FRACTIONAL CFO FOR SECURITY SYSTEMS CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for security systems 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.
Security integrators own a balance sheet asset most of them have never valued, so we start by measuring it. Recurring monthly revenue is 38.5 percent of industry revenue now, up from 33 percent two years earlier. Monitoring books sell for roughly 28 to 60 times monthly recurring revenue. A $2M EBITDA project-only shop sells for about $8M to $10M. The same EBITDA at a 40 percent RMR mix sells for $14M to $18M. We build a P&L for each contract. Monitoring wholesale cost, platform fees per account and truck rolls against flat-rate obligations cut into accounts, and no revenue report shows it. We track attrition every month too. Each point of monthly attrition below the category baseline can add two to three turns of multiple. Every canceled account wipes out contracted revenue that cost real install labor to win.
SPM is a construction CFO for security systems 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 Unpriced Asset
RMR is a balance-sheet asset with a multiple attached. Monitoring books trade at 28x to 60x monthly recurring revenue. A 40-percent RMR mix nearly doubles what a dollar of EBITDA sells for. If you can't say your RMR mix and attrition rate, someone else's spreadsheet is setting your company's value.
The Billing Illusion
"RMR contracts are billing, but nobody can tell you which ones are profitable." Monitoring costs, truck rolls and platform fees cut into accounts without anyone seeing it. Only a P&L for each contract shows it.
The Divided House
Install revenue follows construction terms. Monitoring follows subscription terms. The market values them on different multiples. One blended P&L can't show which business pays for which, and it misprices both, at exit and every month before it.
FROM 6% TO 10% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average security systems sub earns 22% gross margin and spends 16% 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 security systems 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 3 points to 25%, so 25 minus 15 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 security systems 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.
- RMR is a balance-sheet asset
- Billing without profitability
- Two businesses, opposite cash curves
- Attrition is the other margin
- Overhead above the all-trade average
THE SECURITY SYSTEMS GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for security systems 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 security systems CFO firms compare: the security systems firm study, with every score and its source.
EACH SECURITY SYSTEMS PROBLEM HAS ITS OWN PAGE.
Security Systems is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
