A $25M marine general contractor came to CFOS with no job costing, no WIP reporting, and no visibility at the project level — on a business doing $25M a year. CFOS built the entire financial infrastructure from scratch. Since engagement, the bank balance has never dropped below $1.2M. The business generated over $1M in net profit and paid out $2.6M in profit sharing to the team.
At $25M in annual revenue, the absence of financial infrastructure isn't a small problem — it's a liability. You can't manage cash on a $25M marine GC without knowing where it is by project. You can't make hiring, equipment, or bid decisions without knowing which jobs are actually making money. And you can't sustain a profitable team without the systems to prove the profit exists and share it accordingly. This contractor had the revenue. They had the crews. They had the client relationships. What they didn't have was a single system connecting any of it to a financial outcome. CFOS built that system.
BY JOSH LUEBKERPublished: May 2025Updated: May 2026
$1.2M
Minimum bank balance maintained since engagement — never dropped below
$2.6M
Profit sharing paid out to the team
$1M+
Net profit generated post-infrastructure build
ZERO
Financial infrastructure on engagement day one — built everything from scratch
The Problem
$25M IN REVENUE. NO WAY TO SEE THE MONEY.
THE STARTING POINT
"We were doing significant volume. The work was real, the clients were real, the crews were real. But I couldn't tell you what any specific project made. I couldn't tell you with confidence what our cash position would be in 60 days. We were running a $25M business on gut feel and bank balance."
The business was legitimate and established. Marine general contracting — coastal infrastructure, port work, marine structures — at a scale that required real project management capability. The crews were experienced. The GC relationships were long-standing. Work was coming in consistently.
But the financial infrastructure was nonexistent. No job costing — costs rolled up in aggregate, no project-level visibility. No WIP reporting — no way to see what had been billed vs. what had been earned. No cash flow forecasting — the bank balance was the only real-time financial signal the owner had.
At $25M in revenue, that's not a bookkeeping problem — it's a structural risk. Without job-level cost tracking, overruns on any project are invisible until they've already eroded the margin. Without WIP reporting, billing can fall behind earned revenue without anyone noticing until cash gets tight. Without a cash flow forecast, there's no warning before a cash crunch — just a bank balance that suddenly doesn't look right.
The Diagnosis
EVERY SYSTEM MISSING. AT ONCE.
CFOS came in and found that all three foundational financial systems were absent simultaneously — not partially built, not poorly implemented, but entirely missing.
MISSING SYSTEM 1 — JOB COSTING
No Project-Level Cost Visibility
Every dollar of cost posted to the company — not to a project. Labor, subcontractors, materials, equipment: all aggregated. There was no way to answer the question every marine GC owner needs to answer: did that job make money? Without job-level cost tracking, the only feedback loop is the end-of-year P&L — by which point every underperforming project has already finished and the margin is gone.
MISSING SYSTEM 2 — WIP REPORTING
No Way to See Billing vs. Earned Revenue
Marine GC work involves large contracts, long timelines, and complex billing schedules. Without WIP reporting, there's no way to see whether billing is keeping pace with actual contract completion. Underbilling on a $3M marine structure project means you've earned the revenue but haven't collected it — and that gap compounds across multiple active projects. WIP is the system that makes that visible before it becomes a cash crisis.
MISSING SYSTEM 3 — CASH FLOW FORECASTING
The Bank Balance Was the Only Signal
Without a 13-week cash flow forecast, there's no early warning for cash shortfalls. The bank balance is a lagging indicator — by the time it tells you something is wrong, the problem is already here. At $25M in revenue with large project payment cycles of 45–90 days, the gap between earning and collecting is significant enough that the forecast isn't optional. It's the system that keeps the floor under the business.
The Intervention
WHAT CFOS ACTUALLY DID.
PHASE 1
Built the job costing structure from scratch — cost codes appropriate for marine GC work: marine structures, coastal infrastructure, subcontractor coordination, equipment, mobilization. Set up ControlQore with per-project tracking for all active jobs. Produced the first per-project cost report the ownership team had ever seen.
PHASE 2
Built WIP reporting aligned to the contract billing schedules on every active project. Established a monthly WIP reconciliation process — billing compared to earned revenue by project, with variances flagged and explained. First time the business had a real-time view of what had been billed vs. what had been earned across the full project portfolio.
