WHY BOOKKEEPING ISN'T THE PROBLEM.
Subcontractors keep hiring better bookkeepers and the problems keep happening. Cash is still tight. Jobs still come in under bid. Bonding capacity is still capped. Overhead is still a mystery. The reason is that bookkeeping is the wrong function for the problems most subs are trying to solve with it. Bookkeeping records what happened: transactions, AP, AR, payroll posting, and bank reconciliations. It's a historical record keeping function. Cash forecasting, job profitability analysis, overhead rate calibration, working capital management, and bonding readiness all require a different function entirely, which is financial control. No amount of better bookkeeping fills that hole. You can have the world's best bookkeeper and still hit a cash crisis. The bookkeeper isn't the problem. The missing function above them is.
This isn't a knock on bookkeepers. A good one does what the job is built to do, which is accurate transaction recording, a timely close, and clean statements, and that work is necessary every single month. The trouble starts when an owner asks the bookkeeping function to answer questions it was never built for. Which job is losing money right now, can we fund the next mobilization, is the overhead rate in the bid still true. Those are decision questions, and the function that answers them sits one level above the ledger.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Bookkeeping is a transactional record keeping function: it records AR and AP, posts payroll, codes transactions, reconciles the bank, and produces the month end statements, all of it describing what already happened.
Walk into ten subcontracting businesses that are struggling financially and you find the same story. The owner thinks the bookkeeper is the problem. Maybe the books are messy, maybe transactions aren't categorized right, or maybe the bank recs are 60 days behind. So the owner hires a better bookkeeper, switches firms, moves the work in house, or buys better software.
Six months later the books are cleaner and the problems haven't moved. Cash is still tight on payroll weeks, jobs still come in below bid at closeout, bonding capacity is still capped, and the owner still can't say week to week which jobs are making money. The bookkeeping got better. The business didn't.
The bookkeeping function is historical and accuracy focused. It produces the required outputs for compliance, banking, and tax, and a skilled bookkeeper does that work correctly and on time. None of it predicts cash, calibrates an overhead rate, analyzes job profitability, or manages bonding capacity.
THE PROBLEMS BOOKKEEPING DOES NOT FIX.
We never have enough cash
Cash visibility requires forward looking forecasting, AR aging worked weekly with direct collections action, AP scheduled against incoming cash, mobilization loaded SOV structuring, and retention tail tracking. None of that's bookkeeping work. A bookkeeper can produce a cash flow statement showing what already happened, and they don't build or maintain a 13-week working forecast that shows what's about to happen.
We never know which jobs are profitable
Job profitability visibility requires cost coding aligned to estimates, monthly WIP schedules with PM validated cost-to-complete, line item variance analysis, and closeout review that drives the next bid. The cost coding alignment alone takes 60 to 90 minute alignment meetings per major project. None of that's bookkeeping work. A bookkeeper can produce a job cost report, but only against whatever cost code structure already exists, which is almost always wrong for the trade.
Our overhead rate doesn't make sense
Overhead rate calibration requires trailing 12-month actual cost analysis, equipment idle drag separated out, fabrication labor allocated where that applies, and rate validation against the bid math quarterly. None of that's bookkeeping work. A bookkeeper can calculate overhead expense off the P&L, and the rate calculation itself plus its integration with estimating is analytical work outside the bookkeeping scope.
We can't get more bonding capacity
Bonding capacity growth requires WIP schedules built to surety standards, working capital management discipline, customer concentration monitoring, balance sheet cleanup, and a surety relationship managed on purpose. None of that's bookkeeping work. A bookkeeper can pass the surety the financial statements, and the underlying structure that decides bonding capacity gets built or destroyed by financial control work rather than bookkeeping work.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
An in-house financial controller runs $85K to $140K all in at this scale, and an in-house CFO runs $180K to $280K. Outsourced bookkeeping alone typically costs $1,200 to $2,800 per month for a sub this size. When the control layer gets picked up by a fractional engagement the standalone bookkeeping cost folds into it, so the net increase to get financial control running is usually $1,500 to $3,500 per month above what bookkeeping was already costing.
THE FUNCTION NOBODY OWNS.
Financial control sits above bookkeeping and below year end CPA work. It's the operational layer that takes the transaction record bookkeeping produces and drives forward looking decisions with it: cash forecasting, bid pricing, capacity planning, and capital allocation. It's a different job from recording the transactions, and it's the job the four problems above all belong to.
They have bookkeeping, in house or outsourced. They have a CPA doing annual tax and review work. The financial control layer in the middle is either unstaffed entirely or being attempted by the owner on Sunday nights with QuickBooks open and a calculator. Hiring a better bookkeeper doesn't change that, because the bookkeeping function is working as designed.
Hire a full time financial controller, engage a firm that operates the control layer for you, or accept that the hole is there and run the business without it. All three are legitimate choices and only one of them is usually made on purpose. The third one is what most subs are doing right now without having decided to.
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. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 | $6,000 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 | $7,500 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 | $9,000 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually | Quoted individually |
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. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
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. The onboarding fee is right here in the table.
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.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we do the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Your office stops answering coding questions and stops fixing a reconciliation that will not balance on the last day of the month.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it is still open.
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 books, the job costing, and the software. No payroll.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
