FINANCIAL LEADERSHIP IS NOT BOOKKEEPING.
Construction financial leadership means owning the financial control system that governs how a subcontractor bids, bills, and collects, not just recording transactions after the fact. It requires job costing, cash flow forecasting, and WIP discipline built specifically around how construction gets paid.
A bookkeeper records what already happened. A generic CFO advises on financial strategy in the abstract. Neither one is leadership, because neither one is responsible for an outcome. Leadership means somebody is on the hook for the systems that decide whether a subcontractor's cash keeps up with its profit: cost codes tied to the estimate, a forecast built on the real billing cycle, and a WIP schedule checked against job cost data every month instead of drifting optimistic for a year. The test is simple. When the number is wrong, whose job was it to catch it?
WHAT IT MEANS.
Construction financial leadership is owning the financial control system that governs how a subcontractor bids, bills, and collects, rather than recording transactions after the fact.
The difference is ownership rather than opinion. Advice ends when the meeting ends. Ownership means the cost codes get built, the forecast gets updated, the WIP gets reconciled, and somebody carries the due date on each of those things whether or not the owner asks. That's the line between a service that reports and a service that runs the financial side of the business.
THE FOUR AREAS SOMEBODY HAS TO OWN.
Job costing tied to the estimate
Financial leadership means the cost codes used to track actual spend match the structure used to build the bid. When the two structures disagree, there's no way to measure what a job cost against what it was supposed to cost, because the estimate and the accounting are speaking different languages. Getting them onto one structure is the first piece of work, and everything downstream depends on it.
Cash flow built around the real billing cycle
A cash flow forecast that ignores pay app timing, retainage, and GC payment terms isn't useful. Leadership means building the forecast around how this specific business gets paid, including the approval delays, the retainage holds, and each GC's actual behavior. A generic template pulled from outside construction produces a number nobody can act on.
WIP discipline, checked monthly
Percentage of completion accounting can overstate earned revenue when the cost-to-complete estimates drift optimistic. Leadership means the WIP schedule gets checked against job cost reality every month instead of being trusted because it was right once. An unchecked WIP doesn't fail loudly. It reports profit that closeout then takes back.
Accountability with a due date
A monthly financial review that ends in observations isn't leadership. It ends in a specific action list with an owner and a date on every item, and the next meeting starts by reading last month's list back. That's the mechanism that turns analysis into a change in the business rather than a file somebody saved.
WHO OWNS WHAT.
A bookkeeper records transactions and reconciles accounts, and doesn't own the financial control system. The work is necessary and it's backward looking by design. Nothing about clean books tells you whether the next bid carries enough overhead.
A controller manages the accounting function and isn't typically responsible for strategic cash decisions. The books close on time and the reports come out. Which jobs to chase, what to charge, and when to hire are still the owner's problem to solve alone.
A general CFO may bring financial strategy and often lacks construction-specific job costing and WIP experience. The framework is sound in the abstract. It misses retainage mechanics, pay app cycles, and the way a cost-to-complete estimate decides what the P&L reports without anybody voting on it, because those are trade knowledge rather than accounting knowledge.
A fractional construction CFO combines financial leadership with trade-specific operational knowledge, which is what makes the two halves connect. The job costing structure gets built off your estimating structure, the forecast gets built off your GCs, and the monthly meeting ends in a list. For a subcontractor doing $1M to $12M, that's the same leadership a full-time hire brings at a fraction of the cost.
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.
| 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.
