coming.
Why Interior Cash Gets Pinched
Custom Materials Need Deposits Before Any Billing Milestone
Specialty millwork, imported materials, custom built-in components -- all require procurement deposits weeks before any installation starts. On a $600K interior TI job, material deposits can run $80K--$140K before the first SOV billing event. A front-loaded SOV line item for material procurement billed at contract execution eliminates this gap entirely. Most clients and GCs will approve it. You just have to structure the SOV that way from the start.
The Schedule Moves. Your Costs Don't Stop.
Tenant improvement schedules are driven by landlord decisions, permit timelines, and prior tenant vacate events -- none of which you control. When your billing milestone is tied to a TI completion event that slips 45 days, your labor and material costs keep running for those 45 days with no billing recovery. CFOS structures the SOV with mobilization and material procurement front-loaded so the schedule delay affects completion billing -- not your ability to recover startup costs.
Tenant and Landlord and GC. Three Approval Loops.
TI pay apps sometimes require approval from a tenant, a landlord, and a GC before the draw clears. Each party has a review window. Each has a cutoff date. Miss any one and the draw slides 30 days. CFOS tracks every approval party for every active TI project and submits every pay app with enough lead time to clear the entire chain on the first cycle -- not the second.
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- ControlQore setup and job costing
- Full-service bookkeeping
- Monthly job cost reports
- Everything in Core
- Monthly CFO advisory meeting
- Cash forecasting and AR follow-up
- Strategic accountability
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