CONSTRUCTION WIP MEETING BEST PRACTICES.
A WIP meeting only works if it happens monthly, includes both the financial owner and whoever manages each job day to day, and walks every active job individually asking why it moved the way it did since last month. A WIP report emailed around with no discussion catches almost nothing. The meeting is where variance gets explained and corrected.
A WIP report shows the numbers. A WIP meeting asks why the numbers moved, and that question is where the diagnostic value is. Nobody reading a spreadsheet alone knows that the cost to complete on job four went up because a crew got pulled for two weeks, or that the overbilled position on job seven is a change order billed before the cost was recorded in the books. The person who knows is the one managing the job, so the meeting exists to put that person in the same room as the number.
Rather talk it through first? Book a 20 minute call. Nothing gets sold on this call.
Want it set up for you? Onboarding only, from $4,500 one time. Books migrated and job costing built, then your own team keeps it up.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A WIP meeting is a monthly working session where the person who owns the financials and the people who manage the jobs walk every active job and explain why its numbers moved since last month.
THREE THINGS SUBS BELIEVE.
We email the WIP report around, and that counts as review
A report with no discussion rarely gets read closely enough to catch the specific variance causing a number, because nobody is asking why a job moved the way it did. The number gets seen and the cause doesn't, which means the correction never happens and the same number moves again next month.
We only pull everyone together when a bonding renewal is coming up
Reviewing WIP only around a renewal misses months of gradual change that could have been caught and corrected earlier. The habit needs to be monthly rather than event based, because a cost to complete that changed in February is cheap to fix in March and expensive to fix in July.
Our project managers don't need to be in the WIP meeting, that's a finance thing
Project managers hold the operational context, meaning what happened on the job, and that context is what explains why the numbers moved. Without them in the room the finance side is left guessing at the why, and a guess in the WIP becomes a wrong cost to complete next month.
HOW THE MEETING WORKS.
At minimum, the person who owns the financials, whether that's a controller or a CFO, plus the project managers or superintendents who manage the jobs day to day. Financial numbers need operational context to be read correctly, and that context only exists in the field.
Walk every active job individually and ask three questions on each one. Has the overbilled or underbilled position changed since last month, and why? Is the cost to complete estimate still accurate? Are there change orders performed but not yet billed, or billed but not yet reflected in cost? Those three questions cover most of what goes unseen in a WIP.
Action items get tracked and closed out before the next meeting, whether that's a cost to complete update or a change order to file. A meeting that raises issues and never resolves them turns into the report nobody reads, just with more people in the room.
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. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote.
| Last 12 months revenue | Core | Strategic | Platinum | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 | $3,100 | $3,300 | $2,500 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 | $4,100 | $5,300 | $4,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 | $5,900 | $8,300 | $6,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 | $7,600 | $11,800 | $7,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 | $8,900 | $14,900 | $9,000 |
| Above $12.5M | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted |
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, and it moves with your revenue band. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Just want the setup? Onboarding only is the same onboarding work with no monthly service after it, one time, at the onboarding fee plus $2,000. Start a monthly engagement later and $2,000 counts toward it. It starts at $4,500, and the price for every band is on the pricing page.
The three tier columns are the whole price. Which one fits 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.
- Online software only: QuickBooks, Sage, Viewpoint and similar. No VPN or hosted desktop.
- Not in any tier: payroll, pay applications, collections on receivables.
- Pricing valid through 2027.
CFO work. Your own bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
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.
Core, plus bookkeeping and bank reconciliations, plus job costing and WIP software set up and managed for you. Use your own online accounting software or we supply it, one price.
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.
Strategic, plus a controller who handles payables and receivables the way an in-house controller would. You approve every payment.
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.
