FIBER: MAKE-READY

Make-ready is the pole owner's work (moving existing attachments, replacing poles) required before fiber can attach, priced and scheduled by the utility and paid up front by the builder. 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 6 percent on average, rising to 8.5 percent by $25M to $50M; the CFOS target at $1M to $5M is 10 percent. The margin leaks in this trade are cash-timing leaks: carrier terms, make-ready pass-throughs, and documentation-gated payments. Every net profit figure here is stated before taxes, the same basis CFMA reports on, so the two are directly comparable.

Because carrier MSAs pay per unit on the carrier's calendar, gated by closeout audits, while crews and boring subs get paid weekly. Factoring converts that timing gap into a permanent margin tax. The verified alternative: documentation-complete billing, closeout packages built daily, and 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. Core is where you stop guessing: 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. Executive is where you stop touching the books, because we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Strategic is where every job shows its margin while it is still running, because the job costing and WIP platform is set up and managed for you. No payroll. No scope gaps.

Sixty days. We migrate your books back to the start of your last taxable year, set up ControlQore, and build your job costing structure from scratch. Fully operational in two months.