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CFO FOR SUBCONTRACTORS

THE FRACTIONAL CFO FIRM BUILT ONLY FOR SUBCONTRACTORS.

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SPM The Construction CFO (Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, Sulphur Rock, Arkansas) is a fractional CFO firm that works only with commercial subcontractors and self-performing GCs. Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote. Three tiers (Core, Strategic, and Platinum), published pricing from $1,900 a month, 60 day onboarding, founded by master electrician Josh Luebker.

Every page here is about one kind of business: the commercial subcontractor and the self-performing GC. Pick your trade below for your benchmarks, the three places your trade loses cash and what we change first. The rest of this page covers the first 60 days, the price, client results, and how a fractional CFO compares with a bookkeeper, a CPA or a full-time hire.

BY JOSH LUEBKERPublished 2026-10-31Updated 2026-10-31
WHO IT'S FOR

COMMERCIAL SUBS. NOTHING ELSE.

Commercial subcontractors in any of the 48 trades listed below
Self-performing general contractors who carry their own crews and their own job costs
Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote.
Owners who want the finance side handled by people who know construction, not learned from scratch

Who it isn't for

FIND YOUR TRADE

48 TRADES. 5 FAMILIES.

Each trade page has that trade's gross margin, overhead and net profit benchmarks, the three places it loses cash, and what we change first. Pick yours.

THE FIRST 60 DAYS

WHAT CHANGES FIRST.

Your books migrated back to the start of your last taxable year, so every comparison has a full year behind it
Job costing rebuilt to match the way you estimate, so budget and actual compare line by line
Monthly WIP and cost to complete on every open job
A 13 week cash forecast, so a short week is known while you can still change it
A monthly meeting that ends in written to-dos, each with an owner and a date

Each of those is part of CFOS, the construction financial operating system SPM installs. It has six systems:

PRICING

PUBLISHED. NOT QUOTED.

A flat monthly fee set by your last 12 months revenue and the tier you pick. No hourly billing. No payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is in the table too.

Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote.

Last 12 months revenueCoreStrategicPlatinumOne-time onboarding
Under $1M$1,900$3,100$3,300$1,000
$1M to $3.5M$2,600$4,100$5,300$1,500
$3.5M to $6.5M$3,800$5,900$8,300$3,000
$6.5M to $9.5M$5,100$7,600$11,800$4,500
$9.5M to $12.5M$6,100$8,900$14,900$6,000
Above $12.5MQuotedQuotedQuotedQuoted

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.

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.
Core

CFO work. Your own bookkeeper keeps doing the books.

You stop guessing.

You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions and never in a report.

Your bookkeeper still does the books.

Strategic

Core, plus bookkeeping and bank reconciliations, plus job costing and WIP software set up and managed for you. Use your own online accounting software or we supply it, one price.

Every job shows its margin while it is still open.

Everything in Core, plus the bookkeeping and bank reconciliations done for you, and the job costing and WIP software set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed every month. Use your own online software, or move to ours and we cover it.

A bookkeeper we choose does the books and reconciliations. No payroll.

Platinum

Strategic, plus a controller who handles payables and receivables the way an in-house controller would. You approve every payment.

You approve, and the money side gets handled.

Everything in Strategic, plus a controller we choose who handles your bills and receivables for you the way an in-house controller would. They call vendors, pay the bills and keep the accounting current. We plan the cash flow first, and you approve every payment because it is your money.

A controller we choose does the payables and receivables. No payroll, no pay applications, no collections.

Full pricing breakdown
PROOF

CLIENT RESULTS, WITH THE NUMBERS.

15 published case studies, every one anonymized, with the before and after figures. Four of them, one per proof trade:

$10.7M+
Client AR Recovered Since 2023
48
Active Trade Specializations
60 DAYS
Average Onboarding Time
CASE STUDIES
$3.4M Civil and Excavating
Civil Sub Clears 4 Cash Advances, Overhead 32% to 15%
A $3.4M civil infrastructure and sitework subcontractor that self performs excavation and underground utility work had grown fast and financed the growth with four stacked merchant cash advances, overhead at 32 percent, and gross profit at 5 percent.
$4.9M Concrete
$1.3M Less Revenue, More Profit: Overhead Was 12%, Not 5%
A $4.9M concrete subcontractor felt that something was wrong, because revenue kept rising and cash never reflected it.
$3.2M Electrical
$365,000 Collected, All Debt Gone in 120 Days
A $3.2M commercial electrical subcontractor had a collections problem that had turned into a debt problem, borrowing to cover work that had been performed and never collected.
$5.2M SWPPP
$24,000 to $1,105,000 Net on $1.6M Less Revenue
An erosion control and SWPPP contractor was doing $5.2M and netting $24,000.
SIDE BY SIDE

BOOKKEEPER, CPA OR CFO?

