CONCRETE · JOB COSTING SOFTWARE

CONTROLQORE FOR CONCRETE CONTRACTORS.

Generic accounting software can't track labor cost per yard by pour, show which GC relationship is profitable, or flag a job trending toward a loss in week three. ControlQore can.

QUICK ANSWER

ControlQore for concrete contractors uses cost codes by pour phase, meaning formwork, rebar, pump, placement by pour, and finishing, to track labor cost per yard, material cost against budget, and equipment cost by job. GC relationship profitability is visible by grouping job results. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete. SOV structure is reviewed and recommended before each new contract is signed.

The difference isn't the software's report list. It's when you find out. A concrete P&L tells you the month was fine or it wasn't, and by then the pour is finished and the crew is on the next job. Cost codes built by pour phase turn the same labor hours into a rate per cubic yard you can read in week two, against the rate you bid. That's early enough to change crew size, change the method, or open a change order conversation while the GC still has a reason to listen.

BY JOSH LUEBKERPublished 2026-08-06Updated 2026-08-07
WHAT IT SEES

THE NUMBERS GENERIC SOFTWARE MISSES.

By Pour
Cost Code Structure for Concrete Work
Weekly
Labor Cost Per Yard vs. Estimate
GC Level
Profitability Grouped by Relationship
Monthly
WIP Schedule From Actual Data
THE DEFINITION

WHAT IT IS.

ControlQore is a job costing and WIP platform for contractors that tracks cost by job and cost code, so a concrete subcontractor can see labor cost per cubic yard by pour phase while the pour is still running.

WHAT YOU ARE DEALING WITH

WHERE IT GOES WRONG.

01

No Labor Cost Per Yard Visibility

QuickBooks job tracking shows total labor cost by job. ControlQore shows labor cost per cubic yard by pour phase, weekly, compared to the estimated rate from the bid. When a pour is running at $52/yard against an estimate of $38/yard in week two, there's still time to adjust crew size, change methods, or start a change order conversation. At closeout, all of that time is already spent.

02

GC Relationships Blended Into One P&L

A concrete contractor working with four GCs at 28%, 22%, 18%, and 9% gross margin respectively sees a blended P&L of approximately 20%. The 9% GC is consuming crew capacity that the 28% GC could use. Without job costing grouped by GC, the decision about where to direct capacity gets made on relationship history and gut feel rather than data.

03

SOV Accepted Without Review

Concrete subcontractors who accept GC-drafted schedules of values without review are accepting SOV structures that underbill formwork, rebar, and mobilization, which are the most cash-intensive early phases, and push value back to later milestones. On a $600,000 concrete contract, a poorly structured SOV can create a $60,000 to $120,000 cash hole in the first 60 days.

HOW SPM SETS IT UP

WHAT WE BUILD.

Cost Codes by Pour Phase in ControlQore

SPM builds ControlQore cost codes for concrete clients by pour phase: mobilization, formwork and shoring, rebar and reinforcing, concrete pump, concrete placement by pour, finishing, and cleanup. Labor, material, and equipment post to the correct phase. Weekly actual labor cost per yard is calculated from phase cost codes and compared to the estimated rate. Variance over 10% triggers a review.

GC Relationship Profitability Report Monthly

ControlQore job attributes include which GC the job belongs to. Monthly reporting groups job results by GC, so you see gross margin by relationship, average days to payment, and open change orders. After six months the ranking is obvious. Concrete contractors who go through this analysis redirect 20% to 30% of capacity from low-margin GC relationships to high-margin ones, which is the same revenue at a meaningfully better margin.

SOV Review Before Every New Contract

SPM reviews every new concrete subcontract SOV before signing and recommends front-loading adjustments: a mobilization line item at 5% to 8% of contract value, formwork and rebar billable at installation, and pump mobilization as a separate line. The review takes one meeting. The cash flow benefit applies for the full duration of the project.

Monthly WIP From Pour-Level Job Costing

The WIP schedule for concrete clients is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete by job. Underbilled positions, meaning work performed but not yet billed, are visible immediately and trigger a corrected pay app. Overbilled positions, meaning billed more than the work performed, flag jobs where billing has outrun real progress. You see both before either one becomes a problem.

PROOF · CLIENT OUTCOME

REAL NUMBERS, REAL RESULTS.

Concrete Contractor · $4.9M Revenue

This contractor had no job costing system at all: a P&L only, no per-job visibility, and no labor cost per yard tracking. The overhead rate in use was 5% when the real number was 12%. GC relationships were indistinguishable inside the blended P&L.

$203,000
Collected in AR in the first 7 days of engagement
5% to 12%
Overhead rate corrected immediately
$130,000
Profit sharing paid within 12 months
$10.7M+
Client AR Recovered Since 2023
48
Active Trade Specializations
60 DAYS
Average Onboarding Time
PRICING

FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SOFTWARE INVOICE.

Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. ControlQore comes with Strategic, and it never appears as its own line item on an SPM invoice. Which tier you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk.

Last 12 months revenueMonthly 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.

Core

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.

Executive

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.

Strategic

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.

COMMON QUESTIONS

FREQUENTLY ASKED.

SPM builds pour-phase cost codes in ControlQore. Foremen log hours by pour at the end of each day. ControlQore calculates burdened labor cost for those hours and divides by the cubic yards placed in that period. The result, actual labor cost per yard, is compared weekly to the estimated rate from the bid. You see the variance in week two rather than at closeout.
Yes. SPM configures the GC as a job attribute in ControlQore. Monthly reporting groups all closed and in-progress jobs by GC and reports gross margin, average days to payment, and open change orders by relationship. After six months of data, the profitability ranking of each GC relationship is clear and driven by numbers rather than memory.
ControlQore is configured with the same SOV line items as the subcontract: mobilization, formwork, rebar, placement by pour, and finishing. Pay app billings post against those line items. When a line item is billed at a percentage that runs ahead of the cost incurred as a percentage of total estimated cost for that phase, the WIP flags it as overbilled.
60 days from engagement start to live job costing with WIP reporting. The concrete-specific setup covers the pour-phase cost code build, GC attribute configuration, SOV structure alignment, and historical data migration from QuickBooks. Most concrete clients are fully operational in ControlQore within 60 days.
Three tiers, and which one you are in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. Core is where you stop guessing: job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a monthly meeting that ends in decisions, while your bookkeeper keeps doing the books. Executive is where you stop touching the books, because we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Strategic is where every job shows its margin while it is still running, because the job costing and WIP platform is set up and managed for you. No payroll. No scope gaps.
WHAT THIS TIES INTO
Josh Luebker, The Construction CFO
Josh Luebker
FRACTIONAL CFO · THE CONSTRUCTION CFO

Former commercial project manager and master electrician: 150+ projects worth $2.1B combined, from $50,000 to $300M. Now fractional CFO to commercial subcontractors.

WANT TO SEE THIS ON YOUR OWN CONCRETE JOBS?

Bring one open concrete job and your last full year. We will show you what the cost codes would look like and where the current numbers are wrong before we talk about working together.

You don't hire a CFO because it's safe, you do it because the real risk isn't having one.
Book a 20 minute diagnostic

20 minutes. No sales pressure. We will tell you exactly what's broken before we talk about anything else.

OR START WITH THE WORKBOOKS. NO CALL NEEDED.