FRACTIONAL CFO FOR ARKANSAS CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTORS.
Arkansas subcontractors run into the same core problems as anywhere else, plus ARDOT and municipal pay cycles that stretch to 60 to 90 days and mechanic's lien and bond claim deadlines that run on a strict calendar. SPM is headquartered in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas, so this isn't a remote engagement covering the state from somewhere else. We run CFOS for Arkansas commercial subcontractors doing $1M to $12M across all 24 served trades.
Two things make Arkansas different from a big metro market, and neither one is the accounting. The first is who pays you and how slowly, because public highway and utility work through ARDOT and local agencies runs about double the private GC cycle. The second is how concentrated your customer list is, because in a smaller regional market one slow-paying GC puts far more weight on your bank balance than it would in Dallas or Atlanta. Both of those are forecasting and collections problems, and both of them get worse when the lien calendar is nobody's job to watch.
WHAT IT MEANS.
An Arkansas construction CFO is a fractional CFO who runs a commercial subcontractor's job costing, cash forecasting, and billing against the specific conditions Arkansas subs work under, meaning ARDOT and municipal pay cycles of 60 to 90 days and mechanic's lien and bond claim deadlines that run on a strict calendar.
THREE THINGS THAT MAKE IT HARDER HERE.
ARDOT and municipal pay cycles run 60 to 90 days
Arkansas public highway and utility work through ARDOT and local agencies pays in 60 to 90 days, which is roughly double typical private GC terms of 30 days. A cash forecast built on private-sector assumptions will overstate available cash on every public job the business runs. The work is profitable and the calendar is the problem, so the forecast has to account for the public cycle by project rather than one blended payment assumption.
Lien and bond claim deadlines run on a tight calendar
Mechanic's lien and payment bond claim deadlines in Arkansas are calendar-based and tied to when labor or materials were last furnished on the job. Missing a notice or filing window by a few days forfeits lien rights entirely on the unpaid invoice, which removes the only real leverage a sub has. Nobody misses these on purpose. They get missed because no single person owns the calendar.
A smaller market means fewer GCs to absorb a slow payer
In Arkansas's smaller regional market, a subcontractor works with fewer GCs and agencies than a sub in a large metro does, so revenue concentrates across a handful of relationships. That means one slow-paying GC puts disproportionate weight on cash flow, and the usual advice to just fire the bad payer costs more here than it does somewhere with fifty other GCs to bid to. The answer is forecasting the concentration and collecting on a schedule rather than replacing the customer.
WHAT WE BUILD FOR AN ARKANSAS SUB.
Every ARDOT or municipal job gets its own payment assumption in the 13-week forecast instead of one average across the portfolio. Weekly payroll on a 60 to 90 day collection cycle is the whole reason public work feels like it loses money when it doesn't. Seeing the specific weeks where the public jobs stop funding payroll is what makes the mobilization decision a choice instead of a surprise.
Every unpaid invoice gets its notice and filing dates tracked from the last date labor or materials were furnished, and the dates get reviewed monthly before they pass. This isn't legal work and it's not a substitute for your attorney. It's the tracking that makes sure your attorney gets called while the right to file still exists.
The cost codes get built to match how your estimator builds the bid, so actual cost can be measured against bid cost by line and not by job total. Once the two structures agree, a job going wrong surfaces in the first month rather than at closeout. That's the same build for an Arkansas sub as anywhere else, and it's the piece that has to exist before the rest of it means anything.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing. No payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 | $6,000 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 | $7,500 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 | $9,000 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually | Quoted individually |
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. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in 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.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions and never in a report.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Your office stops answering coding questions and stops chasing a reconciliation on the last day of the month.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the books, the job costing, and the software. No payroll.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
