CONTROLQORE FOR TANK AND VESSEL CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't keep an API 650 new-build book separate from an API 653 inspection and repair book, cost a confined-space entry day, or tell you how much billing is stuck behind an incomplete weld dossier. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for tank and vessel contractors is set up as two books inside one company: API 650 new construction on project cost codes, and API 653 inspection, repair, and alteration work on recurring service codes. Cost posts by phase, meaning engineering and welder qualifications, shop fabrication, field erection, welding and NDE, hydrotest, coatings and linings, and punch. Confined-space entry days get their own code, with attendants, monitoring, and ventilation attached to it. Billing milestones are configured to the documentation an owner will require before releasing money, and the WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete.
Keep two books. New construction has project economics with fabrication, erection, and hydrotest gates. The 653 side is condition-triggered work that recurs because the standard mandates inspection intervals. That makes it closer to a service annuity than to a project. Track both as one book and you misprice both. The project work can look like it's supporting the shop when the service work is paying for it, or the reverse. Two P&Ls inside one company, built on the same cost codes, price each side honestly and show which one is funding the other.
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 tank and vessel contractor can read cost by phase, meaning shop fabrication, field erection, welding and NDE, hydrotest, and coatings, with new construction reported separately from inspection and repair work.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
One Blended Book for Two Businesses
The trade splits along its standards. API 650 governs new welded-tank construction: plate erection, weld examination, and hydrostatic testing. It has project economics. API 653 governs the in-service side: mandated inspection intervals, evaluations, repairs, alterations, and reconstructions. That produces condition-triggered work that recurs. Track both as one book and you misprice both. The recurring side is usually the stability the project side borrows against, and nobody can prove it.
Payment Gated by a Dossier Nobody Costed
The paperwork is what gets you paid. Welder qualifications have to be current under the ASME Section IX six-month continuity rule. Weld maps and traceability packages gate acceptance, and NDE sampling has its own economics. Then there's the hydrotest. On a tank that means filling the structure with water, then sourcing it, holding it, and disposing of it. It comes between substantial completion and the check. When none of that has a cost code, you can't say what an incomplete dossier is holding up.
Turnaround Windows Priced at Straight Time
Repair and alteration work often takes place inside owner shutdowns and turnarounds. Every trade works in the same fixed window. Premium-time and after-hours labor is the plan. Schedule overrun costs the owner enough that liquidated exposure and acceleration terms are both in the contract. A bid priced at straight time in that window pays for the compression out of its own margin. Standby on a unit released late has no record behind it.
Confined-Space Days With No Cost Code
In-service work happens inside vessels. Permit-required confined-space entry adds a daily compliance cost: entry permits, attendants, atmospheric monitoring, ventilation, and rescue provisions. Internal coatings and linings add surface work and cure windows that control the schedule for everybody else on the job. Price it per entry-day and the bid recovers it. Put it in general field labor and it comes out of your margin, and no monthly statement will show the difference.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM sets up API 650 new construction and API 653 inspection and repair as separate divisions in ControlQore, on the same cost codes so you can compare them. Each division has its own P&L, overhead allocation, and margin history, which shows which side is funding the shop. Tank and vessel contractors at $1M to $5M net 8 percent before taxes on the SPM 48-trade dataset, against a CFOS target of 11.5 percent before taxes. The gross margin and overhead benchmarks for this trade come from the nearest comparable trade, because nobody measured them on tank builders. So each division needs its own numbers even more.
Cost codes follow the work: engineering and welder qualifications, plate procurement, shop fabrication and rolled shells, knock-down and freight, field erection, welding and NDE, hydrotest, coatings and linings, and punch. Labor, material, and subcontracted testing post to the phase that used them. Then shop fabrication and field erection report as two separate economies. Structural steel has the same problem and the same fix.
SPM configures billing milestones against the documentation an owner will release money for: qualifications current, weld maps complete, NDE records accepted, hydrotest passed. The hydro goes on the 13 week cash flow forecast as its own event, with water sourcing, hold time, and disposal scheduled, because it's the last thing between substantial completion and payment. Retainage to acceptance is tracked separately so nobody mistakes it for collectible receivables.
Turnaround work gets its own pricing class in ControlQore. Premium-time and after-hours labor is the baseline. Acceleration terms get read before signing. A standby code covers the days the unit isn't released when the schedule said it would be. Those standby hours get logged daily at burdened cost, with the cause written down. A compensable delay claim is built from that record, and the record has to exist while the outage is still going on.
A confined-space entry-day code covers the permits, attendants, monitoring, ventilation, and rescue provisions for every internal day. So the compliance cost gets priced in your next bid. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete by job and by division. Underbilled positions, meaning work performed but not yet billed, trigger a corrected pay app. Overbilled positions flag jobs where billing is ahead of the documentation behind it.
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.
