THE FIELD KNOWS THE TRUTH. ACCOUNTING FINDS OUT LATER.
The foreman knows the job is running over on labor three weeks before the accounting system does. The PM knows a subcontractor is 10 days late before the invoice reaches AP. The super knows the crew switched to a slower work method the day it happened. None of that information reaches the financial reports until invoices are processed, timecards are entered, and books are closed, which in most construction companies happens once a month, 2 to 6 weeks after the fact.
This isn't an accounting failure. It's a structural distance between two information systems that were never built to talk to each other. The field works as the day happens and accounting works on a monthly cycle. Companies that close that distance, through weekly bookkeeping, production tracking, and field sourced cost entry, manage margin while there's still job left to manage. The ones that don't manage from the rear view mirror, one job close surprise at a time. Neither group has better people. One of them has a shorter reporting lag.
WHAT IT MEANS.
The job cost reporting lag is the stretch of weeks between when the field knows a job is running over and when the financial reports show it.
Without a pending change order flag, every verbally directed scope addition hits the original budget and makes the job look like it's running over. PMs learn to distrust the job cost report, and when they stop trusting it they stop using it, which makes the whole reporting system worthless. That's the real cost of the lag: not a wrong number, but a report nobody opens.
The billing window closes too. Thirty days after verbal direction is the typical contractual deadline for change order submission. If the cost isn't flagged as a change order opportunity in the field report within 2 weeks, the leverage is gone and the work gets built for free.
THREE TIMING LAGS ON EVERY JOB.
Labor cost entry is always behind
Timecards get submitted weekly and payroll processes on a 1 to 2 week lag. By the time labor cost from week 1 of the month appears in the job cost report, you're in week 4 or beyond. A crew running 30% over the estimated production rate has been doing it for 3 to 4 weeks before anybody in accounting sees it, and the foreman has known since day 3. Weekly timecard entry into ControlQore, matched to production quantities, brings that down to 5 to 7 days.
Vendor and subcontractor invoices come in late and coded wrong
A material delivery happens on site in week 2 and the supplier invoice comes in 3 to 5 weeks later. The AP clerk codes it to the job number printed on the invoice, which may or may not match the cost code where the material was used. By the time that cost reaches the job report, the work it supported is done, the phase is closed, and the cost sits under a code that tells you nothing useful. Purchase orders tied to job cost codes before the material ships settle the coding at entry instead of five weeks later when nobody remembers which phase it was for.
Change order costs hit before change order billing is approved
The GC directs additional work verbally on Tuesday, the crew does it Wednesday and Thursday, and the labor cost hits the timecards. The superintendent submits a change order request Friday, the GC responds in 2 to 3 weeks, and the approval or denial comes in week 5 or 6. In the meantime the cost sits in the job cost report against a budget that doesn't include the change order scope, so the job looks like it's running over when it's running change order work against the original budget. Without a pending change order flag in the job cost system, the financial picture is distorted for weeks at a time on every active job with open change orders.
Decisions get made on 6 week old numbers
An owner reviewing job cost reports in month 3 of a 6 month project is looking at month 2's reality. The crew change that happened in week 9 won't appear in the numbers until week 13. Every decision made in that window rests on outdated information, including the decision to leave things alone.
WHAT CLOSES THE DISTANCE.
Weekly bookkeeping brings the reporting lag from 4 to 6 weeks down to 5 to 7 days. Purchase orders tied to cost codes at creation take the guesswork out of AP entry, and pending change order flags keep directed work visible separately from the original budget until it's approved or denied. PM review within 5 days of close checks the numbers against what happened on the job. The combination produces a job cost report the PMs will open and use, which is the only kind that changes anything.
THE OUTPUTS, NAMED.
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, and no add-ons.
Pricing
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
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.
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 rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
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 job costing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
