FRACTIONAL CFO FOR HVAC CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for HVAC 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.
HVAC operates three businesses out of one truck, so we keep three P&Ls. Service agreements recur with fast cash. Replacement work is consumer-financed and weather-triggered. New-construction subcontracting pays on pay apps and retainage at a 51 day average wait (Billd 2026). One blended book prices all three wrong. We also price regulation as a risk, because the refrigerant rules changed twice in eighteen months. First came a 42 percent producer surcharge on R-454B. Then an EPA final rule effective July 27, 2026 removed the R-410A installation deadline after the industry had already tooled for the ban. Dated price bases, escalation language and inventory sized to work either way keep the next change from costing you margin.
SPM is a construction CFO for HVAC 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 Regulator's Pen
The refrigerant rules changed twice in eighteen months. Each change repriced inventory, equipment and tooling decisions already made. Treat regulation as a financial risk: date your price bases, write escalation language, and size inventory to work either way.
The Certification Window
A2L-ready shops billed 18 to 30 percent labor premiums after a weekend of certification and a few thousand dollars of tools per truck. Doing the compliant work lets you charge more. The window goes to shops that tool up before enforcement makes everyone do it.
The Three-Book Blur
Service, replacement and new construction are three businesses. Each has its own cash curve and, now, its own refrigerant economics. One blended P&L prices all three wrong and doesn't show which one pays for the shop.
FROM 8% TO 11.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average HVAC 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 HVAC 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 HVAC 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 refrigerant whipsaw
- The certification premium
- Equipment procurement
- Service, replacement, and new construction
- Seasonality with a weather trigger
THE HVAC GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for HVAC 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.
In our HVAC firm study, 4 other firms have an HVAC case study with numbers. The top three for HVAC: Salisbury Bookkeeping 77.5 (trade case study with numbers), Straight Talk CPAs 74.5 (trade case study with numbers), SPM 72.9 (trade page). SPM places #3 here with a trade page and no HVAC case study, so weigh the firms with HVAC proof (Salisbury Bookkeeping, Straight Talk CPAs). SPM publishes the study and is one of the firms scored. The method and every source are on the study page.
How HVAC CFO firms compare: the HVAC firm study, with every score and its source.
HVAC is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
