WHY MASONRY CONTRACTORS LOSE MARGIN ON LABOR.
Masonry labor productivity is units per hour — block laid, brick courses set, stone veneer installed. Your estimate embedded a specific production rate for each phase. When the job runs at a lower rate, every hour over budget comes directly out of gross margin. Most masonry contractors track labor in dollars but not in units, which means the variance is invisible until closeout.
CFOS tracks both — dollars and units by phase — so a crew running at 85% of estimated block-lay rate is visible in week 3, not at final billing.
When a masonry contractor prices a block wall, the labor estimate is built on a production rate — courses per hour, block per crew-day, square feet per shift. That rate becomes the standard. Everything that happens on the job is measured against it.
If the estimate assumed 180 block per crew-day and the job is running at 140, the crew is 22% below rate. On $280,000 in remaining labor budget, that variance is $61,600 in unplanned cost — identifiable in week 3 if someone is tracking units. Not identifiable at all if labor is tracked only in dollars.
A masonry job typically has multiple distinct work types: CMU block, face brick, stone veneer, mortar work, grout fill, anchor installation. Each has a different production rate, crew composition, and material consumption pattern. Lumping them into one labor code means a $35,000 overrun on stone veneer is buried inside a $180,000 masonry labor line that looks close to budget overall.
Phase-level tracking is where the variance lives. CFOS builds cost codes that match the estimate structure — same phases, same categories — so actual vs estimated is an apples-to-apples comparison by phase, by week.
A masonry estimate built on a journeyman/apprentice ratio of 2:1 runs differently if the crew is 3:1 or 1:1. Fully burdened labor rates diverge significantly between journeymen and apprentices — and production rates diverge too. A crew heavy on apprentices lays fewer units per hour and costs more per unit than the estimate assumed.
CFOS tracks both hours and fully burdened dollars by phase. When a phase runs on budget in hours but over budget in dollars, the cause is crew composition — not a production rate problem. That distinction determines the correct response.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Two tiers based on trailing 12-month revenue. No hourly billing. No payroll. No add-ons.
| Revenue | Core Financial | Executive Financial |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900/mo | $2,900/mo |
| $1M–$3M | $2,600/mo | $3,600/mo |
| $4M–$6M | $3,800/mo | $5,500/mo |
| $7M–$9M | $5,100/mo | $6,900/mo |
| $10M–$12M | $6,100/mo | $8,500/mo |
| $13M+ | Quoted | Quoted |
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