FRACTIONAL CFO FOR TANK AND VESSEL CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for tank and vessel 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.
Tank and vessel work splits along its own standards, so we split the books the same way. API 650 governs new welded tank construction and has project economics. API 653 mandates in-service inspection intervals and creates a repair market, triggered by condition, that recurs. One blended P&L misprices both. We bill when the documentation is complete and plan the hydrotest as a logistics event. Sourcing, holding and disposing of a structure's volume of test water comes between substantial completion and the check. Then we price turnaround work as its own class. Repair and alteration inside an owner outage uses premium-time labor by design, and a late unit release uses up the window.
SPM is a construction CFO for tank and vessel 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 Two-Code Book
API 650 new-build has project economics. API 653 inspection-repair has recurring demand, triggered by tank condition. One blended P&L misprices both, and the project side borrows its stability from the recurring side.
The Hydro Gate
Qualifications, weld maps, NDE and a structure full of test water come between substantial completion and the check. Bill when the documentation is complete, and plan the hydro as a logistics event. That's how this trade collects.
The Window Premium
Turnaround work gets packed into owner outages. Premium shifts are the plan, and a late unit release costs you. Price the window in the bid and document the standby. Somebody pays for the outage clock.
FROM 8% TO 11.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average tank and vessel sub earns 23% gross margin and spends 15% 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 tank and vessel 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 14%, and gross margin comes up 2.5 points to 25.5%, so 25.5 minus 14 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 tank and vessel 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.
- Two codes, two businesses
- The qualification and dossier economics
- The shutdown window
- Plate, alloy, and the fab/field split
- Confined space, coatings, and the entry-permit day
THE TANK AND VESSEL GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for tank and vessel 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 tank and vessel CFO firms compare: the tank and vessel firm study, with every score and its source.
Tank and Vessel is one of 14 trades in the MEP and systems family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
