Fractional CFO for Construction Companies
Construction is one of the few industries where a profitable job and a solvent business are genuinely different questions. We work on both.
The Financial Challenges Construction & General Contractors Face
Work-in-progress that nobody trusts
The WIP schedule is the single most important report in a construction business and the one most often wrong. Over- and under-billings get estimated rather than calculated, and by the time the year-end adjustment lands the picture has moved so far that nobody believes the monthly numbers any more.
Retainage tying up your margin
Five to ten percent of every job sits with the owner, sometimes for a year past completion. On a growing book that is a permanent, growing hole in working capital, and most contractors have never quantified what it actually costs them.
Job costing that arrives too late to act on
Knowing a job lost money after it closed is history, not management. The costing has to land while there is still schedule left to change the outcome.
Bonding capacity capping your growth
Your surety looks at working capital and equity before it looks at your backlog. Contractors regularly discover they cannot bid the work they have earned the right to bid, because the balance sheet was never managed with the bonding programme in mind.
How We Help
Monthly WIP with real over/under billings
Calculated from actual cost-to-complete, not estimated. Reviewed monthly so the adjustment never becomes a year-end surprise.
Job-level margin while the job is live
Costing by phase and cost code, reported while there is still time to change something.
Cash forecasting built around retainage and draws
A 13-week view that models draw schedules, retainage release and payment behaviour by owner — not an average.
Bonding and banking strategy
Balance sheet managed deliberately toward the working capital and equity your surety wants to see, so capacity grows with the backlog.
Change order discipline
Tracking what was approved, what was performed and what was billed, because unbilled change orders are where construction margin quietly disappears.
Percentage-of-completion done properly
Revenue recognition your CPA, your bank and your surety all read the same way.
What we watch in a construction business
Backlog quality, not just size
A large backlog of low-margin work is a liability, not an asset. We report backlog weighted by expected margin so growth decisions are made on profit rather than volume.
Cost-to-complete accuracy
The single input that determines whether your WIP is truthful. We track estimate-versus-actual by project manager, because systematic optimism in one estimator distorts the whole schedule.
Days of working capital
How long the business can fund itself between draws. This is the number that decides whether you can take the next job, and most contractors have never calculated it.
Labour productivity by crew
Hours earned against hours burned. It is the earliest reliable warning that a job is going wrong, usually weeks before the cost report shows it.
Services
Fractional CFO
Senior finance leadership part-time, with controller support underneath it.
Fractional CMO
Marketing strategy and demand generation held to the same standard as the numbers.
Exit Planning
Clean books, a defensible story and control of the narrative before diligence starts.
72-Hour Cash Flow
A fast, honest read on your cash position when the answer cannot wait.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a fractional CFO do for a construction company?
Owns the reporting that construction actually runs on: the WIP schedule with calculated over- and under-billings, job-level margin while jobs are live, a cash forecast that models draws and retainage rather than averaging them, and a balance sheet managed toward your bonding programme. Alongside that, the standard CFO work — forecasting, pricing, capital strategy and exit readiness.
How is construction accounting different from regular accounting?
Percentage-of-completion revenue recognition, WIP schedules, retainage, change orders and job costing all have no equivalent in most industries. A general bookkeeper can keep the ledger tidy and still produce a P&L that tells you nothing true about whether the business is making money. That gap is where most contractors get hurt.
Can you help increase our bonding capacity?
We can help you manage toward it. Sureties underwrite working capital, equity and the quality of your reporting. Those are all things a CFO influences deliberately over a few quarters — cleaner WIP, better cash conversion, retained earnings strategy. We cannot make an underwriting decision for you, but we can make you a better risk.
We already have a bookkeeper and a CPA. Why add a CFO?
A bookkeeper records what happened. A CPA files it and keeps you compliant. Neither is engaged to tell you which jobs to stop bidding, whether your rates cover your real overhead, or whether you can afford the next crew. That forward-looking work is the CFO seat.
Do you work with subcontractors as well as general contractors?
Yes. The mechanics differ — subs live with pay-when-paid terms and much less control over schedule — but the underlying issues are the same: job costing, retainage, cash timing and knowing which work is genuinely worth taking.
Ready to talk about your construction business?
A conversation, not a pitch. If we are not the right fit we will tell you.
Start the conversation