CONTROLQORE FOR WATERPROOFING CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't read cost per square foot by system type, track a warranty reserve on a job that will be judged a decade from now, or bill a witnessed water test as its own milestone. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for waterproofing contractors uses cost codes by system type: below grade membrane, plaza deck, air and vapor barrier, traffic coating, and joint sealant. Actual cost per square foot is compared to the estimated rate weekly for each of the five systems. Detail work at terminations, penetrations, and transitions gets its own cost codes, because that's where the failures are. A warranty reserve is accrued on every job at booking from tracked callback history by system. Water testing and stage documentation are billed as their own milestones. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete.
What changes is when you find out, and in this trade there are two answers. The first is production. Cost codes built by system turn the same hours into a cost per square foot you can read in week two against the rate you bid, by system. A plaza deck over its rate doesn't get lost inside a good month of below grade work. The second is liability. Waterproofing contractors at $1M to $5M have 26 percent gross and 9 percent net before taxes on the SPM 48-trade benchmark, among the strongest floors of the 48 trades. The CFOS targets at that band are 28.5 percent gross and 12.5 percent net before taxes. That gross is the premium for holding a tail the industry spends $8 billion a year cleaning up. The operators who keep the net are the ones who reserved for it.
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 waterproofing subcontractor can read actual cost per square foot by system type against the estimated rate every week while the membrane is still exposed.
Waterproofing is two products sold as one: the membrane and the record. Covered work gets judged years later by whatever paper exists. Latent defect exposure is commonly 10 years. Remediation costs $50 to $200 per square foot, and below grade repairs requiring excavation frequently exceed $150 per square foot. Photo documented installation, written substrate acceptance, and witnessed water tests are the only proof of how the membrane went in.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
No Cost Per SF Visibility by System
QuickBooks job tracking shows total labor cost by job. Below grade membrane, plaza deck, air and vapor barrier, traffic coating, and joint sealant all post into that one total. The five have different production math and need different crew skills. ControlQore reports actual cost per square foot by system against the estimated rate weekly. So you find the system that's over its rate in week two, while the membrane is still exposed and the crew is still on the building.
Detail Work Priced at the Field Rate
Terminations, penetrations, and transitions are where the failures are and where the hours go. They are nothing like open field membrane. When detail work has no cost code of its own, its hours get charged against the field square footage. The field rate looks worse than the production was, and the next estimate gets calibrated against a blended number that describes neither. Put detail on its own code so you can read both rates.
Warranty Crew Hours With Nothing Accrued
Waterproofing warranties commit future crew hours against revenue recognized years earlier. A callback on a system installed in year one gets worked in year six. Without a reserve accrued per job, it comes out of the current year's margin. The trade's strong net exists because careful operators reserve for the tail they sold. Without a reserve, a company pays for its old jobs again every spring.
Water Testing Goes Unbilled
Flood tests, spray and dam tests on plazas and balconies, and integrity testing gate acceptance on a well managed job. When testing has no cost code and no line on the schedule of values, the hours get spent and the milestone gets no billing. Acceptance is somebody's opinion with no record behind it. Bill testing as its own line, witnessed and documented. It gets paid in the month it happens, and it answers the question the claim will ask in year nine.
Overhead With No Recovery Rate Behind It
Certified applicator programs, manufacturer training hours, testing equipment, and estimating time on detail dense scopes push waterproofing overhead to 17 percent at $1M to $5M on the SPM 48-trade dataset. That's second highest among the served trades. The strong gross pays for that overhead, but only if the recovery rate is in every bid. If your overhead rate is a number someone set years ago, you recover the heaviest overhead in the envelope family by accident.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM builds ControlQore cost codes for waterproofing clients by system: below grade membrane, plaza deck, air and vapor barrier, traffic coating, and joint sealant. Detail work at terminations, penetrations, and transitions is tracked separately. Each code matches a line in the estimate, so labor, material, and equipment post where the bid put them. Actual cost per square foot by system is compared to the estimated rate weekly. Variance over 10% for two weeks in a row triggers a review while the job is still open.
A warranty reserve is accrued on every job at booking. It's sized from tracked callback history by system type. Because callback history is kept by system, the reserve on a plaza deck isn't the reserve on a joint sealant scope. A callback in year six is charged against the accrual it was sold with. That keeps the current year's margin intact, so the trade's net holds up against its own liability tail.
Stage photos, written substrate acceptance, manufacturer spec compliance records, witnessed water tests, and burial turnover documentation each get a cost code. Testing gets its own line on the schedule of values, so it's billed when it happens. You get two things. The hours are paid for in the month they're spent. And the job ends up with a year zero record that answers the terminations, counterflashing, and sealant thickness questions a forensic review will open a decade later.
Waterproofing installs early. Then it gets backfilled, covered, and walked on by everyone who follows. Backfill damages board, rebar punctures membrane, and pavers get set on plaza decks. SPM sets up protection scope as its own billable cost code and its own SOV line, with photos at burial and a signed protection turnover. When a leak comes later, you have a documented timeline, so nobody can just blame the installer.
The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete by job. Underbilled positions, meaning work performed but not yet billed, trigger a corrected pay application. Overbilled positions get flagged where billing is ahead of the work. The overhead recovery rate is reviewed quarterly against what the company spends on certifications, training, and testing equipment. So the 17 percent overhead gets recovered in the bid, and the gross 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.
