DRYWALL: THE CRITICAL-LIGHTING PUNCH DISPUTE

Inspection under permanent lighting, viewed from several feet back at a perpendicular angle. A flashlight raked down an unlit hallway is the wrong test. Put the inspection standard in the contract before the job starts. A sub who can't cite the standard pays for skim coats the spec never required.

Drywall contractors at $1M to $5M net 6 percent on average, rising to 13 percent by $25M to $50M; the CFOS net profit target is 10 percent before taxes at $1M to $5M, since the target is the trade average plus 3.5 points and never below 10. The difference usually comes from unpaid rework, untracked back-charges and schedule compression the unit price never priced. Every net profit figure here is gross margin minus overhead, stated before taxes, the same basis CFMA reports net income on.

Because labor pays out weekly through hang and finish, and the receivable comes in 60 to 90 days later. Then 5 to 10 percent retainage waits on the whole project's punch list, yours and everyone else's. At a 6 percent net margin before taxes, the retainage hold is bigger than the profit.

Three tiers, and which one you are in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. On Core we build your plan every month and your team does the work: job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a monthly meeting that ends in decisions, while your bookkeeper keeps doing the books. On Strategic we build the plan, track it and adjust it every month: our team does the bookkeeping and the bank reconciliations, and the job costing and WIP software is set up and managed for you, on your own online software or ours. On Platinum we manage the money side for you every week: our team handles your bills and receivables the way an in-house controller would, and you approve every payment. We don't do payroll.

Sixty days. We migrate your books back to the start of your last taxable year and build your job costing structure from scratch, and on Strategic and Platinum we set up the job costing and WIP software too. You're fully up and working in two months. The onboarding fee is one time, the same for every tier, and set by your revenue band.