Change orders that were never logged
Directed work performed on a verbal instruction, priced later or not at all. A log maintained as changes are issued is a contemporaneous record. One assembled afterwards is an argument about memory.
For Attorneys and Associations
Better records behind the work you do.
A place to refer commercial subcontractors who need an organized financial record, and practical educational resources for construction professionals and their members.
Partner handoffA clear working relationship
- Contract records
- 01
- Supporting documentation
- 02
- Practical resources
- 03
Illustrative structure. Your scope is agreed together.
The responsibilities stay clear
No referral fees in either directionNo revenue sharingScope agreed with the client
What you keep having to rebuild
The records a dispute turns on, and why they are usually missing
None of this is about whether your client was right. It is about whether the paperwork behind him can carry the argument, and every one of these gets reconstructed on your clock when it was not kept as the job ran.
Job cost that does not tie to the general ledger
If the cost detail behind a claim cannot be reconciled to the books it came from, the number is attackable before anyone reaches the merits of it.
Retainage sitting inside receivables
Aged out by contract, receivable and payable, the amount actually in dispute is a figure you can state. Buried in a receivables total it has to be derived, and the derivation is the first thing challenged.
Lien waivers and notices with no tracking behind them
Conditional and unconditional, by contract and by period, with the dates they were exchanged. Deadlines are statutory and they do not care that the bookkeeping was behind.
A schedule of values nobody maintained
Pay applications built off a stale schedule stop matching the work in place. The gap between the two is the payment dispute, and it is visible monthly if anyone is looking.
Certified payroll produced under deadline
WH-347 and the state equivalents, with prevailing wage tracked by trade and locality. On public work an incorrect filing is its own exposure, separate from whatever the matter is about.
The common thread is that none of it is hard to keep and all of it is expensive to rebuild. The cost lands at the worst possible moment, which is after the relationship has already broken down.
Where the line is
What we do not do
We do not practise law, we do not give legal advice, and nothing we produce is an opinion on the merits of anything. Today CFO is not a law firm and holds no legal credential.
We are also not retained as expert witnesses and we do not give testimony. If a matter needs a testifying expert or a forensic accounting engagement, that is a different professional and we will say so rather than stretch to cover it. What we do is keep the underlying records correct and current so that whoever does that work is starting from something real.
We perform no attest work either. No audits, reviews or compilations. That stays with the client’s CPA firm.
Before you spend your credibility
What we tell you
If a referred contractor’s books cannot support what the matter needs, you hear that from us before you have recommended anyone. The first ninety days on a badly kept book is cleanup rather than insight, and on a live dispute that timing matters more than it usually does. We would rather set that expectation with you than have it surprise your client.
The return
Why it is worth your time
A client whose records are current is a client whose matter is cheaper to run and stronger to argue. Discovery produces documents instead of a reconstruction project, the numbers survive being checked, and the hours you bill go to the dispute rather than to the bookkeeping underneath it.
It also works preventively, which is the better outcome for a client you intend to keep. Most of what becomes a payment dispute was visible in the reporting months before anybody called a lawyer.
For chapter and association contacts
CFMA, ABC, AGC and TEXO
A different conversation from the one above, and a shorter one. You are not handing us a client. You are deciding whether something is worth an hour of your members’ evening, and the fastest way to lose that room is to let it turn into a pitch.
Education, not a vendor slot
WIP schedules, retainage position, percent complete and what an underwriter actually reads. Material a member can use the following week whoever keeps his books, with no product at the end of it.
Written for the person who has to produce it
Usually the owner or an office manager rather than a controller. The gap in most chapter programming is not sophistication, it is that the session assumed a finance function the smaller member does not have.
Members who ask afterwards get a straight answer
Including that they do not need us. A member carrying no bonding, no subs and no retainage is told that plainly, which is the only thing that makes the invitation safe to extend again.
Nothing is gated
No form in front of the handouts, no list capture off an attendee sheet, no follow-up sequence to anyone who did not ask for one.
Making an introduction
What you are actually committing him to
Four steps, and you are only responsible for the first one.
- 01
You make the introduction
An email is enough. You do not need to explain what we do, or vouch for the outcome.
- 02
An initial call with him
Half an hour with Tom on what his contracts look like and what his reporting currently produces. No charge, no obligation either side.
- 03
The Financial Risk Assessment, free
Required before either side agrees to anything. He keeps the findings either way, nobody is invoiced, and you never see them unless he chooses to send them to you.
- 04
Both sides decide
If he is not a fit, he is told so rather than sold the smallest thing we have. That is what protects the credibility you just lent us.
A clear working relationship
No referral fees
Neither direction. No revenue share, no finder’s arrangements, and nothing that would require disclosure to your client, your firm, your chapter or your state bar.
Our client rewards program is for contractors referring contractors and does not extend to professional partners.
Make the introduction
Tell us where
the client needs help.
An introduction starts a conversation. The free Financial Risk Assessment is required before either side commits, and the contractor keeps the findings and the plan.
Are you giving my client legal advice?
No, and we are careful about the boundary in both directions. We keep the records and explain what they show. What that means for a claim, a notice deadline or a contract term is your work, and where a client asks us we tell him to ask you.
Will you serve as an expert witness?
No. We are not retained as testifying experts and we do not perform forensic accounting engagements. If a matter needs one, that is a different professional. What we can do is make sure the records that expert is working from are complete and reconcilable, which is usually the part that is missing.
Can you reconstruct records for a matter that is already live?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on what source material survives. Rebuilding a job cost history from contracts, invoices and bank activity is real work on a real clock, and it is worth knowing early whether the underlying documents support it. We will tell you what we think is recoverable before anyone commits to it.
What kind of contractor is this for?
Commercial specialty subcontractors, roughly $1.5M to $10M, typically bonded or working toward it. Mechanical, electrical, concrete, steel, glazing and fire protection. If contracts, retainage and a surety are part of his week, he is the right profile.
Do you work with my client’s existing CPA?
Usually, yes. Most keep their CPA for the return and add this for the contract reporting, which is a different job. We perform no attest work at all, so there is nothing for the two arrangements to collide over.