IN YOUR BUSINESS, WHO OWNS THE FINANCIAL FUNCTION?
In most subcontracting businesses, nobody owns the financial function. The owner is too busy running jobs. The bookkeeper records transactions and moves on. The CPA appears at tax time. Nobody is watching job margins while the work is happening, forecasting cash, or connecting the estimate to the P&L. That hole is the most expensive vacancy in the business.
In a $5M subcontracting business, whoever owns the financial function should be reviewing job cost every month, tracking cash 13 weeks out, and calculating the overhead rate from actual costs. If none of that's happening, the position is vacant, and a vacant position produces the outcomes you would expect from any unfilled seat. Work doesn't get done, nobody is accountable for it not getting done, and the cost of the omission is only visible after the fact. The difference here is that the cost gets measured in margin and missed cash rather than in labor hours.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Financial ownership means one person is accountable for knowing the numbers, using them to make decisions, and flagging problems before they become crises.
Most subcontractors don't need a full-time CFO. They need somebody who owns the function consistently and reliably, every month, without requiring them to manage the process themselves. SPM becomes the financial function: the owner attends one monthly meeting, reviews the CEO Report, and acts on the to-do list, and everything else is handled. That covers bookkeeping, reconciliation, job cost review, cash forecasting, billing oversight, and AR follow up. The outcome is an owner running the business in about five hours a month, financially, and all of that time goes to decisions rather than data collection.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NOBODY OWNS THE NUMBERS.
The owner owns it
The owner does the mental math on cash, tries to track AR in their head, and makes financial decisions on instinct. That works until it doesn't, and it usually stops working when two bad months hit at once. Nothing about the approach was careless. It just doesn't scale past the point where one memory can hold every job.
The bookkeeper posts and moves on
A bookkeeper's job is to record transactions accurately. It's not to analyze margins, forecast cash, or connect the estimate to actual costs. Holding them accountable for financial outcomes they weren't hired to produce sets everyone up to fail.
Problems surface too late
When nobody owns the financial function, problems surface when the bank balance drops, the LOC is maxed, or a vendor calls. By then the window to fix it cheaply has closed. Everything that would have been a decision six weeks earlier is now a reaction.
THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF FINANCIAL OWNERSHIP.
Books get closed, reconciled, and accurate by the 10th of every month. Cost to complete runs on every active project. The CEO Report goes out to ownership and the cash flow forecast gets updated. Those four things happen every month, without exception.
AR aging gets reviewed weekly, and every invoice over 30 days gets a follow up call. Every pay application gets reviewed before submission for front-loading opportunity. The overhead rate gets recalculated whenever a major cost changes.
Which bid to submit depends on the current cash position and capacity. Whether to hire before or after winning the next contract is a cash question rather than a headcount question. When to draw on the line of credit versus letting AR collection catch up is another one. Those are finance decisions, and they require somebody who knows the numbers.
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.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 | $6,000 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 | $7,500 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 | $9,000 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually | Quoted individually |
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. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in 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.
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.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we do the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Your office stops answering coding questions and stops fixing a reconciliation that will not balance on the last day of the month.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it is still open.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the books, the job costing, and the software. No payroll.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
