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: protection and masking, patching and sanding, priming, first coat, second coat, and touch-up and punch. Labor cost per square foot is tracked by surface and prep level against the rate set in the bid. 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 is $2 to $6 per square foot in 2026 and exteriors $1.50 to $4. The whole 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 averages every surface and every prep level on it, and describes none of them. Read labor cost per square foot by surface and prep level every week against the bid rate. That's early enough to add painters, switch 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 is $2 to $6 per square foot in 2026 and exteriors $1.50 to $4. 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. It averages a smooth new drywall wall with a patched and sanded repaint and reports neither one. Labor is nearly the whole cost in this trade and material is a small share, so if you don't track the production rate, you don't track the margin. ControlQore reports labor cost per square foot by surface and prep level against the rate set in the bid, every week, while the crew is still in the building.
Prep Bid Without a Surface Condition Walk
Prep is where painting estimates go wrong. Patching, sanding and priming over conditions nobody walked before the bid become hours the estimate never included. The paint was always the cheap part of the work. When prep has no cost code of its own, the overrun reports as a labor problem, and you end up blaming the crew for the surface they were given. Walk the conditions before you bid and give prep a code with a budget. Then the overrun becomes a documented change order you get paid for.
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. 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, you repaint the building's final month for free. It never reports as a loss on any single job.
A Retainage Hold Bigger Than the Profit
Painting finishes last, so retainage from the whole contract releases only at project closeout. 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 and flooring, among the lowest of the 48. So a 10 percent hold is double the whole profit on the job. Line-item retention release pays a trade when its own scope is accepted, before the building is finished. The painter waits behind every early trade, 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 cleared. On a trade that nets 5 percent before taxes, a callback with no reserve behind it is a refund of the margin on a job that closed months ago. Generic accounting software posts that labor to whatever month the truck went out. The cost never reads against the job that caused it, and the estimate never learns anything. Fund a warranty reserve and use a callback code that posts back to the original job. Then the second visit doesn't wipe out 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. Hours are tagged with the surface type and prep level they were worked at. Each week, actual labor cost per square foot is calculated by surface and prep level and compared to the rate set in the bid. You review the variance while the crew is still on the job.
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. After a handful of jobs, the estimate comes from that record. The spray or brush and roll decision gets priced from measured hours, and high-access work is no longer averaged into the field rate. Then you bid at the number your own crews produce, and not at $2 per square foot because the market says so.
SPM sets up a punch log against the contract scope in ControlQore, with photographs attached. Every request is marked as correction work or new scope. Correction work posts to the punch cost code, so you see the true cost of finishing to spec on the job. New scope becomes a change order with a documented cost before anybody picks up a brush. The line between the two is in the contract. It only goes unenforced because nobody has the record when the superintendent asks.
SPM reviews every new painting subcontract before it's signed and recommends the two changes that bring in the most cash. First, a schedule of values that bills protection, masking and prep as they're done, so the value isn't pushed to the final coat. Second, line-item retention release, so accepted scope pays without waiting on the whole project's punch list. Subcontractors already report waiting an average of 51 days for payment, per Billd's 2026 National Subcontractor Market Report, and retainage comes on top of that. The review takes one meeting. The cash benefit lasts for the whole 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 right away and trigger a corrected pay app. Overbilled positions flag jobs where billing is 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. A warranty reserve is funded per job. The callback that comes twelve months later has money behind it, and your 5 percent net before taxes stays whole.
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.
