CONTROLQORE FOR SIDING CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't separate cost per square of field wall from the linear foot cost of corners and trim, price four product lines from four cost histories, or put a dollar figure on a wind day. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for siding contractors uses cost codes by product line: vinyl, fiber cement, engineered wood, and metal panel. Each of the four is priced from its own cost history. Inside each product line, field wall is tracked as cost per square. Detail work is tracked as cost per linear foot by detail class: corners, penetrations, trim packages, transitions, and gables. Substrate acceptance, spec compliance records, and cover-up photos get their own cost code and their own line on the schedule of values. Access and weather days are coded per elevation. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete.
What changes is which rate you read. Squares of field wall set the pace the bid remembers. Corners, trim, and transitions set the pace the job moves at. So a single blended cost per square describes neither, and it calibrates your next estimate against a number that never existed. Siding contractors at $1M to $5M net 7 percent before taxes on the SPM 48-trade benchmark, near the middle of the 48. The CFOS target at that band is 10.5 percent net before taxes. Gross margin at that band is 21 percent, against a CFOS target of 23.5 percent. That 21 percent comes from the nearest comparable trade. It isn't measured on siding books. Two and a half points of gross on labor forward work is the whole difference, and it comes out of rates you can read in week two.
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 siding subcontractor can read cost per square of field wall and cost per linear foot of detail work against the estimated rates every week while the elevation is still open.
One cost history can't price four businesses. Vinyl, fiber cement, engineered wood, and metal panel systems have different material costs, different crew skills, different fastening specs, and different warranty regimes. Blended history misprices all four, and the most mispriced line wins the worst work, because a rate that's too low is the rate that wins bids.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
Four Product Lines, One Blended Cost Per Square
QuickBooks job tracking shows total labor cost by job. Vinyl, fiber cement, engineered wood, and metal panel all post into that total. They have different material costs, different crew skills, and different fastening requirements. The blended cost per square that comes out of it is too high for one line and too low for another. The line it's too low for keeps winning work. ControlQore reports cost per square by product line against the estimated rate weekly.
Detail Work Priced at the Field Wall Rate
Field wall goes fast. Corners, penetrations, trim packages, transitions, and gables go slow, and they're skilled linear foot work. A bid priced on field wall squares gives the architecture away. All the hours post to one code, so the loss never appears on any single job. Track the detail separately and the linear foot rate by detail class becomes a bid input. Then the elevation with 40 corners gets priced like the elevation with 40 corners.
The WRB and Flashing Seam Undocumented
Siding installs over a weather resistive barrier and a flashing system somebody else installed and somebody else integrated at the windows. Leak liability comes out of those scope seams years after cover-up. On the envelope, the trade that touched the wall last explains it first. Without written scope boundaries, formal substrate acceptance, and photos before cover-up, you have no record to argue with when a claim comes in year seven.
Manufacturer Spec Compliance Treated as Free QC
Clearances, gapping, and fastener schedules are warranty conditions. Siding installed outside the book voids the product warranty, and the installer is left holding the tail alone. Documenting compliance takes crew hours and supervision time. When those hours have no cost code, you pay for your own cheapest insurance out of margin and can't tell what it cost.
Wind Days and Access Priced by Feel
Cladding goes on the outside. Wind days stop lifts and swing stages, and cold weather limits some products. Multi-story access is a logistics cost you have to price. When lifts, scaffolding, and swing stages post to one equipment total and nobody documents weather days, the bid can't tell commercial elevation work from residential square footage.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM builds ControlQore cost codes for siding clients by product line first: vinyl, fiber cement, engineered wood, and metal panel. Labor, material, and equipment post to the product they belong to. Each code matches a line in the estimate. After a few jobs per line, each product has its own production history and material cost trend, so you price the four as four businesses. Variance over 10% for two weeks in a row triggers a review while the elevation is still open.
Inside each product line, field wall gets a cost per square code. Detail work gets linear foot codes by class: corners, penetrations, trim packages, transitions, and gables. Both rates are compared weekly to the estimated rates from the bid. So detail density becomes a number in your next estimate, and your bid pays for the architecture.
Each of these gets a cost code: written scope boundaries at the WRB and flashing seam, formal substrate acceptance before install, spec compliance records including fastener schedules and batch records, and photographs before cover-up. The QC scope gets its own line on the schedule of values. The hours are billed in the month they're spent. The record lasts longer than the memory of anyone who was on the wall.
Lifts, scaffolding, and swing stages are coded per elevation, so you can see the access cost of a five story facade apart from a two story one. Weather days are documented as they happen, with the elevation and the product affected. When the schedule falls behind and the GC asks why, you have a log. The next bid on that building type gets an access number with history behind it.
The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete by job. Underbilled positions, meaning work performed but not yet billed, show on the report at once and trigger a corrected pay application. That keeps elevation milestone billing current against retainage of 5 to 10 percent. Overbilled positions flag jobs where billing is ahead of the work performed. Siding is the building's most visible surface, so punch scrutiny is heavy. The last 5% of a job is where a thin net gets finished off.
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.
