WHAT YOUR NET PROFIT COSTS YOU, IN DOLLARS.
Pick your trade, put in your annual revenue, and see gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes as your trade's industry average and the CFOS target, in dollars a year.
THE GAP CALCULATOR. AVERAGE AGAINST TARGET, IN DOLLARS.
Pick your trade and put in your annual revenue. You get gross margin, overhead and net profit for your trade at your size: the industry average and the CFOS target, in dollars a year. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Your figures show here once you put in your revenue.
Why aim for the target. An average is the middle of the pack: about half of companies do worse. And about 6 in 10 construction businesses close within 10 years (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: about 40 percent of construction businesses opened in 2013 were still open in 2023). So the business in the middle is one of the ones that close. On those numbers, average is a business that closes within 10 years. That is why the CFOS target is a requirement.
Want your own numbers against these? The Financial Health Snapshot builds a CEO Report from your last 12 months and sets every figure against your trade, or compare your numbers with Josh on a 20 minute call.
TWO PICKS. THREE NUMBERS IN DOLLARS.
Net profit is gross margin minus overhead, before taxes. The calculator finds your revenue band ($1M to $5M, $5M to $10M, $10M to $25M), reads your trade's average and the CFOS target for that band from Run On CFOS Trade Benchmark Reference, and multiplies each one by your revenue. The net profit difference between average and target, in dollars a year, is what the target is worth at your size.
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.
EVERY FIGURE, BAND BY BAND.
The figures behind the calculator for each trade, with the sources. Each page has the same calculator set to that trade.
- Acoustic Ceiling benchmarks
- Bridge benchmarks
- Civil and Excavating benchmarks
- Concrete benchmarks
- Concrete Flatwork benchmarks
- Concrete Pumping benchmarks
- Curtain Wall and Glazing benchmarks
- Demolition benchmarks
- Drywall benchmarks
- EIFS and Stucco benchmarks
- Electrical benchmarks
- Elevator benchmarks
- Environmental Remediation benchmarks
- Excavation benchmarks
- Fiber benchmarks
- Fire Alarm benchmarks
- Fire Protection benchmarks
- Flooring benchmarks
- Framing benchmarks
- Grading benchmarks
- HVAC benchmarks
- Insulation benchmarks
- Interiors benchmarks
- Irrigation benchmarks
- Landscaping benchmarks
- Low Voltage and AV benchmarks
- Marine benchmarks
- Masonry benchmarks
- Mechanical benchmarks
- Painting benchmarks
- Paving benchmarks
- Plumbing benchmarks
- Precast Concrete benchmarks
- Process Piping benchmarks
- Roofing benchmarks
- Scaffolding benchmarks
- Security Systems benchmarks
- Siding benchmarks
- Sitework benchmarks
- Solar benchmarks
- Structural Steel benchmarks
- SWPPP and Erosion Control benchmarks
- Tank and Vessel benchmarks
- Telecom benchmarks
- Tile & Stone benchmarks
- Tunnel benchmarks
- Underground Utility benchmarks
- Waterproofing benchmarks
