SWPPP AND EROSION CONTROL BENCHMARKS.
At $1M to $5M, SWPPP and erosion control contractors average 24% gross margin and spend 14% of revenue on overhead, which leaves 10% net profit before taxes (Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference). The CFOS target is 12% net before taxes, the figure the book CONTROL sets for every trade and every revenue band. Getting there means overhead at 13% and gross margin at 25%, and the distance is almost always overhead that was never loaded into the bid.
SWPPP AND EROSION CONTROL FINANCIAL BENCHMARKS. WHERE YOU SHOULD BE.
| METRIC | INDUSTRY AVERAGE | CFOS TARGET | AT $10M TO $25M | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Margin ($1M to $5M) | 24% | 25% | 27% | Industry figure is 26% at $5M to $10M and 27% at $10M to $25M. |
| Overhead Rate ($1M to $5M) | 14% | 13% | 12% | Falls to 12% by $10M to $25M as fixed cost spreads over more revenue. |
| Net Profit Margin ($1M to $5M) | 10% | 12% | 15% | Industry figure is 13% at $5M to $10M and 15% at $10M to $25M. |
| Days Sales Outstanding | 90 days | 45 days | 30 days | Ninety days is weak, 45 is the target, 30 is strong. Nothing else moves cash faster. |
Showing $1M to $25M. The full data set for every revenue band is on Run On CFOS.
Industry figures are the AVERAGE for the trade at each revenue band, from the Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference, not a floor. Net profit is stated before taxes. The CFOS target is what we build toward. The third column is what companies at $10M to $25M average, shown for direction of travel; that is a larger company, which is a different thing from a better managed one.
Below the swppp and erosion control average on margins? Bring your last P&L to a 20 minute call. Josh will tell you where the gap is and what closes it.
Compare my numbers on a callTHE SWPPP AND EROSION CONTROL GAP CALCULATOR. WHAT IT COSTS YOU A YEAR.
Put in your last 12 months. The calculator picks your revenue band and sets your net profit beside the SWPPP and erosion control average and the CFOS target, in dollars. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Your results show here once all three numbers are in.
Want it done from your books instead? The Financial Health Snapshot builds a CEO Report from your last 12 months and sets every figure against your trade, or compare your numbers with Josh on a 20 minute call.
SWPPP AND EROSION CONTROL GROSS MARGIN.
How to calculate: Gross margin is Revenue minus Direct Job Costs, divided by Revenue, times 100. Direct job costs include labour, materials, equipment and subcontracted work tied to the job. Not shop overhead, office staff or G and A.
The CFOS gross margin target for this trade is a point above the trade's own average at this revenue, and price isn't the lever for those points. SWPPP already earns a fair rate for what it sells, and the money that goes missing goes missing per site rather than per bid. Route density, drive time, inspection minutes, and BMP burn are what separate a profitable site from one that only pays for the truck, and a job-level total can't tell them apart. So the work is cost per site, read weekly, and the gross line follows without a price change.
GROSS MARGIN BY REVENUE BAND, $1M TO $25M
| REVENUE BAND | INDUSTRY AVERAGE | CFOS TARGET |
|---|---|---|
| $1M to $5M | 24% | 25% |
| $5M to $10M | 26% | 24% |
| $10M to $25M | 27% | 23% |
SWPPP AND EROSION CONTROL OVERHEAD RATE.
How to calculate your overhead rate: Total overhead divided by Total Revenue, times 100. Overhead is every cost not attributable to a job: office staff, rent, insurance, software, vehicles not charged to work, and owner salary. It moves every month with revenue, which is why a rate set a year ago is wrong in both directions.
SWPPP already has the leanest overhead rate in the dirt family at 14 percent, and the point down to 13 is worth $10,000 on a $1M year and $50,000 on a $5M year. What it holds is compliance capacity: certified inspector programs and licensing, the surge staffing held for rain events nobody schedules, and the record system that keeps a living plan from becoming a violation in a binder. Active-construction work tracks the building season while inspection contracts recur, so a rate built on annual revenue misreads both halves of the year. Recalculating monthly against the recurring book is how the trade reaches the 11 percent it should hold by $25M to $50M.