PHASE 3
Built a 13-week rolling cash flow forecast incorporating project billing schedules, subcontractor payment terms, payroll timing, and overhead commitments. Established a minimum cash floor — the business would not fall below a defined threshold. Built the monitoring process to maintain it.
ONGOING
Monthly CFO oversight: per-project profitability review, WIP reconciliation, cash flow forecast update, and variance analysis. The systems run continuously. The bank balance has not dropped below $1.2M since engagement. The business generated over $1M in net profit and paid $2.6M in profit sharing to the team.
The Outcome
THE FLOOR HOLDS. THE TEAM GETS PAID.
Bank balance has never dropped below $1.2M since engagement — the cash floor is established and maintained month over month.
$2.6M in profit sharing paid out to the team — enabled by the visibility to know the profit was real before distributing it.
Over $1M in net profit generated — documented at the project level, not just in aggregate on the P&L.
Job-level cost visibility established for every active project — no project finishes without a known margin.
WIP reporting running monthly — billing gaps flagged before they become cash gaps.
13-week rolling cash flow forecast in place — the bank balance is no longer the only financial signal the owner has.
Time to Outcome
INFRASTRUCTURE BUILT. FLOOR ESTABLISHED.
The three systems — job costing, WIP reporting, and cash flow forecasting — were built in sequence over the first 90 days of the engagement. The cash floor was established within that window. Ongoing CFO oversight has maintained it since. The $2.6M in profit sharing came after the financial infrastructure was in place long enough to document the profitability that justified it.
WHY THIS MATTERS AT SCALE
The absence of financial infrastructure isn't more forgivable at $25M than at $5M — it's more dangerous. At $25M, a billing gap on one project can be $500K. A cost overrun that goes undetected for 60 days can erase margin on multiple jobs. The same problems that cause cash stress at $3M cause existential risk at $25M. CFOS builds the same foundational systems regardless of revenue — job costing, WIP, cash flow — because those three systems are what make a construction business financially legible at any scale.
What This Means
IS YOUR BUSINESS FINANCIALLY LEGIBLE?
Revenue doesn't make a business legible. Systems do. If you can't answer these questions clearly, the infrastructure isn't there yet.
You do meaningful annual revenue but can't tell a banker, a bonding agent, or a potential buyer what any specific project made.
You have no WIP reconciliation — no monthly comparison of what you've billed against what you've actually earned on each contract.
Your cash position visibility ends at the bank balance — no 13-week forecast, no early warning for shortfalls before they arrive.
You've never been able to pay profit sharing because you weren't sure the profit was real — or you paid it and later regretted it.
You're growing revenue but the financial complexity is outpacing the systems you have in place to manage it.
Common Questions
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
A $25M marine general contractor had zero financial infrastructure — no job costing, no WIP reporting, no cash flow forecasting, no project-level visibility. The business was doing significant volume with established crews and client relationships, but the owner was running it on gut feel and bank balance. At $25M in revenue with 45–90 day payment cycles on large marine projects, that's not a sustainable position — it's a structural risk.
All three foundational financial systems were absent simultaneously — not poorly implemented, but entirely missing. Job costing: every dollar posted to the company, not to a project. WIP reporting: no way to compare billing against earned revenue by contract. Cash flow forecasting: the bank balance was the only real-time financial signal available. Each absence compounded the others — without job costing you can't do WIP, without WIP you can't forecast, and without forecasting you have no early warning.
The bank balance has never dropped below $1.2M since engagement. The business generated over $1M in net profit. The team received $2.6M in profit sharing — made possible by having the financial infrastructure to document that the profit was real before distributing it. All three results are ongoing — not a one-time event but a sustained state the systems maintain month over month.
Yes — the three systems CFOS builds are the same regardless of revenue: job costing, WIP reporting, and cash flow forecasting. The complexity scales with volume but the foundational architecture doesn't change. Any marine or specialty GC doing $10M–$30M without these systems in place is operating with the same structural risk, just at a larger number. The Job Profitability System and Cash Flow Cycle System are where CFOS starts.
Former commercial construction project manager and master electrician. Managed 150+ projects totaling $300M+ including Google data centers, military bases, hospitals, and high-rises. Now fractional CFO for commercial subcontractors doing $1M–$12M through Sulphur Prairie Management.
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CAN YOU SEE EVERY PROJECT'S PROFIT RIGHT NOW?
If the answer is no, the infrastructure isn't there yet. We build it — and we do it in 60 days.
