WEEKLY JOB REVIEWS

MONTHLY JOB REVIEWS ARE ALREADY TOO LATE.

QUICK ANSWER

A job that starts losing money in week three of a 14-week project will lose money for 11 more weeks before anyone reviews it at month end. A weekly job review, 15 to 20 minutes per job every Friday, catches that in week four. Week 4 is recoverable. Month 3 isn't.

Month end reporting is a scorecard. It tells you how the game went after the clock stopped. A Friday review is a thermometer, and it reads the job while the crew is still on site and the GC's billing cutoff hasn't passed yet. The cost of catching a labor overrun in week four is a schedule conversation and a change order. The cost of catching the same overrun in week twelve is the margin on the job. Same problem, two very different bills.

BY JOSH LUEBKERPublished 2026-08-06Updated 2026-08-07
THE DEFINITION

WHAT IT MEANS.

A weekly job review is a 15 to 20 minute check on each active job that compares production and cost against the estimate, catches undocumented scope changes, confirms billing is current, and flags anything the owner needs to know.

The review isn't a meeting with a deck. It's the PM or superintendent with a live job cost screen and the CO log open, working through four questions in order. The whole thing should be over before the coffee gets cold, and it should happen the same day every week.

WHAT A WEEKLY REVIEW COVERS

THE FOUR QUESTIONS, EVERY FRIDAY.

01

Is the job trending to margin or away from it?

Compare week to date labor hours and costs against the weekly estimate. If the job is behind on production and ahead on cost, the job is trending over. If it's ahead on production and on cost, it's trending right. This check takes 3 minutes with a live job cost screen.

02

Are there scope changes nobody has documented?

Did the GC direct any additional work this week? Did conditions change the scope, or did the plans change? Any yes answer means a CO needs to be started before Monday, not before month end.

03

Is billing current?

Is everything billable from this week either invoiced already or on the next billing cycle? Are there completed phases waiting on an inspection, T&M work not yet on a time sheet, or materials delivered but not coded to the job? Billing problems found on Friday can usually be fixed before the GC's monthly cutoff.

04

Is there anything the owner needs to know?

A supplier running 10 days late, a GC that has been slow to respond on RFIs, or a foreman who flagged a safety issue all belong on the list. Not every item needs to be escalated. The PM should make a deliberate decision every week about what to surface and what to settle at the field level.

THE MATH

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.

The cost of waiting for month end

Monthly reviews catch problems 3 to 4 weeks after they start. On a 12-week project, that's 25 to 33% of the job duration spent trending the wrong way before anyone flags it. Weekly reviews catch the same problem in week 2 or 3, when the cause is still fixable and the overrun hasn't compounded.

HOW THE REVIEW RUNS

WHO IS IN IT, AND FOR HOW LONG.

PM or superintendent, every week

The person closest to the job runs the review. They have the production data, the CO log, the billing status, and the schedule. The review should be able to happen with nothing but a live job cost screen and the CO log open.

Owner or principal, exceptions only

The owner doesn't sit in on every weekly job review. The PM flags the items that need owner input, and the owner reviews the flagged items, usually 5 to 10 minutes on a Friday, instead of sitting through 15 reviews. That's the operating model working, not a sign that the owner is disengaged.

15 to 20 minutes per job

If a weekly job review runs longer than 20 minutes, either the job has a real problem that needs its own meeting or the review format is wrong. The weekly review is a quick pulse on the jobs that moved. The full analysis happens monthly in the CEO Report meeting.

$10.7M+
Client AR Recovered Since 2023
48
Active Trade Specializations
60 DAYS
Average Onboarding Time
PRICING

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 revenueMonthly feeOne-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 individuallyQuoted 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.

Core

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.

Executive

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.

Strategic

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.

COMMON QUESTIONS

FREQUENTLY ASKED.

Monthly reviews catch problems 3 to 4 weeks after they started. In a 12-week project, that's 25 to 33% of the job duration spent trending in the wrong direction before anyone flags it. Weekly reviews catch problems in week 2 or 3, when the cause is still addressable and the overrun hasn't compounded.

A live job cost screen showing actual against estimated by major cost category, a CO log showing submitted, approved, and pending COs, a billing status showing what's invoiced, what's on the next cycle, and what's waiting, and a production log showing units installed against planned. All four should be reachable in under 2 minutes from ControlQore or an equivalent job costing platform. If pulling them takes longer than that, the review won't survive a busy week.

The weekly review produces the data the monthly CEO Report summarizes. Jobs that had issues flagged in weekly reviews come to the monthly meeting with a documented history: what the problem was, when it was caught, and what was done about it. Jobs reviewed only monthly come to the CEO Report as surprises.

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 do the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Strategic is where every job shows its margin while it is still open, 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.
WHAT THIS TIES INTO
Josh Luebker, SPM The Construction CFO
Josh Luebker
FRACTIONAL CFO · SPM THE CONSTRUCTION CFO

Josh Luebker is a master electrician turned construction CFO, president of SPM The Construction CFO and author of CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System.

WHEN DID YOU LAST LOOK AT A JOB ON A FRIDAY?

You get twenty minutes with Josh and it's all questions about how your open jobs get reviewed week to week. He isn't selling anything and he won't propose anything. If he can help, the two of you book a longer second call.

You don't hire a CFO because it's safe, you do it because the real risk isn't having one.
Book a 20 minute call

20 minutes. Nothing gets sold on this call and nothing gets proposed. Josh asks questions to work out whether he can help at all.

OR GET THE WIP SCHEDULE TEMPLATE. NO CALL NEEDED.