T&M BILLING FOR SUBCONTRACTORS.
Time and material (T&M) billing charges for actual labor hours, materials, and equipment used on a job, at agreed rates, instead of a fixed contract price. A defensible T&M rate sheet builds in labor burden, equipment cost, and markup up front, so every T&M ticket is profitable instead of just busy.
Most subcontractors underprice T&M work because the labor rate is built off gross wage rather than fully burdened cost. Payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, and small tools all belong in the rate before markup goes on top, or every T&M hour bills at a loss dressed up as a win. The same thing happens with equipment. A machine that bills fuel and an operator but not ownership cost turns a busy T&M month into a break even one, and nobody catches it, because every invoice got paid on time.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Time and material billing is billing for the actual labor hours, materials, and equipment used on a job at agreed rates, instead of one fixed contract price.
Materials and equipment get their own markup lines, separate from labor. Equipment should bill at a cost per hour rate that reflects ownership cost, not just fuel and an operator, or every T&M job ends up subsidizing the fleet. That one line is the difference between T&M work that funds your equipment and T&M work that wears it out for free.
WHERE T&M LOSES MONEY.
Rate built on base wage
Quoting the T&M labor rate off gross wage instead of fully burdened cost bakes in a loss before markup is even applied. The number looks right to everybody who sees it, because it matches the wage on the check. What it doesn't match is what the hour costs the company once taxes, insurance, and benefits are in it.
No same day ticket and sign-off cadence
T&M tickets signed days later from memory miss hours, materials, and equipment usage, and waiting until the end of the job to collect signatures invites disputes over hours nobody can verify. Nobody reconstructs a Tuesday accurately on Friday. Same day sign-off is the cheapest protection you have, and it costs one conversation per day.
Undocumented equipment time
Equipment sitting on a T&M job without a logged cost per hour rate bills at zero. The machine still burns fuel, still depreciates, and still needs service. If it's not on the ticket, the job absorbed that cost and the customer paid nothing toward it.
Stale rate sheets
A rate sheet built two years ago doesn't reflect current wage or material cost, and every job billed under it underbills. Wages moved, insurance renewed, and material went up. The sheet stayed where it was, so the shortfall grows a little every quarter until somebody sits down and rebuilds it.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
Base wage is the hourly wage paid to the field employee. Payroll burden covers payroll taxes, workers' comp, and unemployment insurance. Benefits load covers health insurance, retirement match, and PTO accrual where it applies. Small tools and consumables cover wear items and small tools not billed as separate line items. Markup goes on top of the fully burdened rate to recover overhead and profit.
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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