INTERIORS OVERHEAD RATE BENCHMARKS.
Interiors contractors average about 13% overhead rate at $1M to $5M, rising to roughly 12% at $5M to $10M. The CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 12%, set a point leaner than your trade's average at your revenue. The point we take off is the easy one: overhead you're paying for and haven't costed to a job. The harder work is knowing the rate to the month and loading it into the bid, because a rate set a year ago is wrong in both directions.
A 13 percent overhead rate is already lean for a trade that manages other trades, and the point down to 12 is worth $10,000 on a $1M year and $50,000 on a $5M year. So the point comes out of unbilled management and not out of the office. Managing drywall, flooring, painting, and ceiling trades as a package is general contracting work, and the buyout tracking, punch coordination, and draw assembly behind it are hours no line item pays for. The trade should reach 10 percent by $25M to $50M, and getting there means the package management fee is in the bid and not in the overhead.
How to calculate your overhead rate: Total overhead divided by Total Revenue, times 100. Overhead is every cost not attributable to a job: office staff, rent, insurance, software, vehicles not charged to work, and owner salary. It moves every month with revenue, which is why a rate set a year ago is wrong in both directions.
INTERIORS FINANCIAL BENCHMARKS. WHERE YOU SHOULD BE.
| METRIC | INDUSTRY AVERAGE | CFOS TARGET | AT $10M TO $25M | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead Rate ($1M to $5M) | 13% | 12% | 11% | Industry figure rises to 12% at $5M to $10M and 11% at $10M to $25M. |
| Gross Margin ($1M to $5M) | 19% | 22% | 22% | Full detail on the gross margin page. |
| Net Profit Margin ($1M to $5M) | 6% | 10% | 11% | Full detail on the net profit margin page. |
| 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 how the interiors figures were built.
Cite as: Run On CFOS. Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference: Interiors. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Operations, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/interior. 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 Overhead Rates 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.
