A bookkeeping firm that keeps contractor books in QuickBooks Online and ControlQore. SPM refers contractors to DeFran Bookkeeping. This is a recommendation rather than an offer. A contractor who wants the CFO layer without moving the bookkeeping, or who has outgrown a general bookkeeper who has never seen a WIP schedule.
The useful half of any referral is knowing when it's the wrong answer, so that list is on this page at the same weight as the right one. Read both before you call anybody.
Bookkeeping for small businesses and construction contractors, working in QuickBooks Online and ControlQore
Serves clients locally and remotely
SERVES: SMALL BUSINESSES AND CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTORS.
HOW THIS ONE DIFFERS
IT GOES BOTH DIRECTIONS.
This is the one referral that goes both directions. DeFran keeps the books; SPM builds the job costing structure and operates the CFO layer on top. A contractor can come in from either side. It's still a referral with nothing paid in either direction.
WHEN IT FITS
THE CASE FOR IT.
You want your books kept by somebody who has seen a construction chart of accounts before
You're on Core, where your bookkeeper keeps doing the books, and the bookkeeper you have isn't one
You're already in ControlQore and want day to day bookkeeping done inside it
WHEN IT DOES NOT
THE CASE AGAINST IT.
Nobody publishes this part, which is the reason it's worth reading. A vendor that fixes the wrong problem costs you the fee and the time, and leaves the real problem where it was.
You want the whole thing off your desk, in which case Platinum covers the bookkeeping and the controller work and there's no second vendor to manage
You need payroll, which neither firm does
WHAT WE CAN VERIFY
FACTS, WITH SOURCES.
Read from DeFran Bookkeeping's own material and from independent sources on 10 August 2026. Anything that couldn't be established is absent from this page rather than softened into a claim.
Works in ControlQore, which is the same job costing and WIP platform SPM sets up and operates
Their own site describes partnering with Sulphur Prairie Management for job costing structure, WIP reporting and monthly CFO strategy for commercial contractors
Because the problem DeFran Bookkeeping solves is a real one and SPM doesn't solve it. Josh refers contractors to DeFran Bookkeeping when it fits, and tells them when it doesn't. Treat this page as a recommendation rather than an offer.
A bookkeeping firm that keeps contractor books in QuickBooks Online and ControlQore. A contractor who wants the CFO layer without moving the bookkeeping, or who has outgrown a general bookkeeper who has never seen a WIP schedule.
DeFran Bookkeeping doesn't publish pricing, so this page doesn't quote any. Ask them directly, and ask what the all-in cost is rather than the headline number. Anybody quoting you a specific DeFran Bookkeeping rate they read on a website is quoting something that was never published.
You want the whole thing off your desk, in which case Platinum covers the bookkeeping and the controller work and there's no second vendor to manage You need payroll, which neither firm does
It's who Josh sends people to, and it's not an exclusive arrangement in either direction. Look at the alternatives, and use the fits and does-not-fit lists on this page as the questions to ask whoever you talk to. A referral is a starting point rather than a decision.
Josh Luebker is a master electrician turned construction CFO, president of SPM The Construction CFO and author of CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System.
Twenty minutes on your numbers. Sometimes the answer is a vendor and sometimes it's that the money is already in the business and nobody can see it. Josh will tell you which.
You don't hire a CFO because it's safe, you do it because the real risk isn't having one.
