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Benchmarks

Everyone assumes an older building costs more to service. We measured it and the assumption is half wrong: routine service does not move at all with age, while replacement work roughly doubles. Testing total revenue hides both.

Published multiples from named M&A advisors, plus our own operating data

Two HVAC companies, both at $5M of EBITDA. One is worth $35M and the other $55M. Neither number is wrong, and the difference is not size. It is what share of that EBITDA renews without anyone selling it again.

From Level's proprietary contractor research

Your field software says the job made 38%. Your P&L says 24%. Both systems are working correctly. They are answering different questions, and nothing in either one tells you that.

Benchmarks

Every review benchmark you have read is national. Review volume is mostly a function of metro density, so a national percentile tells most contractors something false about their own market.

From Level's proprietary contractor research

The median contractor collects 85.1% of what it bills. Not 100%, and not after 90 days. 85.1% is where it stops. The other 14.9% is the difference between the profit on your P&L and the balance in your bank.

Benchmarks

Published dollars-per-square-foot figures for commercial mechanical service span 14x, from $0.15 to $2.15. That is not a range. That is what a number looks like when nobody holds the data behind it.

Benchmarks

The industry answer is 45-55% of revenue. The useful answer is where YOUR number sits by account, because in cleaning one underpriced contract can drag the whole book, and the benchmark taped to the wall will not tell you which one.

Construction Accounting

Every one of these systems can hold your general ledger. The question that actually separates them is narrower: does it produce a WIP schedule and a certified payroll report without a workaround. That is where contractors get surprised after they have already migrated.

Business Growth

Two electrical contractors at the same revenue can sell 4x apart. The one wired into data-center and mission-critical power is being bid up. The one doing general commercial resi is a tuck-in. Revenue mix now moves the multiple as much as size does.

Business Growth

Two HVAC shops with identical revenue can sell 4x apart. The gap is almost never size. It is how much of your revenue is locked-in service agreements, and whether a buyer's accountant can trust your numbers without a six-month cleanup.

From the founding team's contractor analysis

Most contractors track revenue and jobs booked. Neither tells you if you are making money. These are the 8 numbers that do, ranked by how much they actually move the bottom line.

From the founding team's contractor analysis

The margin on your bid sheet is not the margin you earn. The gap is labor burden you didn't fully load, callbacks nobody charged to the job, material that drifted after you quoted, and receivables you're financing for free.

From the founding team's operator analysis

The route looks like a 50% job on the estimate. Then load the burden, the windshield time no client pays for, the equipment per crew-hour, and the off-season you still pay wages through, and the real margin is about half that.

From the founding team's operator analysis

A full schedule is not the same as a collected schedule. No-shows leave fixed-cost slots empty, denials force rework and partial write-offs, and undercoding gives away revenue you already earned. The practice looks 20% profitable and takes home closer to 10%.

From the founding team's contractor analysis

Most bookkeeping is the same across industries. Contractor bookkeeping is not. Job costing, WIP, retainage, and certified payroll create a level of complexity a generalist will learn on your books, at your expense.

From the founding team's contractor analysis

A good generalist CFO can read a P&L. A contractor CFO can tell you which jobs made money, why the profitable month left you short on cash, and which service agreements are quietly underwater. Those are different skills.

From the founding team's operator analysis

Markup is not margin. A spread that looks like 34% of the bill rate can net closer to 3% once you load the full employment burden, the recruiter time to fill the req, and the cost of fronting weekly payroll while the client pays in 45 days.

Benchmarks

Pittsburgh's median building was built in 1917. Austin's in 1999. That 82-year gap is the single best structural predictor of whether your metro is a replacement market or a new-install market.