QuestionBookkeeperCPAFractional CFOFull-time CFO
Main jobRecords what happenedFiles your taxes and handles complianceWorks forward on cash, job margins and decisionsThe same forward work, in the building every day
LooksBack, at last monthBack, at last yearForward, every monthForward, every day
Job margins while the job is openNoNoYes, from monthly WIPYes, once job costing is built
CostAn hourly or monthly feeA fee per return or engagementPublished, from $1,900 a monthA six figure salary plus benefits
SERVICES AND PRICING
WHO LEADS IT

JOSH LUEBKER, PRESIDENT.

Josh Luebker is a master electrician and former commercial construction project manager who now runs the finance side for contractors. He founded SPM The Construction CFO (Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC), an outsourced finance and CFO firm for subcontractors doing $1M to $12M, and wrote CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System. More at https://constructioncfo.net.

As a project manager he delivered 150+ projects worth over $2.1B: data centers, military bases, hospitals, high-rises. Read more about SPM or about Josh.

COMMON QUESTIONS

FREQUENTLY ASKED.

You need the CFO work, not a full-time CFO. At $5M one point of gross margin is $50,000 a year, and the jobs that leak it look fine until they close. The work is a 13 week cash forecast, job costing built against your estimate, monthly WIP and a meeting each month that ends in decisions. A $5M company is in the $3.5M to $6.5M band: Core $3,800, Strategic $5,900, Platinum $8,300 per month, $3,000 one-time onboarding.

SPM publishes every price. The fee is flat and monthly, set by your last 12 months revenue and the tier you pick, plus a one-time onboarding fee. Core starts at $1,900 per month under $1M, and the published table goes to $14,900 per month for Platinum at $9.5M to $12.5M. Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote. The full table is on this page.

A construction CPA files your taxes and handles compliance, and looks back at a year that is over. A fractional CFO works forward every month: the cash forecast, job margins while the job is open, and bid and hiring decisions tested before you commit. Most subs need both. SPM is not a CPA firm: nobody at SPM is a CPA, and SPM does no tax preparation, audit or review.

Under about $12M, almost always. A capable construction CFO is a six figure salary plus benefits, and the work at $4M does not fill the week. An outsourced engagement here is a published monthly fee by revenue band, and the upper tiers add the bookkeeping and a controller, so you are not hiring three people to get the whole finance function.

Updates the 13 week cash forecast, reads WIP and cost to complete on every open job, checks overhead against what you bid, and compares your margins with your trade's benchmarks. Then a monthly meeting with you that ends in written to-dos, each with an owner and a date, so problems get fixed and not just reported.

No. None of the three is in any tier. Your payroll company keeps payroll, and your office keeps sending pay applications and calling on past due invoices. What changes is that the WIP and the cash forecast tell you which jobs and which customers hold your cash, so you know whom to call first.

48 trades in five families: sitework and civil, concrete and structure, MEP and systems, building envelope, and interiors and finishes. Every trade has its own page with its own benchmarks, and the trade list on this page links all of them.

Sixty days. We migrate your books back to the start of your last taxable year and build your job costing structure from scratch, and on Strategic and Platinum we set up the job costing and WIP software too. Fully operational in two months. The onboarding fee is one time, the same for every tier, and set by your revenue band.
Josh Luebker, SPM The Construction CFO
Josh Luebker
FRACTIONAL CFO · SPM THE CONSTRUCTION CFO

Josh Luebker is a master electrician turned construction CFO, president of SPM The Construction CFO and author of CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System.

About Josh  | LinkedIn

THE CHEAPER OPTION WORKS. IT TAKES LONGER.

If price comes first, plenty of CFOs and bookkeepers can get your construction company results. Plan on 6 to 12 months.

If you're a trade contractor, a sub or a GC who wins work, keeps the crews busy and still can't figure out where the money goes, we get in the weeds with you. We change the processes that cost you money on every job, build the ones you're missing and give you the formula, so you see results in 60 to 90 days.

Every tier carries our guarantee, because we expect to earn it.

TWENTY MINUTES. NOTHING GETS SOLD.

Twenty minutes of questions about your last full year, one open job, and what keeps landing back on your desk. Nothing gets sold on that call and nothing gets proposed. If Josh can help, you'll set a longer second call.

You don't hire a CFO because it's safe, you do it because the real risk isn't having one.
Book a 20 minute call

20 minutes. Nothing gets sold on this call and nothing gets proposed. Josh asks questions to work out whether he can help at all.

OR START WITH THE WORKBOOKS. NO CALL NEEDED.
MARGIN CALL, ONCE A MONTH

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