WHY CIVIL CONTRACTORS NEED A DIFFERENT KIND OF CFO.
Civil contracting carries financial complexity that generic CFOs and bookkeepers get wrong every time: equipment cost basis that has to match true fleet economics, bonding capacity tied directly to WIP accuracy, public project payment cycles running 60 to 90 days, and mobilization holes that require capital planning before the first billing event. You need somebody who understands the trade first and the accounting second.
Most civil contractors have been through some part of this already. A bookkeeper who didn't understand equipment depreciation. A CPA who couldn't read a WIP schedule. A fractional CFO who had never seen a public project payment cycle and sized the line of credit as if the work were private commercial on 30 day terms. The problems compound, because a wrong equipment rate corrupts the estimate, a weak WIP costs you bonding capacity, and an undersized line of credit turns a normal 75 day collection into a payroll question.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A civil CFO is a construction CFO who understands the trade first and the accounting second: equipment cost basis, bonding capacity, public project payment cycles, and retainage timing.
WHAT KEEPS GETTING MISSED.
Equipment cost basis
Civil contractors running 10 to 40 pieces of owned equipment need a cost basis on every piece: what it costs per hour to operate, depreciate, and maintain. That rate goes into every job estimate and every job cost report. When it's wrong, you're either subsidizing jobs with equity or overpricing work and losing bids. A generic CFO sees equipment as a balance sheet entry, and a civil CFO sees it as a variable job cost that moves with every purchase and every sale.
Bonding capacity management
Surety underwriters set bonding limits from working capital, net worth, and WIP schedule accuracy. A civil contractor with clean financials, verified job margins, and $650K in the bank qualifies for significantly more aggregate bonding than the same contractor with messy books. The financial system decides what work you're allowed to bid. A generic CFO has never had a conversation with a surety underwriter, and a civil CFO manages the balance sheet with bonding in mind every month.
Public project payment cycles
DOT and municipal contracts run 60 to 90 day payment cycles, and sometimes longer than that. The mobilization stretch on a public job can run past 90 days before the first check comes in. A generic CFO sizes a line of credit off private sector assumptions. A civil CFO sizes the LOC to the true public project float and builds a cash forecast that carries the longer cycle on every active project.
Retainage and final payment timing
Retainage on public civil work often runs 5 to 10 percent held through substantial completion, which can be 18 to 24 months after mobilization. On a $3M project that's $150K to $300K sitting on the balance sheet as a receivable that won't collect for two years. A generic CFO treats retainage like normal AR. A civil CFO forecasts it separately, understands what it does to working capital, and uses it correctly in the WIP schedule.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
The company had 34 pieces of equipment and 14 trucks, and none of them had a cost basis tied to job costing. Equipment was running to overhead and the job margins were overstated. Once CFOS built the equipment cost structure and tied it to job level reporting, the balance sheet went up $779K in 90 days, and nothing changed operationally. The numbers finally reflected the business.
One company came in with $8K in the bank and both lines of credit maxed out. Ninety days after the CFOS cash control system went in, there was $750K of cash available. Both lines of credit and the SBA loan were paid off within 60 days of putting the system in place.
WHAT WE CHANGE.
Generic bookkeepers put equipment costs in overhead. We code owned equipment to the jobs it worked. When equipment runs to overhead, job margins read better than they're and overhead reads worse than it is, so both numbers are wrong and you bid the next job off a corrupted cost structure.
Surety agents ask for WIP schedules. Most civil contractors give them a spreadsheet that was put together the day before the meeting, and underwriters see through it immediately. A WIP maintained monthly with accurate cost to completes and verified job margins is a different document, and it supports higher bonding limits and better terms.
A $5M civil contractor doing mostly public work on 75 day collection cycles needs a different LOC structure than a $5M concrete sub doing private commercial work on 30 day terms. Generic advisors run the same calculation on every client. We model the true public project cash cycle before we make a bank recommendation.
General equipment maintenance and repair belongs in overhead. Project specific damage belongs in job cost. Most bookkeepers put all of it in one bucket, and the overhead rate then swings 3 to 5 percentage points depending on whether you had a bad equipment month. We split them so the overhead rate holds and the job cost is accurate.
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.
| 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.
