FRACTIONAL CFO FOR LOW VOLTAGE AND AV CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for low voltage and AV 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.
Low voltage sells by the drop, and nobody agrees what a drop includes. That's the margin problem. We define it in writing before the contract signs: pull, terminations, testing, labeling and documentation. We log base counts so added drops become change orders, and you stop giving them away. Billing follows the test reports and the label schedule. Cable pulled and not certified is inventory in a ceiling, and a subcontractor already waits an average of 51 days for payment, per Billd's 2026 report. On the AV side we write commissioning protocols with defined pass conditions. Without criteria, the job closes when the client is happy, and that day is never on your calendar.
SPM is a construction CFO for low voltage and AV 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 Undefined Drop
You sell by the drop. If the drop isn't defined (pull only, or pull-terminate-test-label-document?), every unit price becomes an argument. Define the unit and log the count, and added drops become change orders.
The Untested Ceiling
Cable that's pulled and not certified is inventory. You bill off the fluke reports and the label schedule, so finish the documentation per drop, every day.
The Subjective Punch
With no written AV acceptance criteria, the job closes when the client is happy, and that's never on your calendar. A commissioning protocol with defined pass conditions is how an integration job closes out.
FROM 8% TO 11.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average low voltage and AV 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 low voltage and AV 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 low voltage and AV 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.
- Drops are the unit, and everyone counts them differently
- Certification-gated payment
- The integration tail
- Project vs service/managed
- Licensing patchwork and prevailing-wage classification
THE LOW VOLTAGE AND AV GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for low voltage and AV 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 low voltage and AV CFO firms compare: the low voltage and AV firm study, with every score and its source.
Low Voltage and AV is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
