DOZENS OF SITES, ONE POOLED NUMBER.
A SWPPP and erosion control book is dozens of small sites, each with its own inspection cadence, material draw, and crew travel, and each one too small to justify its own report. Pooled together they produce one company number that describes none of them. One verified $5.2M erosion control contractor netted $24,000 while costs were pooled, then netted $1,105,000 the following year once every site carried a visible number, on $1.6M less revenue than its peak year. Rain event work is the second problem, because a 0.25 inch storm obligates a 24 hour inspection across every permitted site at once and routine rates don't pay for surge capacity. The third is the permit itself, where EPA stormwater penalties reach $56,460 per day per violation before state boards stack their own on top.
None of that's a market problem. The profitable work was already in the building, and it was being consumed by sites nobody could point at. That's what makes this trade the clearest case for per site costing anywhere in construction: no single site is large enough to justify tracking, so pooling feels reasonable right up to the year it costs the whole margin. The documentation this contractor sells is also the documentation this contractor is judged on, which means the record keeping is the product rather than the overhead.
WHAT IT MEANS.
SWPPP financial management is running an erosion control business on a per site profit and loss rather than a company total, because the book is dozens of small recurring sites and the company average describes none of them.
The book also splits into three revenue types that behave differently. Installation tracks the building season, inspection contracts recur monthly, and maintenance recurs on its own cadence. A divisional profit and loss tells you whether growth should buy more crews or more contracts, and without it the winter reads as a performance failure instead of a scheduling one.
Compliance is the constraint that sits underneath all of it. Earth can't legally be disturbed until the Notice of Intent is approved and the plan is in place, and the plan is a living document rather than a filing. The permit holder wears the fine, so the fight after a violation is about whose documentation failed. A contractor with complete inspection logs, corrective action records, and photo trails is the client's defense. A contractor without them is the co-defendant.
WHY THE AVERAGE HIDES THE SPREAD.
Costs are pooled because no site is big enough to track
Every site gets billed and costed into one view, so the company knows what it made in total and nothing about where. A site with long crew travel and heavy maintenance looks identical in the accounting to a site ten minutes away that needs almost nothing. Averaged together, dozens of sites produce a company that reads as roughly break even while a handful of sites fund the rest.
Every site is priced as though it costs the same to serve
Pricing is set the same way across the whole book, which means the expensive sites are priced as though they're cheap. Nobody repriced or released anything, not out of sentiment but because no information existed that would have told them to. Drive time, inspection minutes, and BMP material burn are the three costs that separate one site from another, and none of them is visible in a pooled ledger.
Rain event work is billed at routine rates
Most permits require an inspection within 24 hours of a 0.25 inch rain event, on top of the routine weekly or biweekly cadence. Rain events are unscheduled, simultaneous across every site in the portfolio, and contractually mandatory, which is the definition of surge staffing. Pricing the hardest hours in the business at route rates donates them.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
One verified $5.2M erosion control contractor went from $24,000 of net profit to $1,105,000 the following year, on $1.6M less revenue than its peak year. Per site reporting was running every month in about 10 weeks. The revenue given up was the revenue that had been consuming the profit of everything else, which is why less of it produced more money.
EPA stormwater penalties reach $56,460 per day per violation at current inflation adjusted rates, and state boards stack their own on top. Negligent Clean Water Act violations carry $2,500 to $25,000 per day and knowing violations run $5,000 to $50,000 per day, with a stop work order riding along. The inspection log is the only defense, which is why the documentation system is the deliverable rather than the paperwork.
GIVE EVERY SITE A NUMBER.
Crew time, drive time, inspection minutes, and BMP material post against the site that consumed them, and the sites roll up by route. The first output is the spread between the best site and the worst one, which is usually the first time anybody in the company has seen it. Repricing or releasing a site then becomes a routine monthly decision rather than an argument.
Rain event inspections get their own rate class above routine inspection pricing, with the trigger, the response window, and the rate stated in the contract. That's emergency surge work being sold as emergency surge work. Without the clause, the sky sets your schedule and your client sets your price.
The three revenue types are reported separately, because they carry different margins, different seasonality, and different growth decisions. The recurring lines are what carry the winter, and the divisional view is what tells you whether the next dollar should buy a crew or a contract.
Inspection logs, corrective action records, and photo trails get produced on a cadence and stored where they can be produced on request, because the client is buying that record as much as the silt fence. It's also the contractor's own defense when the permit holder starts asking whose documentation failed.
THE OUTPUTS, NAMED.
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.
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