FRACTIONAL CFO FOR ELEVATOR CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for elevator 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.
Elevator is the one trade in this dataset with a recurring book big enough to be the business, so we build the per-unit contract P&L first. Full-maintenance contracts cost $500 to $1,200 a month per traction unit and $400 to $900 hydraulic. Price them flat across unit ages and the best cars pay for the worst until renewal. We track callback rate per unit and reprice at renewal. That's underwriting for this trade. On the project side we handle install and modernization on construction paper. That's equipment deposits, hoistway-readiness claims when the crew idles on somebody else's shaft, and retainage tracked against the state inspection.
SPM is a construction CFO for elevator 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 Annuity Underneath
Maintenance contracts at $500 to $1,200 per unit per month recur and compound. They're why elevator has one of the best net-profit floors in the 48-trade dataset. Track per-unit contract P&L and you own an asset. Skip it and you own a route.
The Proprietary Wall
OEM controllers, $10,000 diagnostic tools and obsolescence declarations decide what an independent can service. Every proprietary install makes that list shorter. Your plan starts with a map of what you can maintain.
The Flat-Priced Portfolio
Full-maintenance pricing is an actuarial bet. Price a portfolio flat across unit ages and the best cars pay for the worst. Track callback rates per unit and reprice at renewal. That's underwriting for this trade.
FROM 9% TO 12.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average elevator sub earns 27% gross margin and spends 18% of revenue on overhead. What's left is 9% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 12.5% before taxes. That is the elevator 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 17%, and gross margin comes up 2.5 points to 29.5%, so 29.5 minus 17 leaves 12.5. 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 elevator 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 maintenance annuity
- The proprietary wall
- Callback economics
- Install and modernization
- The inspection calendar
THE ELEVATOR GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for elevator 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 elevator CFO firms compare: the elevator firm study, with every score and its source.
Elevator is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
