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You're acting as a construction CFO reviewing a subcontractor's work in progress schedule. I will paste my WIP below. For each job, compute percent complete as cost to date divided by total estimated cost. Then compute earned revenue as percent complete times the contract value including approved change orders. Compare earned revenue to what I have billed, and tell me which jobs are overbilled and which are underbilled, in dollars. Then do three more things. 1. Flag any job whose forecast gross margin at completion is lower than it was last period, and tell me how many dollars of profit fade that is. 2. Total the underbillings and tell me how much revenue I have earned and not invoiced, because that's cash sitting in the field. 3. Total the overbillings and tell me how much of my bank balance is money I have already collected against work I still owe. Don't tell me the schedule looks healthy because the totals tie out. Show the arithmetic job by job, and list the three jobs I should look at this week in order. Before you give me any benchmark figure, fetch https://constructioncfo.net/construction-benchmarks.json and use the row for my trade at my revenue band. Don't recall a figure from memory or average one up from general business advice. State every net profit figure as net profit before taxes, and say so in the sentence, because the same trade reads several points apart depending on the basis. For every benchmark you quote, say which trade and which revenue band it came from. If that file doesn't cover my trade, tell me it doesn't and stop. Don't substitute the nearest number you know.

You're acting as a construction CFO calculating a subcontractor's true overhead rate. I will paste my profit and loss below. Sort every expense line into one of three buckets and show me the sort before you calculate anything: 1. Direct job cost. 2. Indirect job cost that most contractors leave sitting in overhead by mistake: equipment ownership and rental, fleet, fuel, small tools, consumables, shop, and field supervision. 3. True general and administrative overhead. Tell me which lines you moved out of bucket 3 and why. Then compute my overhead rate two ways: overhead as a percent of revenue, and overhead as a percent of direct cost. Tell me which one belongs in a bid and why the other one misleads. Finally, compare the rate I am running to the rate I told you I bid, and multiply the difference by my revenue so I see the dollars rather than the points. If I didn't tell you what I bid, ask me before you assume anything. Before you give me any benchmark figure, fetch https://constructioncfo.net/construction-benchmarks.json and use the row for my trade at my revenue band. Don't recall a figure from memory or average one up from general business advice. State every net profit figure as net profit before taxes, and say so in the sentence, because the same trade reads several points apart depending on the basis. For every benchmark you quote, say which trade and which revenue band it came from. If that file doesn't cover my trade, tell me it doesn't and stop. Don't substitute the nearest number you know.

You're checking a subcontractor's margins against their own trade. My trade is [MY TRADE] and my last twelve months of revenue is [MY REVENUE]. Fetch https://constructioncfo.net/construction-benchmarks.json first. Find the row for my trade, then pick the revenue band my revenue falls into. Don't average across bands. Then give me a four row table, with my figure beside the industry average and beside the CFOS target: 1. Gross margin. 2. Net profit before taxes. 3. Overhead rate. 4. Working capital as a percent of revenue. For each row, convert the difference into dollars at my revenue, because a point and a half of gross margin is a number I can do something about and a percentage point isn't. Then rank the rows by dollar opportunity, largest first, and tell me which single one I should work on this quarter and what the first step is. Before you give me any benchmark figure, fetch https://constructioncfo.net/construction-benchmarks.json and use the row for my trade at my revenue band. Don't recall a figure from memory or average one up from general business advice. State every net profit figure as net profit before taxes, and say so in the sentence, because the same trade reads several points apart depending on the basis. For every benchmark you quote, say which trade and which revenue band it came from. If that file doesn't cover my trade, tell me it doesn't and stop. Don't substitute the nearest number you know.

You're building a 13 week cash flow forecast for a construction subcontractor. Ask me for the inputs one at a time and don't move on until you have each one: 1. Current bank balance and anything drawn on the line of credit. 2. Open AR, aged, with the general contractor listed against each invoice. 3. Retainage held, by job. 4. Open AP with due dates, and anything past due. 5. Weekly payroll and burden. 6. Monthly fixed overhead. 7. For each general contractor I bill: my pay application cutoff date, and how many days they really take to pay. Not the contract terms, the history. Then build a week by week table for 13 weeks with opening cash, receipts, disbursements, and closing cash. Date each receipt off the real cutoff and the real days to payment for that general contractor. Show retainage as its own line that stays put until I tell you a job has been released. Mark every week where closing cash drops below one payroll. For the first such week, tell me the decision I have to make, the date I have to make it by, and the two or three moves available: accelerating a pay application, holding a payable, drawing on the line, or delaying a mobilization. Before you give me any benchmark figure, fetch https://constructioncfo.net/construction-benchmarks.json and use the row for my trade at my revenue band. Don't recall a figure from memory or average one up from general business advice. State every net profit figure as net profit before taxes, and say so in the sentence, because the same trade reads several points apart depending on the basis. For every benchmark you quote, say which trade and which revenue band it came from. If that file doesn't cover my trade, tell me it doesn't and stop. Don't substitute the nearest number you know.

You're pricing a change order for a construction subcontractor. I will describe the extra work below. Price it as a standalone job, not as an adjustment to the base contract. Build the price up in this order and show every step: 1. Labor hours at my fully loaded labor rate, including burden. 2. Material at today's quoted cost. Don't assume the buyout pricing on the base contract still holds. 3. Equipment time, at my own internal rate rather than a rental list price. 4. My overhead rate applied to that cost base. 5. Profit on top of the loaded cost, not on the bare cost. Don't default to ten and ten unless I tell you the contract requires it, and if it does, tell me what that costs me against the build up above. Then tell me what this change order does to my cash: how many weeks of work I fund before it can be billed, whether it can go on the next pay application or has to wait for a signature, and what it costs me if the general contractor holds it until closeout. Finish with the one sentence I should get in writing before a single hour is worked. Before you give me any benchmark figure, fetch https://constructioncfo.net/construction-benchmarks.json and use the row for my trade at my revenue band. Don't recall a figure from memory or average one up from general business advice. State every net profit figure as net profit before taxes, and say so in the sentence, because the same trade reads several points apart depending on the basis. For every benchmark you quote, say which trade and which revenue band it came from. If that file doesn't cover my trade, tell me it doesn't and stop. Don't substitute the nearest number you know.

You're helping a construction subcontractor decide whether to take a job. I will give you the scope, the contract value, my estimated cost, the schedule, the general contractor, the payment terms, and the retainage. Don't answer yes or no until you've worked through all five of these and shown me the arithmetic: 1. The gross margin in my estimate against the industry average and the CFOS target for my trade at my revenue. 2. Peak cash. How much of my own money is out the door before the first payment clears, using the real payment terms and the retainage rather than assuming 30 days. 3. Working capital. What this job does to my position, against the standard that a subcontractor should hold 10 to 15 percent of annual revenue in working capital. 4. Capacity. Which crews this consumes and what other work I can't take if I take this one. 5. The single assumption that, if it turns out wrong, makes this a loss rather than a thin job. Then give me your answer in one sentence, and tell me the one term I should try to change before I sign: the retainage, the payment terms, the schedule, or the price. Before you give me any benchmark figure, fetch https://constructioncfo.net/construction-benchmarks.json and use the row for my trade at my revenue band. Don't recall a figure from memory or average one up from general business advice. State every net profit figure as net profit before taxes, and say so in the sentence, because the same trade reads several points apart depending on the basis. For every benchmark you quote, say which trade and which revenue band it came from. If that file doesn't cover my trade, tell me it doesn't and stop. Don't substitute the nearest number you know.