TRADE SERVICE · ELECTRICAL & TECH CLUSTER

FRACTIONAL CFO FOR TELECOM CONTRACTORS.

QUICK ANSWER

We run the finance function for telecom subcontractors doing $1M to $12M: 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.

Telecom runs many small crews against many small tickets, so one number decides the company: billable hours per crew-day. Drive time, staging, badging, escorts, and access failures eat that number without ever appearing as a loss on a job, which is why we track utilization per crew per week rather than margin per project. Carrier and enterprise master service agreements pay per ticket against closeout documentation, and a hundred unbilled tickets hide far easier than one big invoice, so we run ticket-close discipline daily with photos, sign-offs, and packages. Then we split the maintenance book from the project book, because one pays small and reliably while the other pays big and slow, and a single P&L over both prices each of them wrong.

BY JOSH LUEBKERPublished 2026-08-06Updated 2026-08-06
WHERE TELECOM LOSES MONEY

THE THREE THINGS THAT DRAIN THE CASH.

LEAK 01

The Windshield Tax

Many crews, many tickets, one number that decides everything: billable hours per crew-day. Drive time, staging, and access failures eat it invisibly until utilization is tracked per crew, per week.

LEAK 02

The Hundred Small Receivables

Carrier MSAs pay per ticket against closeout documentation, and a hundred unbilled tickets hide easier than one big invoice. Ticket-close discipline (photos, sign-offs, packages daily) is the collection strategy.

LEAK 03

The Blended Book

Maintenance pays small and steady; projects pay big and slow. One P&L over both hides which side funds which, and the owner prices both wrong until the split is on paper. (cfos-job-profitability-system) ---

HOW SPM FIXES IT

WHAT WE CHANGE.

Multi-crew utilization (the query is the pain)
The payroll handoff (the other query is also the pain)
Carrier maintenance vs project work (two cash profiles)
Carrier terms and documentation gates
Access and standby (the site that wasn't ready, times fifty)
PRICING

FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.

Priced by trailing 12 month revenue. No hourly billing. No payroll. No add-ons.

Last 12 months revenueMonthly fee
Up to $1M$1,900 to $2,900
$1M to $3.5M$2,600 to $3,900
$3.5M to $6.5M$3,800 to $5,700
$6.5M to $9.5M$5,100 to $7,100
$9.5M to $12.5M$6,100 to $8,500
$12.5M to $15.5M$7,400 to $11,000
$15.5M to $18.5M$9,400 to $13,500
$18.5M+Quoted individually

Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.

Core

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 rather than a report.

Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.

Executive

You stop touching the books.

Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.

We do the books. No payroll.

Strategic

Every job shows its margin while it's still running.

Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.

We do the job costing.

COMMON QUESTIONS

FREQUENTLY ASKED.

Telecom contractors at $1M to $5M net 6 percent on average, rising to 8.5 percent by $25M to $50M; the CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 10 percent. In a multi-crew dispatch business the gap almost always sits in utilization: billable hours per crew-day lost to windshield time, staging, and sites that weren't ready. Every net profit figure here is stated before taxes, the same basis CFMA reports on, so the two are directly comparable.
Three tiers, and which one you are in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. Core is where you stop guessing: job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a monthly meeting that ends in decisions, while your bookkeeper keeps doing the books. Executive is where you stop touching the books, because we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Strategic is where every job shows its margin while it is still running, because the job costing and WIP platform is set up and managed for you. No payroll. No scope gaps.
Sixty days. We migrate your books back to the start of your last taxable year, set up ControlQore, and build your job costing structure from scratch. Fully operational in two months.
ControlQore is the job costing and WIP platform we use for all clients. Purpose-built for contractors, more affordable than legacy tools, and AI-infused. We set it up and manage it, so you do not have to learn it.
A bookkeeper records what happened. We tell you what it means and what to do about it. We align job costing to your estimates, track WIP monthly, and hold strategic accountability meetings so problems get fixed and not merely documented.
$10.7M+
Client AR Recovered Since 2023
48
Active Trade Specializations
60 DAYS
Average Onboarding Time
WHAT THIS TIES INTO
Josh Luebker, The Construction CFO
Josh Luebker
FRACTIONAL CFO · THE CONSTRUCTION CFO

Former commercial construction project manager and master electrician. Managed 150+ projects worth more than $2.1B combined, with individual jobs from $50,000 to $300M, including data centers, military bases, hospitals, and high-rises. Now fractional CFO for commercial subcontractors doing $1M to $12M through Sulphur Prairie Management.About Josh  | LinkedIn

DO YOU KNOW YOUR TRUE MARGIN ON TELECOM WORK?

Bring one job. We will show you the difference between what you bid and what it cost.

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 diagnostic

20 minutes. No sales pressure. We will tell you exactly what's broken before we talk about anything else.

OR START WITH THE WORKBOOKS. NO CALL NEEDED.