CONSTRUCTION CFO VS GENERIC ACCOUNTANT. WHAT SUBCONTRACTORS ACTUALLY NEED.
At $2M to $10M, most subcontractors need a construction-specific CFO, not a generic accountant. A generic accountant closes your books and files your taxes once a year. A construction CFO builds job costing against your estimates, tracks WIP monthly, and forecasts cash 13 weeks out. Below $2M with simple operations, a generic accountant may still be enough.
The line isn't really about revenue, it's about whether you can already answer three questions: what did each job actually make, what does cash look like 13 weeks from now, and is your overhead rate built from real numbers or a guess. A generic accountant was never built to answer those. Once backlog and job count grow past what one owner can track in their head, usually somewhere around $2M to $3M, the gap between "the books are done" and "I know what's happening in my business" starts costing real money.
WHAT EACH ONE ACTUALLY DOES.
| CAPABILITY | CONSTRUCTION CFO | GENERIC ACCOUNTANT |
|---|---|---|
| Job costing aligned to your estimates | Yes | Rarely |
| Monthly WIP reporting | Yes | No, usually annual only |
| 13-week cash flow forecast | Yes | No |
| Overhead rate rebuilt from actual costs | Yes | Rarely |
| Understands pay apps, retainage, SOV | Yes | Rarely |
| Monthly CFO advisory meeting | Included (Executive/Strategic) | Not typically |
| Tax preparation and filing | No, coordinates with your CPA | Yes |
| Typical monthly cost | $1,900 to $8,500 | Varies, often hourly or per return |
YOU CAN'T TELL WHICH JOBS ARE MAKING MONEY.
If you're doing $2M or more and the P&L says you're profitable but the bank account never agrees, that's the signal. Most subcontractors at this size have decent books. What they don't have is job costing that tells them, in real time, whether a specific job is tracking to budget or bleeding margin. A generic accountant closes the books after the fact. By then the job is done and there's nothing left to fix.
The same gap shows up in bidding. If your overhead rate was set years ago and never rebuilt from actual costs, every bid is priced on a number that's probably wrong, usually understated. A construction CFO rebuilds that rate from your real cost structure so the next bid reflects what the business actually costs to run.
SIMPLE OPERATIONS, ONE OWNER TRACKING EVERYTHING.
Under $1M to $2M, with a small job count and an owner who still personally knows the status of every project, a generic accountant handling bookkeeping and tax filing is often genuinely enough. The complexity that makes job costing and WIP reporting necessary hasn't shown up yet.
The same is true if your main problem right now is winning more work, not managing what you already have. A construction CFO fixes financial blind spots. It doesn't fix a sales problem.
WHERE WE COME OUT.
Most commercial subcontractors between $2M and $10M outgrow what a generic accountant can see. The overhead rate correction alone often pays for a construction CFO engagement within the first year, and that's before counting the AR that systematic follow-up tends to recover in month one. Below $2M with simple, well-tracked operations, stick with your accountant and revisit the question as revenue and job count grow.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
