FRACTIONAL CFO FOR FIRE ALARM CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for fire alarm 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.
Fire alarm bills against a signature the contractor doesn't control, so we build all the CFO work around the acceptance test. The inspector watches one hundred percent of devices get tested, on his calendar. A failed first test means a retest on his timeline while the final milestone waits. We put pre-test protocols and integration-readiness checks on the schedule to protect cash. Unfinished elevator recall, HVAC shutdown or door hardware becomes your failed test. Then we split out the recurring book. Monitoring and NFPA 72 inspection contracts sell in the security market next door at roughly 28 to 60 times monthly recurring revenue, and you can't manage that inside an install P&L.
SPM is a construction CFO for fire alarm 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 Marshal's Calendar
The inspector witnesses one hundred percent of devices, on the AHJ's schedule. The acceptance test decides when you get paid. Fail the first test and you wait for a retest on the inspector's timeline. Pre-test protocols and integration-readiness checks protect your cash.
The Certification Ladder
NICET levels decide who can design, program and test, and certified people are scarce. Your burdened rates must recover the certification cost. The scarcity premium above that is the market.
The Recurring Book
Monitoring and inspection contracts build value year after year, and the market next door prices them at recurring-revenue multiples. Install-only shops stay at the benchmark average. Shops with a recurring mix move above it.
FROM 8% TO 11.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average fire alarm sub earns 24% gross margin and spends 16% 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 fire alarm 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 15%, and gross margin comes up 2.5 points to 26.5%, so 26.5 minus 15 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 fire alarm 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 acceptance test is the paycheck
- NICET labor
- Monitoring and inspection RMR
- Programming and the panel punch
- Device counts and the addressable change order
THE FIRE ALARM GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for fire alarm 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 fire alarm CFO firms compare: the fire alarm firm study, with every score and its source.
Fire Alarm is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
