FIBER: MAKE-READY

Make-ready is the pole owner's work (moving existing attachments, replacing poles) before fiber can attach. The utility prices and schedules it, and the builder pays up front. Industry reporting puts the five-year cost increase near 300 percent. Track it as its own pass-through with a variance report. It's the least controllable and most inflationary line in aerial construction.

Fiber contractors at $1M to $5M net 7 percent on average, rising to 13 percent by $25M to $50M; the CFOS net profit target is 10.5 percent before taxes at $1M to $5M, the trade average plus 3.5 points. In this trade you lose margin to cash timing: carrier terms, make-ready pass-throughs and payments held for documentation. Every net profit figure here is gross margin minus overhead, stated before taxes, the same basis CFMA reports net income on.

Because carrier MSAs pay per unit on the carrier's calendar, after closeout audits, and your crews and boring subs get paid weekly. Factoring turns that timing problem into a permanent cut to your margin. The verified alternative: bill only with complete documentation, build closeout packages every day, and use a 13-week cash forecast that prices the carrier's terms into every bid.

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.