CFO Advisory
The decisions modelled before you commit
Reporting tells you what happened. Advisory is the part that changes what happens next: a cash forecast built on your actual draw schedule, contract margin measured while the job is open, and the big decisions modelled before you are committed to them.
Where it goes wrong
CFO advisory for contractors
Cash and profit come apart on long contracts
You can be profitable on paper and short on cash in the same month, because retainage is held and draws arrive on someone else’s schedule. A forecast built on last year’s pattern will not see it coming.
Margin is discovered at closeout
If contract performance against estimate is only visible when the job closes, every correction arrives too late. We flag fade at roughly forty and seventy percent complete, because those are the points where there is still enough job left to change the outcome and enough history to trust the signal.
The bid multiplier is inherited rather than derived
Most contractors mark up using a number they have used for years. Your overhead recovery rate and the multiplier that follows from it can be derived from your own history, which turns bidding from a habit into a calculation you can defend.
Covenants get tested at the worst moment
Working capital and debt service ratios are measured on dates set by your lender, not by your job schedule. Tracked monthly, a covenant problem is a conversation you open. Discovered at a reporting date, it is one your bank opens.
Big decisions get made on instinct
Taking on a larger contract, adding a crew, buying equipment, or opening a second entity all change your capacity and your cash position at once. Most contractors make these calls without seeing the effect modelled first.
The forward view is only as good as the data under it
The next four quarters are the horizon a bonded contractor needs covered, and covering it takes a current WIP, a real cost to complete, and a draw schedule someone maintains. Where nobody holds that seat, it goes uncovered. Where an advisor or fractional CFO already holds it, they are usually rebuilding the numbers themselves before they can use them.
What this covers
What arrives, and when
- A rolling thirteen-week cash forecast built against your WIP and draw schedules
- Underbilled position tracked monthly, not discovered at year end
- Job fade flagged at roughly forty and seventy percent complete, while it is still manageable
- Contract margin against estimate while jobs are open, so drift is actionable
- Bid capacity modelling, with your bonding position in view
- Overhead recovery rate and bid multiplier derived from your own history
- Covenant tracking against the ratios your lender actually measures
- Scenario planning for the decisions that change capacity and cash at once
- A monthly review of the numbers with the person who prepared them
- Quarterly bonding and surety support, producing the package your agent reads
The package your agent reads is the package that brings you referrals
Bonding and surety support runs quarterly and produces a document your agent presents on your behalf. That is worth saying plainly: the agent who reads a clean, well-prepared package is the agent who puts your name forward when another contractor needs one. Presenting well is not administrative tidiness, it is how the relationship compounds.
If you are an agent rather than a contractor, this page is for you
This sits inside one engagement rather than being sold as a line item. What it costs depends on your contract volume, your entity and payroll-state count, and how much of the compliance substrate sits with us. We scope it against your numbers and put it in writing before you commit.
How the engagement worksQuestions
What contractors ask about this
How is this different from what my bookkeeper does?
A bookkeeper records what has happened and keeps the ledger accurate, which is necessary and is the substrate this runs on. Advisory work is forward-looking: forecasting cash against your draw and retainage schedules, measuring contract performance while jobs are open, and modelling decisions before they are made. The two are complementary rather than competing.
Why a thirteen-week cash forecast rather than an annual budget?
Thirteen weeks is roughly a quarter, which is far enough ahead to act on and close enough to forecast accurately. Construction cash flow is structurally lumpy: retainage is withheld until closeout, draws arrive on the owner’s schedule rather than yours, and payroll runs every week regardless. Built against your WIP and draw schedules and rolled forward each week, it shows where the squeeze lands early enough to arrange around it. An annual budget cannot see any of that.
What is job fade and when can you catch it?
Job fade is gross profit on a contract eroding as it progresses, usually because the estimated cost to complete keeps rising. It shows up in the WIP roll-forward before it shows up anywhere else. We look hardest at roughly forty and seventy percent complete: early enough that there is still job left to manage, late enough that the trend is real rather than noise.
Do you replace our accountant?
Usually not. Many contractors keep their existing accountant for compliance filing and add this for the forward-looking work. Where it makes more sense to consolidate, we can do that, but it is not a requirement and we will not push it if the existing relationship is working.
We already work with a fractional CFO. Does this compete with them?
No, and we would rather run the function underneath them. An advisor holding the strategic seat still needs a current WIP, an honest cost to complete, and a cash forecast built on the real draw schedule, and most advisory firms are too small to staff that work. Where you already have that person, they keep the seat and we produce the numbers they work from. We will tell you on the first call which situation we think we are in rather than three months later.
How often would we actually speak?
Monthly on the numbers, with the person who prepared them rather than an account manager reading a summary. Quarterly on the decisions ahead. Where bonding capacity or a step-change in contract size is the live constraint, the cadence tightens to match.
The rest of the engagement
This does not work on its own
WIP reporting and bonding capacity
Work-in-progress schedules, over- and under-billing analysis, and bonding capacity support for commercial contractors. Presented the way a surety underwriter reads it.
Subcontractor and payroll compliance
Certified payroll, prevailing wage, lien waivers, insurance certificates, 1099s, and worker classification review for commercial construction contractors.
Construction tax strategy
Revenue recognition method election, look-back, equipment timing, entity structure, and multi-state exposure for commercial construction contractors.
Find out what your position actually looks like
Bring your current schedule and your last two years of statements. We will tell you what a surety sees, what is holding your capacity down, and what the work to fix it looks like.
Talk through your position