FRACTIONAL CFO FOR ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance function for electrical subcontractors doing $1M to $12M: 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.
Electrical has one of the heaviest overhead rates in this dataset, because trucks, lifts, and tooling all live in the office instead of on the job. So we start there, then we go after the two clocks. Copper traded at $5.92 a pound in May 2026, up 24.75 percent year over year with a 50 percent tariff behind it, and medium-voltage gear is effectively sold out through 2028 with 10 to 30 percent deposits required to hold a slot, which makes a fixed-price bid without an escalation clause an unhedged position. We split the service division from the construction division into separate P&Ls, put stored-materials billing on the schedule of values, and manage collections on a cadence with lien deadlines calendared.
SPM is a construction CFO for electrical 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 Copper Clock
Material risk now has two hands: price (copper up 24.75 percent year over year with a 50 percent tariff) and time (panels at 16+ weeks, medium-voltage gear sold out through 2028). Fixed-price bids without escalation clauses and early buyout are unhedged positions.
The Rough-In Desert
Labor and wire go in the wall early; trim-out billing lands months later. The middle of every job is financed by the contractor unless stored-materials billing and front-loaded schedules of values close the gap.
The 120-Day Receivable
A $3.2M electrical contractor held $365K at 120 days. AR discipline (lien deadlines calendared, retainage tracked as its own class, collections on a cadence) is the difference between a profitable book and a payday-loan lifestyle.
FROM 9% TO 12.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average electrical sub earns 25% gross margin and spends 16% of revenue on overhead, which leaves 9% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 12.5% before taxes, the electrical average plus 3.5 points and never below 10%, where the book CONTROL's 12% is the rule of thumb across trades. It is not the industry average.
The target takes two moves. Overhead comes down 1 point to 15%, and gross margin comes up 2.5 points to 27.5%, so 27.5 minus 15 leaves 12.5. The gross margin points come from the three leaks above, priced and billed, not absorbed. On a $3M year, every point is $30,000.
WHAT WE CHANGE.
These are the electrical 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.
- The 2026 material squeeze
- The rough-in-to-trim cash hole
- Pay-when-paid and collecting the money
- Prevailing wage and certified payroll
- Service division vs construction division blindness
THE ELECTRICAL GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for electrical 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.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Priced by trailing 12 month revenue. No hourly billing. No payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
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.
Prevailing wage note: Electrical work often comes from public bids, which means certified payroll and wage classifications have to line up with the job cost record. ControlQore holds the classification against the cost code, so the certified report and the job cost report come from the same data, and your office stops keying the same numbers twice every week.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
See the full benchmarks for every revenue band on Run On CFOS.
In our electrical firm study, 3 other firms have an electrical case study with numbers. The top three for electrical: SPM 81.2 (trade case study with numbers), RedHammer 71.5 (trade case study with numbers), Vessel Advisors 71.5 (trade case study with numbers). SPM places #1 here with an electrical case study of its own. SPM publishes the study and is one of the firms scored; the method and every source are on the study page.
How electrical CFO firms compare: the electrical firm study, with every score and its source.
MORE PROBLEMS WE PUT A NUMBER ON.
Inspection standby and multi-prime billing friction
Inspection delay standby billing
Failed or delayed inspections idle crews that still get paid; multi-prime contracts add billing paths and dispute surface.
Prevailing wage and certified payroll
Davis bacon electrical contractor job costing
Davis-Bacon classifications, fringe calculations, and weekly certified payroll turn public work into an admin discipline. Misclassification claws back margin retroactively.
The 2026 material squeeze (copper and switchgear)
Switchgear deposit bonding limit
Copper traded at $5.92 per pound in May 2026, up 24.75 percent year over year, with a 50 percent copper tariff in effect since August 2025 and a projected global deficit near 150,000 tons. Switchgear is worse: small and mid-size contractors report panel lead times of 16 weeks or more, medium-voltage gear is effectively sold out through 2028 in many channels, and transformers quote around 128 weeks. A fixed-price bid signed today takes on commodity and schedule risk the contract may not price.
OEMs now require 10 to 30 percent deposits to hold production slots. That deposit leaves the sub's account years before the equipment bills.
Union cost structure decisions
Ibew vs open shop overhead rate
IBEW wage-and-fringe packages versus open-shop rates change the overhead and bid math; the decision is financial as much as philosophical.
ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS, ONE PAGE EACH.
Electrical is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
