YOUR PM OWNS THE SCHEDULE. WHO OWNS THE MARGIN?
Most construction project managers are evaluated on schedule, quality, and GC relationships. Those things count. But none of them protect margin. Margin gets protected by PMs who track cost to complete weekly, flag change orders before the work is done, and manage labor productivity against the estimate rather than against what the GC wants. CFOS installs margin ownership at the PM level as a standard operating procedure.
Nobody sets out to leave a PM unaccountable for profit. It happens because the PM has never been given a number he could act on. Schedule is easy to hold somebody to, since everyone can read a calendar. Margin is invisible unless somebody builds the report, teaches the PM to read it, and asks him about it every week in front of the owner. Do those three things and margin ownership stops being a values conversation and turns into a job description. Skip them and you're asking a man to defend something he can't see.
WHAT IT MEANS.
PM margin ownership is holding a project manager accountable for the profit on his jobs and not only the schedule, which means giving him the cost data and the authority to protect that profit week by week.
Schedule is table stakes. Margin ownership is what separates a PM who runs jobs from a PM who runs a business inside your business. Those two jobs use different reports, different meetings, and different conversations, and most subcontractors have only ever set up the first one.
WHY NOBODY OWNS THE MARGIN.
Schedule accountability doesn't protect margin
Most subcontractor PMs get reviewed on three things: did the project finish on time, did the GC call with complaints, and did the punchlist get resolved. All three are important and none of them protect margin. A job can finish on time and lose money. A project running three days behind schedule that caught a $40K change order early and managed labor to estimate is more profitable than one that finished on time with unlogged scope additions and a labor overrun nobody flagged.
Most PMs can't reach their own job cost data
When a PM wants to know where he stands against budget, he has to ask accounting, wait for a report, download something, and rework it. That process takes 2 to 5 days in most companies. By the time the number reaches him it describes a week that's already over. Real margin ownership requires same day access to actual against estimated cost, on the PM's own screen, without a ticket to accounting.
Change order timing is a PM accountability issue
The PM is standing on the job site when the GC directs additional scope, and he knows whether a CO is warranted before the work starts. If the CO doesn't go out within 48 hours of that direction, the window closes and the cost gets absorbed. That's a PM accountability failure rather than an accounting failure, which is worth saying out loud, because it almost always gets blamed on the office.
HOW IT GETS INSTALLED.
Every PM reviews his jobs' cost to complete every week: actual cost to date against estimate, projected cost to complete by line item, and projected margin at completion. This isn't a report pulled by accounting. It's the PM's own screen in ControlQore, updated from the weekly job cost entry the bookkeeper runs.
The change order gets initiated within 48 hours of GC direction, not at month end and not after the work is done. The PM knows whether scope changed, so the PM initiates the CO. Accounting prices it and formats it. The PM is accountable for the submission timing, and that single line of accountability recovers more money than any collections effort we have run.
In the monthly CEO Report meeting, each PM presents his open jobs' cost to complete to the owner. Every job in that meeting is still open, so the decisions in it still change the outcome. Where is each job trending, what risks sit in the next 30 days, and what COs are pending approval?
Labor hours are tracked by PM and by job against estimate. A PM whose jobs consistently run over on labor gets a coaching conversation about crew management, supervision ratios, and estimate review before the next bid goes out. That's a different event than a post mortem at job close, because it changes the next job instead of explaining the last one.
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.
