FRACTIONAL CFO FOR UNDERGROUND UTILITY CONTRACTORS.
We manage the finance function for underground utility 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.
Underground utility has two production economies in one bid book, so those get separate cost histories on day one. Directional drilling sells feet per day through a bore path priced on soils, depth, and diameter, while open cut sells trench, lay, and backfill production with shoring and dewatering behind it, and an 18 percent gross margin can't fund systematic mispricing in either direction. We price potholing and vacuum excavation into the work as financial controls, because a pipeline crew crosses more foreign utilities in a week than a mass excavation crew meets on a whole job, and general liability policies routinely sublimit underground facility damage below the real repair cost. Then we bid the public owner's cash lag explicitly, since municipal work pays on council approval cycles, holds retainage to restoration acceptance, and replaces lien rights with bond claims.
SPM is a construction CFO for underground utility 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 Bores
HDD and open cut are separate production economies sold under one bid book; blended histories misprice both, and an 18 percent gross margin can't fund systematic mispricing in either direction.
The Linear Gauntlet
Every week of pipe crosses more foreign utilities than most trades meet in a year, under strict-liability locate law with GL sublimits underneath. Potholing and vacuum excavation are financial controls priced into the work, not optional caution.
The Council's Calendar
Municipal owners pay on approval cycles, hold retainage to restoration acceptance, and replace lien rights with bond claims. The public-owner cash lag gets priced in the bid or funded by the contractor.
FROM 3% TO 10% NET.
At $1M to $5M, the average underground utility sub earns 18% gross margin and spends 15% of revenue on overhead, which leaves 3% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 10% before taxes, the underground utility average plus 3.5 points and never below 10%, where the book CONTROL's 12% is the rule of thumb across trades. It is not the industry average.
The target takes two moves. Overhead comes down 1 point to 14%, and gross margin comes up 6 points to 24%, so 24 minus 14 leaves 10. The gross margin points come from the three leaks above, priced and billed, not absorbed. On a $3M year, every point is $30,000.
WHAT WE CHANGE.
These are the underground utility 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.
- What an underground utility contractor should net
- HDD vs open cut
- Bore pits and mobilization
- Pipe escalation on long jobs
- The municipal calendar
THE UNDERGROUND UTILITY GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for underground utility 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.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Priced by trailing 12 month revenue. No hourly billing. No payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
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.
Prevailing wage note: Underground Utility work often comes from public bids, which means certified payroll and wage classifications have to line up with the job cost record. ControlQore holds the classification against the cost code, so the certified report and the job cost report come from the same data, and your office stops keying the same numbers twice every week.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
See the full benchmarks for every revenue band on Run On CFOS.
In our underground utility firm study, 1 other firm has an underground utility case study with numbers. The top three for underground utility: SPM 72.9 (trade page), Vessel Advisors 71.5 (trade case study with numbers), LLUM 58.7 (trade page). SPM places #1 here with a trade page and no underground utility case study, so weigh the firms with underground utility proof (Vessel Advisors). SPM publishes the study and is one of the firms scored; the method and every source are on the study page.
How underground utility CFO firms compare: the underground utility firm study, with every score and its source.
MORE PROBLEMS WE PUT A NUMBER ON.
Bore pits and mobilization (the front-loaded footage)
Casing bore pit separate SOV billing
Bore pits, casing, and drill setup concentrate cost before the first foot of product pipe bills. Enrichment: keep pit excavation, shoring, and dewatering coded separately from bore production so the unit price and the setup cost can each be seen.
HDD vs open cut (two production economies)
Hdd job costing
Directional drilling sells feet-per-day through a bore path priced on soils, depth, and diameter; open cut sells trench-lay-backfill production. Different machines, risks (frac-outs and cross-bores vs shoring and dewatering), and cost curves. The mass/fine grading lesson travels here.
Pipe escalation on long jobs (two pages, one intent, verify)
Material escalation pipe
PVC, HDPE, ductile iron, and copper track resin and metal markets, and multi-season municipal jobs price pipe a year before it ships. TWO existing pages cover this: underground-utility-contractor-material-escalation-pipe and underground-utility-pipe-material-escalation-long-jobs. Verify at port whether they split angles cleanly (bid-clause mechanics vs long-job cash exposure); if not, merge + 301 the weaker.
Restoration (the last mile nobody bid)
Restoration billing separate SOV
Pavement, sod, and hardscape restoration trails the pipe by weeks, holds acceptance hostage, and gets bid as an allowance more often than a measured scope.
Strikes, dewatering and rock
Utility conflict change order
Same 811/strict-liability regime, GL sublimits, and fine tiers the excavation file documents, sharpened by linear exposure: a pipeline crew crosses more foreign utilities per week than a mass-ex crew does per job, and vacuum excavation is the control.
The municipal calendar (90 days is the contract)
Municipal 90 day pay cycles · Permit delay cash flow
City and district owners pay on council-approval and warrant cycles. Prompt-pay statutes help only when invoices are undisputed and deadlines are calendared.
UNDERGROUND UTILITY PROBLEMS, ONE PAGE EACH.
Underground Utility is one of 14 trades in the sitework and civil family on our CFO for subcontractors page. Nearby trades with their own page:
