CONTROLQORE FOR LOW VOLTAGE AND AV CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't report labor cost per drop against the bid rate, compare production per drop by building type, or tell you which drops are tested and documented well enough to bill. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for low voltage and AV contractors builds the drop into the system as a defined unit, meaning pull, terminate, test, label, and document. The base drop count is logged at contract, actual labor cost per drop is compared weekly to the bid rate, and every added drop posts against that log so it becomes a change order rather than a favor. AV integration carries its own cost codes for equipment procurement, programming, and commissioning, so the integration tail reads separately from the cabling. Billing follows documentation complete, which is test results, the label schedule, and the closeout package per drop.
A unit price is only as strong as its unit definition, and this trade sells by a unit almost nobody writes down. Cable in a ceiling with no test report and no label behind it's inventory rather than revenue, and subcontractors already wait an average of 56 days from pay application to payment before a documentation clock gets added on top. Cost per drop, read weekly, tells you whether the crew is beating the rate you bid. Drops documented, read the same week, tells you what you're allowed to bill.
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 a low voltage and AV contractor can read labor cost per drop against the bid rate while crews are still pulling cable.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
Nobody Counts a Drop the Same Way
Structured cabling sells by the drop, and a drop is a cable pull plus terminations plus testing plus labeling plus documentation, or it's just the pull, depending on whose estimate you're reading. The unit price survives only when the unit is written down. Underdefined drop scope is this trade's device-count problem, and change orders on added drops die at the negotiating table when nobody logged the base count at contract. The estimator bid one scope, the field delivered a bigger one, and there's no record of the difference.
Pulled Cable Counted as Progress
Billing in this trade rides certification. Test results per drop, labeling to spec, and the documentation package gate the invoice, and AV work gates on commissioning: systems programmed, tested, and the client trained. Production that outruns testing and documentation is unbillable inventory sitting above the ceiling tile. It reads as progress in the field and as nothing at all on the pay application, which is how a job that's 80 percent pulled bills at half that.
AV Punch With No Written Acceptance
Integration work ends in programming, commissioning, and client punch, and client punch without written criteria is taste. The conference room still drops calls, the room still feels off, and final payment and retainage stall indefinitely while a technician who costs real money goes back a fourth time. Without a cost code carrying that return labor, the overrun disappears into the job total and the same scope gets bid the same way on the next building.
Project and Service Work Blended Into One Statement
Install projects bill big and slow on construction terms, with equipment procured on deposit against long-lead displays and processors. Service contracts and managed AV bill small and recurring. Inside one blended P&L the recurring side covers project overruns and the project side hides the fact that service is priced from memory. The security market pays materially more for a contractor with recurring mix than for a project-only shop, which makes the divisional split an operating decision and an exit-value decision at once.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM writes the drop definition into the ControlQore cost code structure before anything else happens: pull, terminate, test, label, and document, priced as one scope. The base drop count from the estimate is logged at contract, per building and per floor where the plans support it. Every added drop posts against that log as a change order candidate the same week it happens. The unit price stops being a future argument because the unit and the count are both on record.
Technicians log hours by cost code at the end of each day, and ControlQore divides burdened labor cost by drops completed to produce an actual cost per drop. That number is compared weekly to the rate in the estimate. Because production per drop moves with building type, pathway conditions, plenum work, and how much of the day is spent on a lift, the comparison also builds a production library you can bid from instead of bidding from the last job you remember.
SPM configures ControlQore to carry drops completed and drops documented as two different counts, because they're two different things and only one of them is billable. Test results, the label schedule, and the closeout package are tracked per drop, and the pay application is built from the documented count. Crews test and document daily as they pull rather than in a week-long push at the end, which is what keeps the documentation clock from stacking on top of the 56-day wait.
AV integration gets its own cost codes for equipment procurement, programming, commissioning, and client training, and the commissioning protocol carries written pass conditions: signal, latency, control functions, and training delivered. That converts subjective punch into a checklist the job can be closed against. Return visits after acceptance post to a service cost code instead of the project, and the support tail moves onto a service contract where it earns recurring revenue rather than running as unpaid warranty.
Division is a job attribute in ControlQore, so install projects, service, and managed contracts report separately every month with their own gross margin and their own days to payment. Burdened labor rates are built by classification, which is what public work demands from technicians who pull cable in the morning and program panels in the afternoon. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete on the project side, and underbilled positions trigger a corrected pay application.
THE OUTPUTS, LISTED.
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.
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