WHY CIVIL CONTRACTORS RUN OUT OF CASH.
Civil contractors run out of cash because the trade is front-loaded with cost and back-loaded with payment. You fund mobilization, equipment, and materials weeks before the first pay app, the GC pays Net 30 to 45, and retention holds 5 to 10 percent into closeout. The job is profitable while the bank account is empty.
On a typical $1.2M civil job you can spend $60K to $120K on mobilization, pipe, aggregate, and labor before a single dollar arrives. Owned equipment keeps carrying cost on the days it sits idle, and most civil bids load a habitual 10 percent overhead against a real rate closer to 30 percent. None of that shows on the income statement, which only sees revenue and cost once a job closes. The result is a profitable-looking company that cannot make Friday payroll. CFOS fixes the billing timing, the equipment math, and the overhead rate at the same time.
WHY CIVIL WORK EATS CASH.
Civil is a cost-heavy, cash-late trade. You self-perform earthwork, buy large quantities of pipe, aggregate, and concrete, and stage equipment and crews well before the first pay application is ever approved. The money goes out in weeks one through four. The money comes back, minus retention, somewhere around day sixty.
Retention of 5 to 10 percent sits unpaid until closeout, often 60 to 120 days past substantial completion. Owned equipment carries ownership and replacement cost every day it exists, on a job or on the yard. And the overhead number most civil subs carry in their head was set years ago and has nothing to do with what the business actually costs to run today.
Put those together and you get the signature civil failure: a company that is genuinely profitable on the work and still cannot cover payroll, because the income statement was never built to show the gap between spending and collecting. That gap is where civil contractors live, and it is invisible on a standard P&L.
THE MECHANISMS NO ONE PRICES IN.
You spend before you ever bill.
Mobilization, materials, and labor hit in weeks one through four. The first pay app bills at month end, the GC pays Net 30 to 45, and retention holds back 5 to 10 percent. On a $1.2M civil job that is $60K to $120K out the door before a dollar comes back. The cost is captured into the job, not expensed against cash, so the income statement never flags it.
One blended hourly number hides the real cost of iron.
Most civil subs bill equipment as a single all-in hourly rate. A skid steer billed at $450 an hour can cost around $979 a day to own and stage before fuel and operator. When a task runs two hours, you bill two hours and eat the rest of the day. Across a fleet that is six figures a year of cost the estimate never recovered.
You bid 10 percent against a 30 percent reality.
Civil subs bid 10 percent overhead out of habit. Real overhead on a $6.7M civil contractor often runs 25 to 30 percent. Bidding 10 against 30 loses 20 points on every job. One strong project blends it away in the combined P&L while the line of credit climbs a little more every month.
THE WRONG DIAGNOSIS COSTS YOU YEARS.
Wrong answer 1: the GCs just pay slow. Slow payment is real, but it is a timing problem you can structure around with the right schedule of values and a collection routine. It is the symptom, not the disease.
Wrong answer 2: we need more work. More volume on top of a buried cost structure makes the bleed faster, not slower. You scale the leak.
Wrong answer 3: the bookkeeper missed something. Bookkeeping records what already happened. It does not price your overhead, structure your billing, or recover idle equipment cost. Those are CFO functions, and most civil subs have never had one.
The real answer: nothing is aligning your estimate, your job cost, your overhead rate, and your billing timing. Each one lives with a different person or with no one, so the gaps never surface in a single place. CFOS is that system.
SAME BUSINESS. BETTER SYSTEM.
CFOS is the Construction Financial Operating System. For civil contractors it installs as a set of specific deliverables, not advice:
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Two tiers based on trailing 12-month revenue. No hourly billing. No payroll. No add-ons. Everything included in the flat monthly fee.
| Revenue | Core Financial | Executive Financial |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900/mo | $2,900/mo |
| $1M–$3M | $2,600/mo | $3,600/mo |
| $4M–$6M | $3,800/mo | $5,500/mo |
| $7M–$9M | $5,100/mo | $6,900/mo |
| $10M–$12M | $6,100/mo | $8,500/mo |
| $13M+ | Quoted | Quoted |
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
