HOW THE TRADE BENCHMARK DATA IS BUILT.
SPM's trade benchmarks combine two sources: gross margin and overhead rates validated against CFMA's 2024 and 2025 financial survey data plus a January 2026 specialty trade study, and net profit pulled from a 48 trade master dataset. Every trade is broken into 7 revenue bands, from under $1M to $500M and up.
Most industry benchmark content online is a single number with nothing behind it. Ours is built from two sources, reconciled against each other, and organized by revenue band, because a $2M electrical contractor and a $40M electrical contractor don't carry the same overhead structure and comparing them tells you very little. When the two sources disagree, the variance gets logged before either number goes on a page. The point of all of it's that a client can ask where a number came from and get a straight answer.
WHAT IT MEANS.
An SPM trade benchmark is a single ratified figure for one trade in one of seven revenue bands, built from CFMA's 2024 and 2025 financial survey data plus a January 2026 specialty trade study for gross margin and overhead, and from a 48 trade master dataset for net profit.
Seven bands keep the comparison apples to apples, because the overhead a contractor carries at $3M has almost nothing in common with the overhead a contractor carries at $300M. The crew size is different, the management layers are different, and the fixed cost base is different. One blended figure per trade would be wrong for almost every company reading it.
WHAT GOES WRONG WITH INDUSTRY NUMBERS.
A single number with no source behind it
Most industry benchmark content online gives you one figure and no way to check it. You can't tell whether it came from a survey, from a blog post quoting another blog post, or from somebody's opinion. A number you can't trace is a number you can't defend when your banker or your surety disagrees with it.
One figure per trade, with no revenue band
Overhead structure, crew size, and management layers all change as a subcontractor grows. Applying a $2M company's overhead to a $40M company produces a comparison that's wrong in both directions. That's why every trade gets split into 7 revenue bands rather than published as one figure for the whole trade.
Numbers that disagree with each other across a site
When the trade page says one thing, the CEO Report says another, and the calculator says a third, nobody trusts any of the three. Every variance between a trade page and the master dataset goes into a reconciliation log before either number is final. One canonical value gets ratified, and then the trade page, the CEO Report, and every calculator cite it.
HOW A NUMBER GETS RATIFIED.
The trade and the revenue band get pulled from CFMA's survey data and from the January 2026 specialty trade study. Nothing gets written from memory or from a competitor's page. The raw figures come first and the commentary comes after them.
Net profit specifically gets checked against the master dataset, because that dataset is the canonical source for net. The master covers 24 served trades and 24 adjacent trades. When the survey and the master disagree on net profit, the master carries it.
Any difference between the trade page and the master dataset goes into a reconciliation log first. Nothing gets published while the two disagree silently. The log is what makes a number defensible six months later when a client asks where it came from.
One value gets ratified per trade and revenue band, and then the trade page, the CEO Report, and every calculator cite the same number. That's the difference between a benchmark and a claim. It also means correcting one figure corrects it everywhere it appears.
The client's actuals get read against the industry benchmark for their trade and band, which is the grid published at /construction-subcontractor-financial-benchmarks-by-trade. Two outside references validate that grid and are cited under every table on this site. CFMA's 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker Executive Summary, at https://cfma.org/articles/cfma-s-2-24-construction-financial-benchmarker-executive-summary, reports 21.8 percent gross profit margin, 11.8 percent SG&A and 6.3 percent net income before taxes across all respondents, with a best-in-class top quartile at 11.9 percent net income before taxes. Jones Maresca and Company's 2025 Performance Benchmarks, at https://www.jmco.com/articles/construction/performance-benchmarks-construction-companies/, publish specialty contractor gross margin of 15 to 25 percent and total indirect cost of 8 to 15 percent. Every net profit figure on this site is stated before taxes, the basis CFMA reports on, so the comparison is valid rather than approximate. Those figures describe the middle of the market rather than a target. The trade and band benchmark tells you where you stand next to your peers, and the CFOS target sits above it, because SPM holds a 10 percent net profit minimum before taxes as the floor for a business that funds itself.
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.
Pricing
| 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.
