FRACTIONAL CFO FOR FIRE PROTECTION CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for fire protection 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 protection pays for the design before a permit exists, so the first thing we fix is the schedule of values. Hydraulic calculations and stamped drawings cost $1,200 to $3,000 per project up front. Fabricated spool deposits come next. If your schedule starts billing at installation, you're the project's design bank. We put engineering and stored fabricated material on their own billing lines. Then we put the inspection gates on the calendar. Rough-in, hydrostatic test, final and alarm tie-in each hold a milestone and take 8 to 16 coordination hours per project. We also keep contract work and NFPA 25 inspection work as two P&Ls. $1,000 to $2,100 per system per year in recurring work looks nothing like a sprinkler contract.
SPM is a construction CFO for fire protection 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 Pre-Permit Spend
You pay $1,200 to $3,000 for hydraulic calculations and stamped drawings before a permit exists, and fabricated steel deposits come next. If your schedule of values starts billing at installation, you're the project's design bank.
The Inspector's Signature
Rough-in, pressure test, final, alarm tie-in. Every one is a billing milestone someone else controls, and the AHJ signs last. Retainage release waits on the one signature you can least speed up.
The Blended-Book Blindfold
ITM pays fast and small. Contract work pays big and slow. One P&L over both doesn't show which business pays for which, and you price both wrong until you split them.
FROM 8% TO 11.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average fire protection sub earns 23% gross margin and spends 15% 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 protection 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 14%, and gross margin comes up 2.5 points to 25.5%, so 25.5 minus 14 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 protection 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.
- Paying for the design before the permit exists
- Steel fabrication lead times and material procurement
- The AHJ gauntlet
- Two businesses in one truck
- Fitter labor: certified, scarce, and prevailing-waged
THE FIRE PROTECTION GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for fire protection 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 protection CFO firms compare: the fire protection firm study, with every score and its source.
MORE PROBLEMS WE PUT A NUMBER ON.
Fitter labor: certified, scarce, and prevailing-waged
Prevailing wage fitter rates
Sprinkler fitters hold certifications and licensing (state certificates of competency with fines up to $5,000 for lapses in some states), union fitter packages on much commercial work, and prevailing-wage classifications on public projects. The labor line is expensive and inflexible; misclassification claws margin back retroactively.
The AHJ gauntlet (inspections as payment gates)
Ahj retainage delay · Inspection test fee tracking
Sprinkler systems inspect multiple times: rough-in, hydrostatic pressure test, final, and often a separate alarm tie-in. Each gate can hold a billing milestone hostage, and commercial inspection coordination alone consumes 8 to 16 labor hours per project. The site's existing.
Two businesses in one truck (contract vs ITM)
Service vs new construction margins
New-construction contracting and inspection-testing-maintenance are different businesses: different margins, different billing cycles, different labor. NFPA 25 ITM work recurs annually ($1,000 to $2,100 per system per year is a published market range) with five-year internals at $800 to $2,500, and it pays fast; contract work pays big and slow. Blended books do not show which side is propping up the company.
Fire Protection is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
