CONTROLQORE FOR PAINTING CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't report labor cost per square foot by surface and prep level, separate a punch item from a change order, or track a retainage hold that's bigger than the profit on the job. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for painting contractors uses cost codes by scope, meaning protection and masking, patching and sanding, priming, first coat, second coat, and touch-up and punch, so labor cost per square foot is tracked by surface and prep level against the rate the bid carried. Punch requests are logged against contract scope with photographs, and the ones that are new work get billed as change orders. Retainage of 5 to 10 percent is tracked as its own receivable class by job, with the release condition written down and dated. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete.
Painting is bid per square foot and lost per hour. Interior work runs $2 to $6 per square foot in 2026 and exteriors $1.50 to $4, and the entire spread between the bottom and the top of those ranges is prep condition, ceiling height, and crew efficiency. One blended labor total for the job is the average of every surface and every prep level on it, which describes none of them. Labor cost per square foot by surface and prep level, read weekly against the bid rate, is early enough to add painters, move from brush and roll to spray, or write the change order while there's still wall left to cover.
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 painting subcontractor can see labor cost per square foot by surface and prep level while the crew is still in the building.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
One Labor Total Across Every Surface and Prep Level
Interior painting runs $2 to $6 per square foot in 2026 and exteriors $1.50 to $4, and the difference between the bottom and the top of those ranges is prep condition, ceiling height, and crew efficiency. Generic accounting software reports one labor figure for the job, which averages a smooth new drywall wall against a patched and sanded repaint and reports neither one. Labor is nearly the whole cost in this trade and material is a thin share, so an untracked production rate is untracked margin. ControlQore reports labor cost per square foot by surface and prep level against the rate the bid carried, every week, while the crew is still in the building.
Prep Bid Without a Surface Condition Walk
Prep is where painting estimates die. Patching, sanding, and priming over conditions nobody walked before the bid go in as hours the estimate never carried, and the paint itself was always the cheap part of the work. When prep has no cost code of its own, the overrun reports as a labor problem, which sends the argument to the crew instead of to the surface they inherited. A condition walk before bidding, plus a prep code with a budget behind it, is what turns that overrun into a documented change order instead of a donation.
Touch-Ups That Are New Scope
A punch item is contract work not finished to spec, and the painter pays to correct it. A change order is new scope the customer asked for, and the customer pays for it. Closeout pressure blurs that line on purpose, and painting is the last trade in the room, so every request sounds like a touch-up. Without a punch log kept against contract scope with photographs, the painter repaints the building's final month for free, and it never appears as a failure on any single job.
A Retainage Hold Bigger Than the Profit
Painting finishes last, so retainage accumulated across the whole contract releases only at project closeout, and closeout waits on every other trade's punch list. Painting contractors at $1M to $5M net 5 percent before taxes on the SPM 48-trade dataset, tied with framing for the lowest floor, which means a 10 percent hold is double the entire profit on the job. Line-item retention release, which pays a trade when its own scope is accepted rather than when the building is finished, is the counter-lever. The painter is the trade every early trade is waiting behind, and most painters never ask for that language.
Callbacks With No Reserve Behind Them
Peeling, flashing, and touch-up callbacks come in after final payment has already cleared. On a trade that nets 5 percent, a callback with no reserve behind it's a refund of the margin on a job that closed months ago. Generic accounting software posts that labor to whatever period the truck rolled in, so the cost never reads against the job that caused it and the estimate never learns anything. A funded warranty reserve and a callback code that posts back to the original job are what keep the second visit from erasing the first one's profit.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM builds ControlQore cost codes for painting clients by scope: mobilization, protection and masking, patching and sanding, priming, first coat, second coat, specialty and high-access work, and touch-up and punch. Labor and material post to the correct code, and hours carry the surface type and prep level they were worked at. Weekly actual labor cost per square foot is calculated by surface and prep level and compared to the rate the bid carried. Variance against the bid rate gets reviewed while the crew is still on the job rather than at closeout.
Profitable painting contractors don't guess at production. Every job in ControlQore adds hours per square foot by surface and prep level to a record you own, and after a handful of jobs the estimate comes from that record instead of square-foot folklore. The spray versus brush and roll decision gets priced from measured hours rather than preference, and high-access work stops being averaged into the field rate. That's the difference between bidding at $2 per square foot because the market says so and bidding at the number your own crews produce.
SPM sets up a punch log against the contract scope in ControlQore, with photographs attached and every request classified as either correction work or new scope. Correction work posts to the punch cost code so the true cost of finishing to spec is visible on the job. New scope becomes a change order with a documented cost behind it before anybody picks up a brush. The boundary is contractual, and the only reason it goes unenforced is that nobody has the record at the moment the superintendent asks.
SPM reviews every new painting subcontract before it's signed and recommends the two changes that carry the most cash: a schedule of values that bills protection, masking, and prep at performance rather than pushing value to the final coat, and line-item retention release so accepted scope pays without waiting on the whole project's punch list. Subcontractors already wait 56 days on average after submitting a pay application, per Billd's 2025 State of Subcontractor Payments, and retainage sits behind that. The review takes one meeting. The cash benefit runs for the full duration of the project.
The WIP schedule for painting 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 flag jobs where the billing has run ahead of production. Retainage of 5 to 10 percent is tracked by job and by GC with the release condition and expected date on the cash forecast, and a warranty reserve is funded per job so the callback that comes twelve months later has money behind it instead of eating a 5 percent net.
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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