FRACTIONAL CFO FOR ACOUSTIC CEILING CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for acoustic ceiling subcontractors doing $1M to $12M. You get job costing aligned to the way you estimate, a 13 week cash flow forecast, monthly WIP, and a CFO in the room every month. Pricing starts at $1,900 per month.
Most of what a CFO does in this trade is turn other trades' schedules into your billing. The ceiling closes last in every room, so the above-ceiling sign-off is your real notice to proceed. Every re-entry after a room is gridded is a billed change or free labor. We split lay-in grid from specialty engineered systems in the cost codes, because production work and submittal work shouldn't share one margin history. We also track the retainage hold as its own receivable class. A 10 percent hold rivals the whole 8 percent net before taxes this trade makes in a typical year.
SPM is a construction CFO for acoustic ceiling subcontractors from $1M to $12M in revenue. See how a fractional CFO for construction works month to month.
THE THREE THINGS THAT DRAIN THE CASH.
The Plenum Hostage
Five trades finish above the grid before tile drops. Every "one more fix" reopens a finished room on your dime. Track which rooms are ready, bill the re-entries, and you go from hostage to gatekeeper.
The Two Ceilings
Lay-in grid is production work. Specialty systems are engineered work with millwork overhead. One blended book misprices both. Specialty work has submittals and long lead times, so its cash needs its own plan.
The Visible Finish
The ceiling is the easiest target on the punch walk and the last retainage to be released. Price tile-swap punch labor into the bid and track retainage as its own receivable class. Then the finish line doesn't cut your margin.
FROM 8% TO 11.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average acoustic ceiling sub earns 21% gross margin and spends 13% of revenue on overhead. What's left is 8% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 11.5% before taxes. That is the acoustic ceiling average plus 3.5 points, and never below 10%. The book CONTROL's 12% is the rule of thumb across trades. It is not the industry average.
Two changes get you to the target. Overhead comes down 1 point to 12%, and gross margin comes up 2.5 points to 23.5%, so 23.5 minus 12 leaves 11.5. The gross margin points come from the three problems above, once you price them and bill for them. On a $3M year, every point is $30,000.
WHAT WE CHANGE.
These are the acoustic ceiling problems we put a number on first. Each one gets its own cost code, its own line on the schedule of values or its own line in the 13 week cash forecast, so you can read it in the monthly meeting while the job is still open.
- Hostage to the plenum
- The tile-and-grid material equation
- Specialty ceilings are a different business
- Seismic and code details
- Last-trade retainage, one plane up
THE ACOUSTIC CEILING GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for acoustic ceiling contractors your size: the industry average and the CFOS target, in dollars a year. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Another trade too? The gap calculator for every trade.
Your figures show here once you put in your revenue.
Why aim for the target. An average is the middle of the pack: about half of companies do worse. And about 6 in 10 construction businesses close within 10 years (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: about 40 percent of construction businesses opened in 2013 were still open in 2023). So the business in the middle is one of the ones that close. On those numbers, average is a business that closes within 10 years. That is why the CFOS target is a requirement.
Want your own numbers against these? The Financial Health Snapshot builds a CEO Report from your last 12 months and sets every figure against your trade.
YOU PAY ONE FLAT MONTHLY FEE.
The fee is set by your trailing 12 month revenue. We don't bill by the hour and we don't do payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is in the table too.
Type a number and your band and its prices show here. The full table is below.
Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote.
| Last 12 months revenue | Core | Strategic | Platinum | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 | $3,100 | $3,300 | $2,500 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 | $4,100 | $5,300 | $4,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 | $5,900 | $8,300 | $6,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 | $7,600 | $11,800 | $7,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 | $8,900 | $14,900 | $9,000 |
| Above $12.5M | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted |
The onboarding fee covers migrating your books back to the start of your last taxable year and getting you fully operational in 60 days. It's billed once, with your first invoice. It's the same for all three tiers, and it moves with your revenue band. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Just want the setup? Onboarding only is the same onboarding work with no monthly service after it, one time, at the onboarding fee plus $2,000. Start a monthly engagement later and $2,000 counts toward it. It starts at $4,500, and the price for every band is on the pricing page.
The three tier columns are the whole price. Which one fits depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items. The onboarding fee is right here in the table.
- Online software only: QuickBooks, Sage, Viewpoint and similar. No VPN or hosted desktop.
- Not in any tier: payroll, pay applications, collections on receivables.
- Pricing valid through 2027.
What Core, Strategic and Platinum each include is on the pricing page.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
See the full benchmarks for every revenue band on Run On CFOS.
How acoustic ceiling CFO firms compare: the acoustic ceiling firm study, with every score and its source.
Acoustic Ceiling is one of 6 trades in the interiors and finishes family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
