HOW CONSTRUCTION CFOS MANAGE JOB COST TRACKING.
A bookkeeper enters costs. A CFO manages them by 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 isn't the software. It's whether anyone is comparing the numbers to something and acting on what they find.
Most subcontractors already have the first half of this. The costs are recorded in the right job and the right phase, the bookkeeper is careful, and the reports run. What's missing is somebody whose job it's to ask why a phase is over, this week, while the crew is still on site and the remaining hours can still change. Once the loss is in the closeout report, the only thing left to do is describe it. The whole value of job cost management sits in the days between those two points.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Job cost management is the weekly comparison of actual cost to the estimate at the phase level, plus the action taken on what that comparison finds, which is a different job from entering the costs in the first place.
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's 27% over, is management. Both use the same numbers and only one of them changes the outcome of the job.
ENTERING COSTS IS BOOKKEEPING. COMPARING THEM IS CFO WORK.
The costs get entered and nobody compares them
Most subcontractors have the entry without the comparison. The costs are recorded correctly in the accounting system and nobody is measuring them against anything until the job closes and the loss is already permanent. The data was there the whole time. Nobody was assigned to look at it against the estimate.
The review runs monthly instead of weekly
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, because week one is a conversation and week four is a write-off.
Stale job cost makes the WIP schedule wrong
Cost-to-complete is only as good as the job cost behind it. 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. The error doesn't stay inside the job. It travels all the way out to your credit.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
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's 27% over, is management. The first one produces a report. The second one produces a phone call to the field while there are still hours left to change.
WHAT WE PUT IN PLACE.
CFOS installs weekly phase level cost review as a standing rhythm rather than a report that gets generated and skimmed once a month. Cadence counts for more than software here. Any accounting system can produce the comparison, and almost none of them will make somebody read it every week.
Every active phase gets compared to its estimate weekly, and anything trending over gets raised with the PM that week. The point of the flag is the remaining hours, because those are the ones you can still change. A phase flagged in week one still has a correction available to it.
The cost-to-complete that feeds the WIP schedule gets built off the current cost data and the current field progress. That keeps percent complete billing honest and keeps the numbers the bank and the surety see tied to the actual jobs. Clean job cost is what makes the WIP defensible.
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.
| 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.
