EQUIPMENT: FINANCE, BUY, OR RENT?
The decision is set by utilization, and the sticker price barely moves it. Use a machine more than about 60% of working days and owning it, financed or bought, beats renting. Use it less than that, and renting is cheaper than keeping an idle asset. Cash position and the replacement reserve decide whether you finance or buy outright.
Most owners make this comparison backward. They set a monthly payment next to a monthly rental rate, see that the payment is lower, and buy the machine. The payment isn't the cost of the machine. The cost is the payment plus insurance, registration, storage, depreciation, and the capital that's no longer available for payroll, all divided by the number of days the machine turns a wheel. A machine that is idle most of the year costs more per working day than the same machine on rent, however good the payment looked.
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WHAT IT MEANS.
Equipment utilization is the share of available working days a machine works, and it's the figure that decides whether owning beats renting.
Rental rates aren't charity. A rental company prices its own idle time and its own profit into the day rate, which is why a machine you keep busy is cheaper to own than to rent. Use the machine less than that and you become the one absorbing the idle time, without a rental fleet to spread it across.
WHERE THE DECISION GOES WRONG.
The sticker price makes the decision
Most subcontractors decide by setting a purchase price or a monthly payment against a rental rate. Neither figure is the cost of the machine. The cost is what the machine consumes in a year divided by the days it works, and until somebody counts the days, that comparison can't be made at all.
The idle machine keeps billing you
An owned machine that's not working still comes with insurance, registration, storage, and depreciation, and the capital put into it is capital no longer available for payroll or materials. None of that stops when the machine parks for the winter. Rented iron has no idle cost whatsoever, which is the whole reason a utilization threshold exists.
The specialty machine bought for occasional use
The common trap is buying specialty equipment for occasional work on the assumption that owning looks cheaper. It looks cheaper because nobody calculated the utilization first. A machine bought for two jobs a year is the most expensive machine in the yard, measured per day worked.
Cash and credit both get spent
Buying outright uses cash and reduces borrowing capacity. Financing uses credit capacity and adds interest on top of the same idle holding cost. Renting touches neither the cash nor the credit line, which is why the buy-against-finance question only gets answered after you know what the cash position and the replacement reserve can support.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
Use a machine more than about 60% of working days and owning it beats renting, whether you buy it or finance it. Under 60%, or for a one-off need, renting comes in cheaper than keeping the asset. The reason is that rental rates cover the rental company's idle time and its profit, so above the threshold you're paying for somebody else's parked iron.
One verified civil client at $7.1M in revenue owned a machine that was idle on one job while renting the same type of machine on another job. Nobody was tracking utilization per machine, so nothing in the reporting caught it. The company paid for the same capability twice at once, which is what guessing costs.
UTILIZATION FIRST, CASH SECOND.
A machine used more than about 60% of working days should be owned, because the rental day rate has the rental company's idle time and profit built into it. Buy it outright if the working capital position is strong and the purchase won't put payroll or materials at risk. Finance it if the cash is worth more in operations, which trades ownership cost for interest expense and keeps the money working.
A machine under the threshold, or one needed for a single job, should be rented. Idle owned equipment comes with insurance, registration, storage, depreciation, and the cost of the capital tied up in it, and renting comes with none of those. Off the books is the right place for iron you can't keep busy.
Utilization decides own against rent. Cash position decides buy against finance. Those are two separate decisions and they get made in that order, because a high-utilization machine is worth owning whether or not you can pay cash for it, and a low-utilization machine is a bad buy at any interest rate.
SPM builds the equipment cost basis and tracks utilization per machine as part of CFOS, so the decision is based on a number instead of a feeling. Once the working days are counted, the own-against-rent call takes about five minutes. It also catches the case where a company owns one machine and rents the same type at the same time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Strategic, plus a controller who handles payables and receivables the way an in-house controller would. You approve every payment.
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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