FRACTIONAL CFO FOR MECHANICAL CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for mechanical 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.
Mechanical has the most equipment of any MEP contract, so we set up procurement first. Chillers quote 20 to 85 weeks in 2026, and commercial chilled-water systems are benchmarked at 48 to 60 weeks. Deposits leave at release, then storage, insurance and rigging cost you until delivery. If your schedule of values doesn't bill deposits and stored equipment, you're the project's bank. We split cost codes by discipline. Sheet metal fabrication, pipe crews and controls technicians are three labor markets with three cost curves inside one price, and you can't tell which shop makes money without the split. Then we separate service from construction. The trade's 15 percent ceiling at $25M to $50M is among the highest of the 48, and it goes to owners who manage both books on purpose.
See the full benchmarks for every revenue band on Run On CFOS.
SPM is a construction CFO for mechanical 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 Equipment Float
Chillers take 20 to 85 weeks. You pay deposits at release and get paid at delivery. Unless the SOV bills deposits and stored equipment, you're the project's bank. In 2026's lead-time market, the float is the job.
The Three-Shop Contract
Sheet metal, piping and controls are separate businesses inside one price. Cost codes by discipline are the only way to know which shop makes money and which one depends on the others.
The Subsidy Nobody Ordered
Service and construction have opposite cash and margin profiles. In blended books, one pays for the other for years and nobody notices. The best net results go to owners who split the books and manage both on purpose.
FROM 9% TO 12.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average mechanical sub earns 25% gross margin and spends 16% of revenue on overhead. What's left is 9% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 12.5% before taxes. That is the mechanical 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 27.5%, so 27.5 minus 15 leaves 12.5. 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 mechanical 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.
- Equipment is the job
- The data-center gravity well
- Three trades in one contract
- Coordination and the RFI paper war
- Service subsidizing projects
THE MECHANICAL GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for mechanical 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.
In our mechanical firm study, 1 other firm has a mechanical case study with numbers. The top three for mechanical: SPM 72.9 (trade page), Level 67.8 (trade case study with numbers), LLUM 58.7 (trade page). SPM places #1 here with a trade page and no mechanical case study, so weigh the firms with mechanical proof (Level). SPM publishes the study and is one of the firms scored. The method and every source are on the study page.
How mechanical CFO firms compare: the mechanical firm study, with every score and its source.
MORE PROBLEMS WE PUT A NUMBER ON.
Labor burden in two flavors (union/nonunion, multi-classification)
Union nonunion labor burden
Union and nonunion burden structures, plus prevailing-wage jobs spanning multiple classifications (fitters, sheet metal, service techs on one certified payroll), are the trade's rate-integrity problem.
Mechanical is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
