DOT PROJECT CASH FLOW: PUBLIC AND DOT JOBS THAT PAY IN 90 DAYS

Plan on 60 to 90 days from work performed to cash received once approval cycles run. Mobilization is often capped at 5 to 10 percent and released in stages as the contract earns. The jobs are good; the cash timing is the part that breaks companies.

Civil subcontractors at $1M to $5M in revenue net 5.5 percent on average, rising to 8.5 percent by $25M to $50M. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 10 percent, and it rises with revenue. The gap between average and target usually sits in three places: unbilled mobilization, buried equipment cost, and retainage carried without a plan. Every net profit figure here is stated before taxes, the same basis CFMA reports on, so the two are directly comparable.

About 13 to 14 percent of revenue at that size, falling toward 11 percent as revenue grows. The published outside ranges run wider than most owners expect: Jones Maresca and Company's 2025 Performance Benchmarks put total indirect cost at 8 to 15 percent of revenue for construction as a whole, and CFMA's 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker reports SG&A at 11.8 percent across all respondents. Neither figure is a civil number, and /construction-overhead-rates-by-trade carries the civil rate by revenue band. Overhead that goes unmeasured gets recovered by accident, and civil overhead hides in the shop, the yard, and the pickup fleet.

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.