WATERPROOFING NET PROFIT MARGIN BENCHMARKS.
Waterproofing contractors average about 9% net profit margin at $1M to $5M, rising to roughly 11% at $5M to $10M. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 12.5%, set at 10 percent before taxes or 3.5 points better than your trade's industry average at your revenue, whichever is higher. The distance between the average and the target is almost always overhead that was never loaded into the rate.
In waterproofing the callback tail decides whether you keep the three and a half points between a 9 percent before tax net and a 12.5 percent target, worth $35,000 on a $1M year and $175,000 on a $5M year. Warranties commit crew hours in future years against revenue booked today, so a company without a per-job accrual spends every spring re-earning jobs it already sold. Detail-dense work is where the failures live, meaning terminations, penetrations, and transitions rather than the field of the membrane, and those are the hours worth measuring. A funded accrual plus a callback history by system is what separates a durable 9 percent from a number that reverses itself in year four.
Net profit margin formula: Net Profit divided by Total Revenue, times 100. Unlike gross margin this measures what survives after overhead and G and A. It's the number that funds owner draw, debt paydown and growth.
WATERPROOFING FINANCIAL BENCHMARKS. WHERE YOU SHOULD BE.
| METRIC | INDUSTRY AVERAGE | CFOS TARGET | AT $10M TO $25M | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net Profit Margin ($1M to $5M) | 9% | 12.5% | 13% | Industry figure rises to 11% at $5M to $10M and 13% at $10M to $25M. |
| Gross Margin ($1M to $5M) | 26% | 28.5% | 28% | Full detail on the gross margin page. |
| Overhead Rate ($1M to $5M) | 17% | 16% | 15% | Falls to 15% 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 before 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.
NET PROFIT MARGIN BY REVENUE BAND, $1M TO $25M
| REVENUE BAND | INDUSTRY AVERAGE | CFOS TARGET |
|---|---|---|
| $1M to $5M | 9% | 12.5% |
| $5M to $10M | 11% | 14.5% |
| $10M to $25M | 13% | 16.5% |
Below the waterproofing average on net profit margin? Bring your last P&L to a 20 minute call. Josh will tell you where the gap is and what closes it.
Compare my numbers on a callBenchmarks for subcontractors from $1M to $25M. This is a partial view of the Run On CFOS benchmark reference, which covers every band up to $500M and above. The full Run On CFOS benchmark reference is on runoncfos.com.
Gross margin and overhead come from figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish by trade and size. Net profit is computed, not surveyed: net profit = gross margin minus overhead. Nothing comes out for taxes, interest or other income and expense, so it is a before tax figure, on the same basis as CFMA's net income before taxes.
CFMA's 2025 medians are 7.1 percent before interest and taxes and 6.7 percent net income before taxes. Gross margin minus overhead leaves out interest and other income and expense, so a figure here can come in a little above or below a reported net income on the same business. 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 before taxes. CFMA reports net income before taxes too, so the two read on the same basis. Re-validate against CFMA reporting on the normal quarterly cycle, per the benchmark reference's own instruction.
The reference itself is published at the full waterproofing reference.
Cite as: Run On CFOS. Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference: Waterproofing. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/waterproofing. 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 Net Profit 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 to $3,300 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $5,300 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $8,300 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $11,800 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $14,900 | $6,000 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $17,650 | $7,500 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $22,400 | $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.
Every job shows its margin while it is still open.
Everything in Core, plus the bookkeeping and bank reconciliations done for you, and the job costing and WIP software set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed every month. Use your own online software, or move to ours and we cover it.
A bookkeeper we choose does the books and reconciliations. No payroll.
You approve, and the money side gets handled.
Everything in Strategic, plus a controller we choose who handles your bills and receivables for you the way an in-house controller would. They call vendors, pay the bills and keep the accounting current. We plan the cash flow first, and you approve every payment because it is your money.
A controller we choose does the payables and receivables. No payroll, no pay applications, no collections.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
