FRACTIONAL CFO FOR TUNNEL CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance side for tunnel 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.
In tunneling the geotechnical baseline report is the contract, so the daily log is the second set of books. The baseline states what the bid may assume. The differing-site-conditions clause allocates whatever turns out otherwise. Day-by-day documentation is the only evidence that decides which one happened. We code downtime by cause: conditions, machine, logistics and owner. Continuous operations use crew, power and plant around the clock while the advance rate falls, and a stopped heading costs the same as a producing one. Then we get honest about the capital. A boring machine and its supporting plant are project-scale assets with salvage assumptions built into the bid. Ownership, refurbishment and residual value set the price before the strata do.
SPM is a construction CFO for tunnel 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 Baseline Ledger
The GBR states what the bid may assume. The DSC clause allocates what differs. The shift log proves which one happened. Your ground documentation is the trade's second set of books.
The Sleepless Burn
With continuous operations, the daily cost never stops, even when the advance rate does. Code downtime by cause (ground, machine, logistics, owner). That's the only way a stopped-heading claim ever pays.
The Unseen Capital
The machine and plant are project-scale capital, with salvage assumptions built into the bid. Honest cost basis (ownership, refurbishment, residual) sets the price before the ground does.
FROM 7% TO 10.5% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average tunnel sub earns 23% gross margin and spends 16% of revenue on overhead. What's left is 7% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 10.5% before taxes. That is the tunnel 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 25.5%, so 25.5 minus 15 leaves 10.5. 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 tunnel 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.
- The baseline is the contract
- The machine is the mortgage
- Around-the-clock labor
- Microtunneling and the small-diameter segment
- Progress measurement in the dark
THE TUNNEL GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for tunnel 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 tunnel CFO firms compare: the tunnel firm study, with every score and its source.
Tunnel is one of 14 trades in the sitework and civil family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
