CONTROLQORE FOR FIBER CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't read cost per foot and per splice by build type, track make-ready as its own pass-through against the utility's estimate, or tell you which completed units are waiting unbilled behind a closeout package. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for fiber contractors uses cost codes built to the MSA unit structure: aerial placement per foot, underground placement per foot by method, splicing per splice, drops per unit, restoration, and make-ready as its own pass-through code. Actual cost per foot and per splice is compared weekly to the unit price the work was bid at. Make-ready gets its own variance report, because the pole owner sets that price and the schedule behind it. Units are billed documentation-complete. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete.
Unit-price work looks simple until you try to read it. The MSA pays per foot and per splice. The carrier pays once the closeout audit clears. The crew got paid Friday. Cost codes cut to the same units the MSA pays on turn the week's hours into a cost per foot, by route and by build type. You check it against the price you agreed to. That number tells you whether the aerial route is funding the underground route, and whether both of them are funding a factoring company.
THE NUMBERS GENERIC SOFTWARE MISSES.
WHAT IT IS.
ControlQore is a job costing and WIP platform for contractors at $1M to $12M. It tracks cost by job and cost code. A fiber contractor can read actual cost per foot placed and per splice against the unit price in the MSA while the crew is still working that route.
Fiber nets 7 percent at $1M to $5M against a CFOS target of 10.5 percent, stated before taxes. Most of that distance is timing. The units are priced in the MSA, make-ready is priced by the utility, and labor is priced by the splicer market. The money that goes missing in this trade goes missing between the day the work is complete and the day the audit clears.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
No Cost Per Foot or Per Splice Against the MSA
Carrier and ISP master service agreements pay per unit: per foot placed, per splice, per home connected. Generic accounting gives you one total for the job. You can't tell whether the aerial route made money at the price you signed or whether splicing used it up. Fiber gross margin at $1M to $5M averages 22 percent against a CFOS target of 24.5 percent. So a route that works and one that doesn't are about two and a half points apart. Those points don't appear in a job total until the route is finished.
Make-Ready Priced and Scheduled by Someone Else
Make-ready is the pole owner's work: moving existing attachments, replacing poles and clearing space before fiber can attach. The utility prices it and schedules it, and you pay it up front. One outside plant construction director reported roughly a 300 percent increase in pole make-ready cost over five years. A pass-through growing like that, with no cost code and no variance report, cuts your margin. You find out at closeout, on somebody else's invoice.
Production Outrunning the Paperwork
Carrier work and BEAD work both hold payment until you deliver as-builts, GIS deliverables and audit-ready closeout packages. Those formats differ from commercial construction. When crews get ahead of the documentation, the footage is placed and the money isn't in the bank. Completed work you can't bill is inventory, and in this trade it's underground beneath a road. That's why fiber contractors end up talking to factoring companies. Crews and boring subs get paid weekly while the carrier waits on an audit.
BEAD Compliance Paid Ahead of the Revenue
The $42.45 billion BEAD program reached its deployment inflection in 2026, with construction under way and peak activity projected through 2030. Industry estimates put realistic payouts nearer $20 billion after the program was rewritten partway through. The work is real, and the compliance work comes first. That means Davis-Bacon certified payroll, insurance packages with 24 to 48 hour COI correction windows, GIS-format as-builts, and engineering timelines that punish a late start. Bid without pricing the compliance work and the mobilization float, and you're funding the program out of your own working capital.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM builds ControlQore cost codes to match how the MSA pays: aerial placement per foot, underground placement per foot by method, splicing per splice, drops per unit, restoration, and make-ready as its own pass-through. Labor, equipment and material post to the unit they were spent on. When a bucket crew and a directional drill work the same job, their costs stay separate. Aerial and underground economics have almost nothing in common, and a blended number describes neither.
Actual burdened cost per foot placed and per splice is compared weekly to the unit price in the MSA. Any unit code more than 10 percent over the bid price for two weeks in a row gets flagged. The detail tells you whether the cause is crew size, production per day, or a route quoted off thin engineering. Fixing the crew-per-mile math in week two is worth more than learning in month four that the route lost money.
Make-ready gets its own cost code, its own budget line from the utility's estimate and its own monthly variance report. When the pole owner's invoice comes in over that estimate, you see the overage on that job, apart from placement cost. That keeps it billable or claimable where the contract allows either. It's the least controllable and most inflationary line in aerial construction, so it never gets blended into anything else.
The invoice goes out when the closeout package is audit-ready: as-built, photos, test results, and the GIS deliverable in the carrier's format. ControlQore tracks units placed against units billed. Completed production with no package behind it is a list you can work through, before month end. Every unit billed without its package is a receivable waiting to be disputed. In this trade, daily as-builts are how you collect.
The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete. You see underbilled routes while there's still time to bill them, and overbilled routes before billing gets ahead of the work. The 13 week cash forecast puts the carrier's real payment calendar into the plan. So you make the funding decision before the week starts, and not on the first factoring call that comes in. Both reports read off the same job cost data as the weekly unit variance, so the monthly package and the weekly number always agree.
THE OUTPUTS, LISTED.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SOFTWARE INVOICE.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. ControlQore comes with Strategic and Platinum, 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.
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.
We build your plan every month. Your team does the work.
You get the CFO work: job costing built to match the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, WIP every month, and a monthly meeting that ends with decisions.
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.
We build the plan, track it and adjust it every month.
We only work with trade subcontractors. We know what to look for, and we fix problems while they're still small. 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 pay for it.
Our team does the bookkeeping and the reconciliations. We don't do payroll.
Strategic, plus a controller who handles payables and receivables the way an in-house controller would. You approve every payment.
We manage the money side for you, every week.
Everything in Strategic, plus our team does the controller work. We handle your bills and receivables the way an in-house controller would: we 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.
Our team does the payables and receivables. We don't do payroll, pay applications or collections.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
