FRACTIONAL CFO RATES FOR CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES. WHAT IT COSTS AND WHAT YOU GET.
A fractional CFO engagement for a construction company is priced as a flat monthly retainer, set by your last twelve months of revenue and by how much of the work comes off your desk. A full-time CFO at the same revenue level costs $130,000 to $180,000 in base salary plus burden, several times the annual cost, at a fraction of the construction-specific experience. The question isn't the cost comparison. It's whether the engagement returns more than it costs, and at SPM that answer is usually visible within 60 days.
Rate shopping is the wrong way into this decision, because two firms quoting the same monthly figure can deliver work that's not remotely comparable. What you're buying is whether somebody knows what an understated overhead rate does to every bid you write, whether AR gets chased on a schedule instead of when cash gets tight, and whether a job's margin is visible while the crew is still on site. A generalist priced lower will learn your trade on your dime. The better test is what the engagement recovers in the first sixty days against what it bills in a year.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A fractional CFO rate is the flat monthly retainer a construction company pays for CFO work, set by its last twelve months of revenue and by how much of the finance function it buys.
Revenue is the primary driver of the fee, because more revenue means more transactions, more active projects, and more financial management complexity to carry. Scope is the second driver, since the tiers are genuine differences in how much of the finance function we run rather than three prices for the same work. Project count and operational complexity then move the fee inside a band, which is why two contractors at the same revenue can sit at different points in the same range.
Every engagement onboards in 60 days with books migrated back to the start of your last taxable year. That's the same for every contractor at every revenue level, and it's the part of the engagement that carries the most work for the least visible output, because nothing downstream reads correctly until the history is clean.
WHY THE RATE IS THE WRONG COMPARISON.
The monthly figure is the easiest number to get and the least useful
Two firms quoting the same monthly retainer can deliver work that's not comparable at all. One of them knows what a bad overhead rate does to every bid you write, and the other is learning your trade while billing you for the education. The fee is the one thing you can compare in five minutes, which is why it swallows the decision it should be a small part of.
The overhead rate nobody has checked
An overhead rate running 4 to 6 points under the truth on $2M to $4M of revenue leaves $80,000 to $240,000 a year of overhead unrecovered. Every bid built on that rate is priced below what the work costs to run, so winning more work makes the hole deeper. Nobody catches it because the P&L still prints a profit until the volume gets big enough to expose it.
The full-time comparison stops at base salary
A full-time CFO at $130,000 base is 4.3 percent of revenue for a $3M contractor, and that's before burden. At $2M to $6M in revenue, a full-time finance hire adds 2 to 6 points of overhead the volume hasn't asked for yet. Contractors usually run this comparison on the salary line alone, which is the smallest piece of the real number.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
An overhead rate that's 4 to 6 points understated on $2M to $4M of revenue is $80,000 to $240,000 per year in unrecovered overhead. Correcting it in the first 60 days produces a return that exceeds the annual engagement cost on many projects. It's usually the largest single dollar item in the first year.
Most SPM engagements collect $100,000 to $300,000 in outstanding AR in the first 30 days, from systematic follow up on invoices that were already issued. That collection isn't new revenue. It's money the business earned and hadn't received.
The contractors who benefit most from SPM are the ones whose businesses generate $400K to $1.2M+ annually in recoverable value, from overhead rate correction, collections, better job margins, and working capital structure. The engagement cost is a fraction of that value. The question is whether the scope and the experience level fit what the business needs.
The engagement is built so the owner spends 5 hours per month on financial management. Everything else runs without them touching it. That's the operating target the scope gets built against, not a marketing line.
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, and no add-ons.
Pricing
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
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.
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 rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
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 job costing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
