TELECOM GROSS MARGIN BENCHMARKS.
Telecom contractors average about 22% gross margin at $1M to $5M, rising to roughly 23% at $5M to $10M. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 24.5%, set at whatever gross margin produces that net profit once your overhead is paid, and never below your trade's own average. The distance between the average and the target is almost always overhead that was never loaded into the rate.
In telecom the windshield takes the two and a half points between the trade average and the target, and two and a half points is $25,000 on a $1M year and $125,000 on a $5M year. A truck and a tech cost the same amount whether the crew is producing or traveling, so crew-day utilization is the whole equation and access friction is what erodes it. Badging, escorts, and site releases are the specific culprits, and standby coded by cause is what turns them from a shrug into a customer-level margin report. Costing by customer after friction is the measurement, and it usually reveals one carrier subsidizing another.
How to calculate: Gross margin is Revenue minus Direct Job Costs, divided by Revenue, times 100. Direct job costs include labour, materials, equipment and subcontracted work tied to the job. Not shop overhead, office staff or G and A.
TELECOM FINANCIAL BENCHMARKS. WHERE YOU SHOULD BE.
| METRIC | INDUSTRY AVERAGE | CFOS TARGET | AT $10M TO $25M | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Margin ($1M to $5M) | 22% | 24.5% | 24% | Industry figure rises to 23% at $5M to $10M and 24% at $10M to $25M. |
| Overhead Rate ($1M to $5M) | 15% | 14% | 13% | Falls to 13% by $10M to $25M as fixed cost spreads over more revenue. |
| Days Sales Outstanding | 90 days | 45 days | 30 days | Ninety days is weak, 45 is the target, 30 is strong. Nothing else moves cash faster. |
Industry figures are the AVERAGE for the trade at each revenue band, from the Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference, not a floor. Net profit is stated after taxes. The CFOS target is what we build toward. The third column is what companies at $10M to $25M average, shown for direction of travel; that is a larger company, which is a different thing from a better managed one.
Gross margin and overhead come from figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish by trade and size, and they are before tax figures. Net profit starts from gross margin less overhead and is then adjusted for taxes and a few other expenses, so it is stated after taxes. It is published as its own average and is not calculated from the other two on the page.
CFMA reports net income before taxes, so a CFMA figure is higher than an after tax figure on the same business. CFMA's 2025 medians are 7.1 percent before interest and taxes and 6.7 percent net income before taxes. Read a net profit figure here against CFMA's with that difference in mind. The bands above the $10M to $25M band are published at runoncfos.com as a modeled extension of the same curves. They have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker, so read them as a model and not as a survey result.
Trade figures are from the Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference, published by Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. Net profit is stated after taxes. CFMA reports net income before taxes, so a CFMA figure is higher than an after tax figure on the same business. Re-validate against CFMA reporting on the normal quarterly cycle, per the benchmark reference's own instruction.
The reference itself is published at read the telecom reference in full. The method behind these numbers is set out at runoncfos.com.
Cite as: Run On CFOS. Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference: Telecom. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/telecom. CC BY 4.0.
- 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2024. 21.8% gross profit margin, 11.8% SG&A and 6.3% net income before taxes across all respondents, with a best-in-class top quartile at 11.9% net income before taxes.
- 2025 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Construction Financial Management Association, 2025. 6.7% net income before taxes (6.3% in 2023), a 7.1% EBIT margin and an 8.8% EBITDA margin at the median, with interest coverage of 30.4 times, across the 1,558 companies in the 2025 analysis (fiscal year 2024 results).
- 2025 Performance Benchmarks, Construction Companies, Jones Maresca and Company, 2025. Specialty contractor gross margin of 15% to 25%, net profit of 5% to 8% for a well managed company, and total indirect cost of 8% to 15%.
The same metric across every trade is published on Gross Margin by Trade, and the full dataset for all 48 trades across the published revenue bands is available as JSON and CSV, with one plain-language statement per row. Free to use with attribution.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Priced by trailing 12 month revenue. 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 do the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Your office stops answering coding questions and stops fixing a reconciliation that will not balance on the last day of the month.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it is still open.
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.
