CONTROLQORE JOB COSTING SETUP GUIDE.
SPM sets up ControlQore for its clients as part of the engagement. ControlQore job costing setup follows five steps: align the chart of accounts and cost codes to your estimate structure, migrate historical financial data, configure WIP calculation logic, validate the system against one real job before go live, and transition to a monthly management cadence. All five fit inside the standard 60 day onboarding window.
Software implementation projects fail for a predictable reason. The system gets configured around a generic template instead of around how the business bids and bills work, and nothing in the software knows the difference. Every report the platform produces afterward inherits whatever structure it was given, so a cost code tree copied off a template produces clean reports about the wrong categories. The fix isn't more software training. It's starting from the estimate structure the company already uses and proving the configuration against a real job before anybody relies on an output.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A ControlQore job costing setup is a five step configuration: the chart of accounts and cost codes get aligned to your estimate structure, historical financial data gets migrated, the WIP calculation logic gets configured, the system gets validated against one real job before go live, and the work then moves to a monthly management cadence.
The order of the five steps isn't arbitrary. Cost code alignment comes first because every later step inherits it: the migration codes historical cost into that structure, the WIP logic ties cost to complete estimates to those same codes, and the validation job tests the whole chain end to end. Get step one wrong and steps two through five are all built correctly on top of a structure that can't answer the questions the owner is asking.
WHERE SETUPS GO WRONG.
We should be able to set this up ourselves with some documentation
Self service setup is where most job costing implementations break down, and it usually breaks at the cost code alignment step. That step requires deep familiarity with the software and with the company's own estimate structure at the same time. Documentation covers the first half of that and can't cover the second half, because nobody outside the company knows how it bids.
We'll skip the validation job and just go live
Skipping validation means the first sign of a misconfiguration is a wrong WIP number on a live job, found by whoever reads the report. A controlled test on one job that has already finished catches the same problem with nothing at stake. One test costs a few hours, and the alternative is explaining a bad WIP schedule to a bank.
Historical migration probably isn't worth the effort
Without historical data, every job already in progress looks like it started from zero with no cost to date behind it. That makes the first WIP report after go live inaccurate for each of those jobs, which are usually the biggest ones you have active. The migration is what lets the first report be usable instead of ornamental.
HOW A SETUP REALLY WORKS.
Setup maps the existing chart of accounts to a cost code structure that mirrors how your estimators break down bids. Whether the bid is organized by CSI division, by phase, or by a custom structure the company built, the cost codes match that structure rather than a generic template. This step decides more than any other, because every report ControlQore produces afterward inherits it.
Financial data gets migrated back to the start of the last taxable year, so the WIP schedule and the job cost reports have real history behind them immediately. For jobs already in progress at migration, cost to date gets rebuilt out of existing records. Those jobs then show an accurate WIP position on the very first report instead of looking brand new.
The WIP logic gets set to match your revenue recognition method, which for commercial subcontractors is usually percentage of completion, with the overbilling and underbilling mechanics configured to your billing structure. This is also where cost to complete estimates get tied to your cost codes, so the WIP schedule recalculates on its own as cost comes in rather than waiting on somebody to rebuild it.
Before go live, SPM tests the full system against one active or recently closed job to confirm that the cost codes, the WIP logic, and the reporting produce accurate numbers. The test is simple: does the output match what happened on that job. Any misalignment gets caught and corrected here, before the system is relied on for every job going forward.
Once the validation clears, ControlQore goes live across all active jobs and SPM moves into ongoing monthly management: job cost reconciliation, WIP updates, and variance review. There's no separate maintenance contract and no renewal process to negotiate. Ongoing management is part of the same monthly fee.
THE OUTPUTS, NAMED.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing. No payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 to $3,300 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $5,300 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $8,300 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $11,800 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $14,900 | $6,000 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $17,650 | $7,500 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $22,400 | $9,000 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually | Quoted individually |
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. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
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. The onboarding fee is right here in the table.
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 and never in a report.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
Every job shows its margin while it is still open.
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 cover it.
A bookkeeper we choose does the books and reconciliations. No payroll.
You approve, and the money side gets handled.
Everything in Strategic, plus a controller we choose who handles your bills and receivables for you the way an in-house controller would. They 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.
A controller we choose does the payables and receivables. No payroll, no pay applications, no collections.
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