ROOFING: THE INSURANCE MONEY TRAP

The first claim check pays actual cash value only. The recoverable depreciation is withheld until the job is complete and documented, and supplements can sit for weeks in an adjuster's queue. Every open claim is a receivable on someone else's schedule, so claims tracking belongs on the cash forecast, not in a file drawer.

Enough to carry full overhead through the quiet months, and at least one month of payroll as a floor. Demand stops seasonally; trucks, insurance, and salaries don't. The strongest companies stockpile cash in the busy months on purpose, not by accident.

Roofing contractors at $1M to $5M net about 6.5 percent before taxes on the SPM 48-trade benchmark dataset, rising to 9 percent by $25M to $50M. CFMA's 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker puts construction as a whole at 6.3 percent net income before taxes across all respondents, with the best-in-class top quartile at 11.9 percent, so a roofer at 6.5 percent is sitting in the middle of the market rather than ahead of it. SPM holds a 10 percent net profit floor before taxes whatever the trade, because below 10 the business stops paying for the payroll and the personal guarantees the owner signed. /construction-net-profit-margin-benchmarks carries the roofing figure at your revenue band.

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 run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Strategic is where every job shows its margin while it is still running, 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.