HOW CONSTRUCTION CFOS MANAGE JOB COST TRACKING.
A bookkeeper enters costs. A CFO manages them: comparing actual to estimate by phase every week, flagging overruns while a phase is still active instead of at closeout, and using that same cost data to build an accurate cost-to-complete for the WIP schedule. The difference is not the software. It is whether anyone is comparing the numbers to something and acting on what they find.
ENTERING COSTS IS BOOKKEEPING. COMPARING THEM IS CFO WORK.
A Bookkeeper Enters Costs. A CFO Manages Them.
Recording that $12,400 was spent on framing labor this week is data entry. Comparing that $12,400 to the $9,800 the estimate allowed for this phase, and asking why it is 27% over, is management. Most subcontractors have the first without the second. The costs are recorded correctly in the accounting system and nobody is comparing them to anything until the job closes and the loss is already permanent.
Weekly Beats Monthly, Every Time
A monthly job cost review catches an overrun after four weeks of it compounding. A weekly review catches it after one week. On an active phase with a crew still on site, that difference is the entire value of the system. CFOS installs weekly phase-level cost review as a standing rhythm, not a report that gets generated and skimmed once a month.
Cost-to-Complete Is Only as Good as the Job Cost Behind It
Every WIP schedule depends on an accurate cost-to-complete estimate. If job cost tracking is stale or wrong, the WIP schedule is wrong, which means percent-complete billing is wrong, which means the bank and the bonding company are looking at inaccurate numbers. Managed job cost tracking is the foundation the entire financial reporting structure sits on.
WHAT EACH ENGAGEMENT LEVEL INCLUDES.
Pricing is set by trailing 12-month revenue. Every band reflects three service tiers, Core Financial, Executive Financial, and Strategic Financial, and the range shown covers all three.
| Trailing 12-Month Revenue | Monthly Fee Range |
|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900–$2,900/mo |
| $1M–$3M | $2,600–$3,900/mo |
| $4M–$6M | $3,800–$5,700/mo |
| $7M–$9M | $5,100–$6,900/mo |
| $10M–$12M | $6,100–$8,500/mo |
| $13M+ | Quoted individually |
Core Financial is CFO advisory: job costing structure, cash flow forecasting, and monthly check-ins, no bookkeeping. Executive Financial adds full-service bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, and controllership. Strategic Financial adds ControlQore software setup and management on top of Executive, at no additional charge.
COMMON QUESTIONS.
Core Financial includes CFO advisory only: job costing structure, cash flow forecasting, and two monthly check-ins. It does not include bookkeeping or ControlQore. Executive Financial adds full-service bookkeeping, bank reconciliations, and controllership. Strategic Financial includes everything in Executive plus ControlQore setup and ongoing management at no additional charge to the client.
A bookkeeper records costs accurately into the right job and phase. That is necessary but not sufficient. A CFO takes that same data and compares it to the estimate weekly, flags variance while there is still time to act, and uses it to build the cost-to-complete that feeds the WIP schedule. The bookkeeping is the input. The management is the value.
Weekly, at the phase level, for any project with an active crew on site. Monthly review is standard for overall job cost reporting and WIP, but a phase-level overrun needs to surface within a week or two of starting, not at the next monthly close, or the correction window is gone.