See the full benchmarks for every revenue band on Run On CFOS.
OVERHEAD RATE BY REVENUE BAND, $1M TO $25M
| REVENUE BAND | INDUSTRY AVERAGE | CFOS TARGET |
|---|---|---|
| $1M to $5M | 14% | 13% |
| $5M to $10M | 13% | 12% |
| $10M to $25M | 12% | 11% |
SWPPP AND EROSION CONTROL NET PROFIT MARGIN.
Net profit margin formula: Net Profit divided by Total Revenue, times 100. Unlike gross margin this measures what is left after overhead and G and A. It's the number that funds owner draw, debt paydown and growth.
SWPPP has more headroom than its average suggests, and the two points between a 10 percent before tax net and a 12 percent target are $20,000 on a $1M year and $100,000 on a $5M year. One verified $5.2M erosion control contractor went from $24,000 to $1,105,000 in net profit after taxes at a 30 percent margin before taxes by installing per-site job costing and cash control, which is well past any benchmark on this page. What made that possible is the product itself, because the contractor sells protection against stormwater penalties reaching $56,460 per day per violation and the documentation system is the thing being bought. A trade whose deliverable is a paper trail has no excuse for not measuring itself the same way.
NET PROFIT MARGIN BY REVENUE BAND, $1M TO $25M
| REVENUE BAND | INDUSTRY AVERAGE | CFOS TARGET |
|---|---|---|
| $1M to $5M | 10% | 12% |
| $5M to $10M | 13% | 12% |
| $10M to $25M | 15% | 12% |
Benchmarks for subcontractors from $1M to $25M. This is a partial view of the Run On CFOS benchmark reference, which covers every band up to $500M and above. The full Run On CFOS benchmark reference is on runoncfos.com.
Gross margin and overhead come from figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish by trade and size. Net profit is computed, not surveyed: net profit = gross margin minus overhead. Nothing comes out for taxes, interest or other income and expense, so it is a before tax figure, on the same basis as CFMA's net income before taxes.
CFMA's 2025 medians are 7.1 percent before interest and taxes and 6.7 percent net income before taxes. Gross margin minus overhead leaves out interest and other income and expense, so a figure here can come in a little above or below a reported net income on the same business. The bands above the $10M to $25M band are published at runoncfos.com as a modeled extension of the same curves. They have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker, so read them as a model and not as a survey result.
Trade figures are from the Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference, published by Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. Net profit is stated before taxes. CFMA reports net income before taxes too, so the two read on the same basis. Re-validate against CFMA reporting on the normal quarterly cycle, per the benchmark reference's own instruction.
The reference itself is published at where this SWPPP and erosion control reference is published. The sourcing note behind the 48 trade set is set out at runoncfos.com.
Cite as: Run On CFOS. Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference: SWPPP and Erosion Control. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/swppp. CC BY 4.0.
- 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2024. 21.8% gross profit margin, 11.8% SG&A and 6.3% net income before taxes across all respondents, with a best-in-class top quartile at 11.9% net income before taxes.
- 2025 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Construction Financial Management Association, 2025. 6.7% net income before taxes (6.3% in 2023), a 7.1% EBIT margin and an 8.8% EBITDA margin at the median, with interest coverage of 30.4 times, across the 1,558 companies in the 2025 analysis (fiscal year 2024 results).
- 2025 Performance Benchmarks, Construction Companies, Jones Maresca and Company, 2025. Specialty contractor gross margin of 15% to 25%, net profit of 5% to 8% for a well managed company, and total indirect cost of 8% to 15%.
Each metric across every trade is published on Gross Margin by Trade, Overhead Rates by Trade and Net Profit by Trade, and the full dataset for all 48 trades across the published revenue bands is available as JSON and CSV, with one plain-language statement per row. Free to use with attribution.
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.
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 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 | $4,100 | $5,300 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 | $5,900 | $8,300 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 | $7,600 | $11,800 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 | $8,900 | $14,900 | $6,000 |
| 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.
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.
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