CONTROLQORE FOR MECHANICAL CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't separate sheet metal, pipe, and controls cost inside one mechanical contract, bill an equipment deposit as its own line, or tell you whether service is funding construction. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for mechanical contractors uses divisional cost codes by discipline: sheet metal fabrication, pipe and controls. Equipment is kept apart from labor in every report. Equipment deposits, storage and rigging are set up as their own schedule of values lines, so you bill the money between deposit at release and payment at delivery. You don't finance it. Service and construction are separate divisions with separate P&Ls. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete, and retainage at 5 to 10 percent is tracked by job.
One mechanical contract holds three labor markets: sheet metal fabrication, pipe crews and controls technicians. Each has its own cost curve. A single job total tells you the job made money or it didn't. It never tells you the pipe crew paid for the sheet metal shop for four months, or that controls went 300 hours past the estimate while the pump work covered for it. Mechanical contractors at $1M to $5M net 9 percent before taxes on the SPM 48-trade dataset, against a CFOS target of 12.5 percent before taxes. The trade's ceiling of 15 percent at $25M to $50M is among the best of the 48. You fix the measurement first, then the price.
See the full benchmarks for every revenue band on Run On CFOS.
THE NUMBERS GENERIC SOFTWARE MISSES.
WHAT IT IS.
ControlQore is a job costing and WIP platform for commercial subcontractors at $1M to $12M. It tracks cost by job, division and cost code. A mechanical contractor can read cost per discipline, meaning sheet metal, pipe and controls, on each phase of a job while the phases still overlap.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
Three Shops Priced as One Number
Sheet metal, pipe and controls are three separate businesses inside one mechanical price. Generic software reports them as one job cost. Phases overlap for months, so a discipline that is over on hours gets covered by one doing well, right up until closeout. Without divisional cost codes you can't tell which shop earns and which one gets subsidized. So next year's bid repeats this year's mistake at a bigger number.
You Finance Equipment Deposits You Could Bill
Chillers quote 20 to 85 weeks in 2026. Commercial chilled-water systems are benchmarked at 48 to 60 weeks, and custom air handlers at 14 to 24 weeks. The deposit goes out at release. Storage and insurance cost money in the middle. The pay application catches up at delivery only if the schedule of values was written to allow it. When it wasn't, you're a procurement bank for the GC, paid out of your own operating cash, for most of a year, at no markup.
Service and Construction in One Blended P&L
Service pays in small amounts on short cycles and has the stronger margins. Construction pays in large amounts on pay-app terms, with retainage held behind it. In blended books one funds the other for years without anybody deciding to do it. The trade's best-in-dataset net ceiling belongs to owners who split the books and manage both on purpose. One P&L across both prices both wrong.
One Burden Rate Across Union, Nonunion and Prevailing Wage
Mechanical has two kinds of burden, union and nonunion. Public jobs put fitters, sheet metal workers and service technicians on one certified payroll across multiple classifications. A single blended burden rate posts the wrong labor cost to every one of those cost codes at once. The estimate you calibrate off those numbers is then wrong in both directions, and nobody can tell which jobs made money.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM builds ControlQore cost codes for mechanical clients by discipline first and phase second: sheet metal fabrication and install, pipe by system, controls, equipment set and rigging, startup, and commissioning. Equipment posts to its own codes, never inside a labor code. Equipment is most of the cost and labor is most of the risk, and blending them covers up both. Weekly reports check each discipline against its own estimate on each phase. A discipline more than 10 percent over for two weeks in a row gets flagged for review.
SPM reviews the schedule of values before the subcontract is signed and recommends the lines the equipment float needs. Deposits are billable at release. Stored and off-site equipment is billable, with the insurance and inspection provisions the GC will ask for. Rigging is its own line, apart from install labor. Then the procurement calendar goes onto the 13 week cash flow forecast, so you see the deposit and the delivery as cash events before either one happens.
ControlQore is set up with service and construction as two divisions. Each has its own cost codes, overhead allocation and P&L. Monthly reports show gross margin and cash cycle for each one side by side. Once the two are apart, you can see in dollars which book is funding which. That's why this trade's ceiling is where it is.
SPM builds separate burden rates for union and nonunion labor and for each prevailing wage classification the company works under. Hours posted by a fitter, a sheet metal worker and a service technician each take the burden that classification really costs. Job costing then reads at true burdened cost. The closeout numbers on one public job compare to the next public job, and not to an average of everything.
The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete on live ControlQore data. Underbilled positions, meaning work performed and not yet billed, trigger a corrected pay application. Overbilled positions flag jobs where billing is ahead of production. On a long mechanical job with equipment in it, that is easy to do without noticing. Retainage at 5 to 10 percent is tracked by job, so you know when the closeout cash comes in.
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.
