FRACTIONAL CFO FOR INTERIORS CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for interiors 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.
Interiors fit-out gets paid by a tenant who gets paid by a landlord, so the draw package is the whole cash system. Allowances are $15 to $80 a square foot. They reimburse 30 to 60 days after a clean package of paid invoices, lien waivers and completion proof, and some deals release nothing until certificate of occupancy. We build that package as the work happens. That decides whether you collect the draw or pay for the landlord's building. We also price the work letter before the drawings. Base-building against tenant scope is set in the letter, and every seam you don't read, from demising walls to a code-triggered panel upgrade, turns into unpaid scope later.
SPM is a construction CFO for interiors 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 Reimbursement Float
TI money goes from landlord to tenant to contractor. It's released 30 to 60 days after a clean draw package, and sometimes only at certificate of occupancy. Build lien waivers and invoice packages as the work happens and you get the draw. Put them together at month end and you pay for the landlord's building.
The Work-Letter Seam
The work letter decides base-building versus tenant scope. The drawings don't. Every seam you don't read (demising walls, panel upgrades, code-triggered base work) turns into unpaid scope. Price the letter, then the plans.
The Lease-Date Vise
Rent commencement is in the contract. Permits take 4 to 12 weeks and switchgear takes 18 to 30. The schedule works backward from a date you never chose. Long-lead procurement and a contingency you hold to are the only slack you have.
FROM 6% TO 10% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average interiors sub earns 19% gross margin and spends 13% of revenue on overhead. What's left is 6% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 10% before taxes. That is the interiors 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 12%, and gross margin comes up 3 points to 22%, so 22 minus 12 leaves 10. 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 interiors 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 TI float
- The work letter is the contract that matters
- Occupied-building rules
- Compressed schedules against lease dates
- Multi-trade package management
THE INTERIORS GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for interiors 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 interiors CFO firms compare: the interiors firm study, with every score and its source.
Interiors is one of 6 trades in the interiors and finishes family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
