WHEN DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED A CFO?
Most construction companies need CFO-level financial leadership once they cross $1M in revenue, or sooner if AR is aging past 60 days, overhead has never been checked against real financials, or there has been a near miss on payroll. There's no single revenue number that triggers it. What counts is whether the business has outgrown informal financial management.
Once revenue crosses roughly $1M, most subcontractors are managing several jobs at the same time, each with its own billing cycle and its own cost structure. That's the complexity that breaks informal tracking, and it breaks without announcing itself. The spreadsheet still opens, the bookkeeper still reconciles, and the bank balance still looks survivable. What's missing is anybody looking forward: what cash is coming, what the overhead rate really is, and which of those jobs is going to close short. The warning signs appear before the revenue number does.
WHAT IT MEANS.
CFO-level financial leadership is the function that forecasts what's coming rather than reconciling what already happened, which is the line between a CFO and a bookkeeper.
There's no single revenue number that triggers the need for a CFO. It's more about whether the business has outgrown informal financial management: a spreadsheet, gut instinct, and a bookkeeper who reconciles but doesn't forecast. Once revenue crosses roughly $1M, most subcontractors are managing multiple jobs at once, each with its own billing cycle and cost structure, which is the complexity informal tracking can't handle.
WHAT USUALLY SHOWS FIRST.
A near miss on payroll, or a scramble to cover a short week
Payroll is the one obligation that can't be late, so a week where you had to move money around to make it's the loudest sign on this list. It usually traces back to something upstream: billing that went out late, a GC paying on his own schedule, or costs coming in ahead of the pay app. The scramble is the symptom, and the reason it repeats is that nobody is looking at the weeks ahead.
AR aging past 60 or 90 days with no collections process
Money you earned and never collected is the cheapest cash in the business, and it's held in somebody else's account. Aging past 60 or 90 days isn't unusual in construction, but aging with nobody assigned to work it every week is a decision rather than an accident. Without a process that operates on a schedule, the oldest invoices stay the oldest invoices.
An overhead rate that has never been checked against real financials
Most owners bid with an overhead rate that came from somewhere years ago and was never tested against what the business really spends. When the rate is short, every job brings in a little less than it should, and revenue can grow while margin goes the other direction. This is the item most often behind MCA debt taken on later to cover a hole that traces back to overhead.
Revenue keeps growing but cash never reflects it
Growth consumes cash before it produces any, so a bigger year can leave the account thinner than the year before it. Managing more than 2 or 3 jobs at once with no per-job cost tracking makes it worse, because a job losing money looks the same as a job making money until closeout. That's how a job closes out at a loss nobody saw coming while the WIP schedule was overstating earned revenue for months.
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. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote.
| Last 12 months revenue | Core | Strategic | Platinum | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 | $3,100 | $3,300 | $2,500 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 | $4,100 | $5,300 | $4,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 | $5,900 | $8,300 | $6,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 | $7,600 | $11,800 | $7,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 | $8,900 | $14,900 | $9,000 |
| Above $12.5M | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted |
The onboarding fee covers migrating your books back to the start of your last taxable year and getting you fully operational in 60 days. It's billed once, with your first invoice. It's the same for all three tiers, and it moves with your revenue band. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Just want the setup? Onboarding only is the same onboarding work with no monthly service after it, one time, at the onboarding fee plus $2,000. Start a monthly engagement later and $2,000 counts toward it. It starts at $4,500, and the price for every band is on the pricing page.
The three tier columns are the whole price. Which one fits depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items. The onboarding fee is right here in the table.
- Online software only: QuickBooks, Sage, Viewpoint and similar. No VPN or hosted desktop.
- Not in any tier: payroll, pay applications, collections on receivables.
- Pricing valid through 2027.
CFO work. Your own bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
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 and never in a report.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
Core, plus bookkeeping and bank reconciliations, plus job costing and WIP software set up and managed for you. Use your own online accounting software or we supply it, one price.
Every job shows its margin while it is still open.
Everything in Core, plus the bookkeeping and bank reconciliations done for you, and the job costing and WIP software set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed every month. Use your own online software, or move to ours and we cover it.
A bookkeeper we choose does the books and reconciliations. No payroll.
Strategic, plus a controller who handles payables and receivables the way an in-house controller would. You approve every payment.
You approve, and the money side gets handled.
Everything in Strategic, plus a controller we choose who handles your bills and receivables for you the way an in-house controller would. They call vendors, pay the bills and keep the accounting current. We plan the cash flow first, and you approve every payment because it is your money.
A controller we choose does the payables and receivables. No payroll, no pay applications, no collections.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
