FRACTIONAL CFO FOR GRADING CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance function for grading 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.
Grading has two production economies in one bid book, so the first job is splitting them. Mass grading sells cubic yards moved and fine grading sells tolerance held, with different machines, different operators, and different production math, and a blended cost history prices mass too high and fine too low so the company loses both kinds of bids for opposite reasons. We decide where GPS machine control lives, in overhead or in the machine rate, because the base station, receivers, and model prep labor are real cost most graders never assign anywhere. Then we build a winter reserve against a 16 percent overhead rate that applies twelve months while production lasts nine.
THE THREE THINGS THAT DRAIN THE CASH.
The Two Economies
Mass grading sells yards; fine grading sells tolerance. One blended cost history misprices both, and the trade's 18 percent gross margin has no room for systematically wrong bids in either direction.
The Acceptance Gate
Density tests and subgrade acceptance are payment gates: a failed proctor is unpaid production plus retest fees plus schedule burn. Moisture and soils documentation is what separates a claim from a donation.
The Idle Spread
Sixteen percent overhead at the small end, heaviest in the dirt family, continuing twelve months against seasonal production. Winter reserves and utilization tracking are the difference between a spring restart and a spring refinance.
FROM 2% TO 10% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average grading sub earns 18% gross margin and spends 16% of revenue on overhead, which leaves 2% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 10% before taxes, the grading 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 7 points to 25%, so 25 minus 15 leaves 10. 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 grading 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.
- Mass vs fine grading
- GPS machine control
- Compaction failure and subgrade rejection
- DOT and public payment regimes
- Fuel, rock, and operator overtime
THE GRADING GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for grading 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, or compare your numbers with Josh on a 20 minute call.
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: Grading 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 grading firm study, 1 other firm has a grading case study with numbers. The top three for grading: SPM 81.2 (trade case study with numbers), Civil CFO 61.8 (trade case study with numbers), LLUM 58.7 (trade page). SPM places #1 here with a grading 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 grading CFO firms compare: the grading firm study, with every score and its source.
MORE PROBLEMS WE PUT A NUMBER ON.
Fuel, rock, and operator overtime (the variance trio)
Rock discovery changed condition
Fuel price changes on diesel-hungry spreads, rock discovery under changed-conditions clauses (the D2 case travels here), and operator overtime going past estimated hours: three existing pages, three regular variance reports.
Mass vs fine grading (two production economies, one bid book)
Mass grading vs fine grading rates
Mass grading sells cubic yards moved; fine grading sells tolerance held. Different machines, different operators, different production math. A blended history prices mass work too high and fine work too low, losing both kinds of bids for opposite reasons. The existing mass-vs-fine.
Seasonal wall (winter with a 16 percent overhead)
Seasonal cash flow winter
Same physics as the dirt family, sharpened by grading's heaviest-in-family 16 percent small-end overhead: the spread costs the same in February as July.
Grading is one of 14 trades in the sitework and civil family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
