CONTROLQORE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't report cost per load by disposal class, tell you whether the scope contingency or the bid contingency is the one you're spending, or hold a billing back until its manifest is signed. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for environmental remediation contractors builds cost codes around the two things that decide the job: disposal and the unknown. Disposal codes run by waste class and haul route, so actual cost per load is readable against the gate rate and mileage the bid assumed. Scope contingency and bid contingency get their own codes rather than being absorbed into direct cost, which is the only way to see how much of the unknown you've already spent. Loads are billable when the manifest is signed by generator, transporter, and facility, not before. Funding milestones for responsible parties, insurers, and public programs sit on the cash forecast, because the funding source decides the collection calendar. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete.
Remediation contractors at $1M to $5M net 6.5 percent before taxes on the SPM 48-trade dataset, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10 percent. Gross margin for this trade at the same revenue reads 23 percent, derived from the nearest comparable trade in that dataset rather than measured directly, so treat it as a reference point. This is the one trade where a job costing system is also risk control. CERCLA liability is strict, retroactive, and joint and several, and it reaches the contractor that releases what it was hired to contain: one published claim scenario involving crushed drums and an unreported release carried penalties over $6.1 million. Knowing what a load costs is the small half of the problem. Knowing every load left with its paper is the other half.
THE NUMBERS GENERIC SOFTWARE MISSES.
WHAT IT IS.
ControlQore is a job costing and WIP platform for contractors that tracks cost by job and cost code, so an environmental remediation contractor can read cost per load by disposal class and haul route while the site is still open, with both contingencies counted as they get consumed.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
Strict Liability With No Reserve Behind It
CERCLA liability is strict, retroactive, and joint and several, which means it can reach the contractor rather than only the party that polluted the site. In one published claim scenario a remedial action contractor inadvertently crushed several drums, released the contents, failed to notify EPA, and paid penalties exceeding $6.1 million with criminal and civil actions attached. Pollution liability coverage sized to the work, a release-notification protocol, and a funded incident reserve are operating requirements in this trade, and none of the three exist in a books-only accounting setup.
Disposal Cost Pooled Into One Expense Line
Characterization sets the waste class, the class sets the eligible facilities and the gate rate, and the haul distance to a permitted facility can dominate the job before a single hour of field labor is counted. When all of it posts to one disposal expense line, a job that ran over gives you no way to tell whether the class came back worse than characterized, the facility raised the gate rate, or the route was longer than bid. Three different problems, three different answers, one undifferentiated number.
Contingency Spent Without Anyone Counting It
Published remediation cost analysis is blunt about this: scope contingency runs 10 to 25 percent of direct cost, bid contingency runs 5 to 15 percent, and a proposal under 10 percent combined on a poorly characterized site is underscoped rather than competitive. Contingency absorbed into direct cost codes disappears the moment it's used, so nobody knows in week three that the unknown is already spent. Mismatched technology selection carries a documented 2 to 3 times re-remediation multiplier, and that multiplier is what the contingency was for.
Loads Billed Ahead of Their Manifests
The manifest trail with generator, transporter, and facility signatures is both the compliance record and the substantiation for the billing. A load hauled without its completed paper is a liability in transit rather than a receivable, and it's the kind of exposure that surfaces in an audit long after the job closed. When billing runs off a haul count in a field notebook instead of off signed manifests, the two records diverge and the difference is discovered by somebody else.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM builds ControlQore disposal codes for remediation clients by waste class, with the receiving facility and the haul route as job attributes underneath them. Gate charges, transportation, and loading labor post to the class that generated them. Actual cost per load is calculated from those codes and compared to the gate rate and mileage the estimate assumed, with the date the rate was quoted on the record. When a class comes back worse than characterized, the cost effect is a number the same month rather than a surprise at closeout.
Scope contingency and bid contingency are set up as separate cost codes in ControlQore, sized against the quality of the Phase II characterization rather than by habit. Every draw on either one posts to it with a reason, so the report answers a question the P&L can't: how much of the unknown is left. On a well characterized site the codes tighten. On a poorly characterized one they stay wide, and the estimate says so out loud instead of pretending the risk is smaller than it is.
SPM configures ControlQore so a load is billable when its manifest is complete, meaning generator, transporter, and facility signatures are all in place. Hauls without completed paper sit in a held status where they're visible, counted, and chased before the pay application goes out. That keeps the billing and the compliance record telling the same story, which is the whole point of a manifest trail, and it stops the slow accumulation of loads nobody can substantiate.
Constrained sites carry structural premiums that averaged pricing destroys. Security, coordination, and safety protocols on airport-class work add 20 to 40 percent to standard costs, and urban sites restrict access and working hours while adding a community-relations load that rural sites never carry. SPM codes those conditions per job in ControlQore so each one builds its own cost history. After a few jobs the estimate has a friction factor by site type instead of one blended production rate that's wrong in both directions.
Contractor pollution liability premiums, the notification protocol, and a funded incident reserve are costs of doing this work at all, so they belong in the overhead rate the estimate uses and not in a surprise line at year end. SPM builds them into the overhead calculation in ControlQore and reviews the reserve against the exposure the current backlog carries. Technology selection gets the same treatment, because matched technology can cut lifecycle cost 40 to 60 percent and the history to choose correctly only exists if the last job was coded properly.
Remediation money comes from responsible parties, insurers including decades-old general liability policies, state funds, and federal programs, and every one of those has its own approval calendar the contractor doesn't control. SPM maps the funding path before mobilization, bills against reporting and approval milestones, and puts those dates on the 13 week cash forecast. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete, so underbilled positions trigger a corrected billing and overbilled positions are visible while the project still has years of reporting left to run.
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.
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.
