Fractional CFO for General Contractors
Multiple projects, multiple subs, progress billing, retainage, bonding requirements. General contracting has the most complex financials in the trades. We specialize in making them simple.
The General Contracting Problem
GCs manage complexity every day. The financials shouldn't add to it.
You're managing 5-15 active projects with different billing schedules, sub payments, and material deliveries. Your P&L shows one big number. We've seen contractors with 666 open jobs at once — 50 of them stuck past 90 days with no invoice, each one a near-certain revenue leak. You need to see profitability project by project.
Bonding capacity is tied directly to your financial statements. Messy books mean lower bonding limits, which means losing bids on your most profitable projects. In one contractor's data, 56% of all jobs had no assigned project manager — creating zero accountability and significant operational risk.
Retainage holds, change order disputes, and slow-paying owners can trap hundreds of thousands of dollars in receivables. One GC we analyzed had 83 draft invoices worth $321K sitting unsent. Same-day invoicers in our data show meaningfully higher collection rates — every day you delay is cash in someone else's account.
Analyzed with the CLEAR Framework
Cash · Labor · Earnings · Accounts · Risk — the five pillars we evaluate for every business.
General Contracting Industry Benchmarks
How do the best general contracting businesses perform? Data from our analysis of 2,200+ service businesses.
Gross Profit Margin
15-25%
Residential GCs run 18-25%. Commercial GCs: 10-20%.
Collection Rate
80.8%
Top quartile: 90.6%. Retainage and slow-pay owners drag GC collections.
Billing Speed
7 days
Real median excluding progress billers. Top GCs use milestone billing.
Overhead Rate
10-25%
NAHB data. Overhead allocation per project is the key insight.
Subcontractor Cost
40-60%
Of total project cost. Sub management = margin management for GCs.
Net Profit Target
6-15%
Industry average: 6%. Top performers: 15%+. The gap is financial discipline.
What Level Does for General Contracting Businesses
WIP Schedule & Percentage of Completion
Accurate WIP schedules are required for bonding, banking, and tax compliance. We build and maintain yours monthly — tracking costs to complete, estimated profit, and over/under billings on every active project.
Bonding Capacity Optimization
Your surety looks at working capital, equity, and WIP. We optimize your financial statements to maximize bonding capacity so you can bid on larger, more profitable projects.
Project-Level Profitability
Revenue, labor, materials, subs, equipment, and allocated overhead — separated by project. You'll know which projects are making money and which are bleeding before they close, not 90 days after.
Retainage & AR Management
We track retainage holds by project and owner, flag aging receivables, and build follow-up schedules. Many GCs have $200K+ in retainage they've lost track of. We find it.
Cash Flow Forecasting by Project
Progress billing draws, sub payments, material deposits — each project has its own cash flow cycle. We model them individually and roll up to a company-wide forecast so you always know your position.
Growth & Exit Readiness
GCs with clean WIP schedules, documented backlog, and project-level financials command premium multiples. We build the financial infrastructure that lenders and buyers expect.
Bookkeeper vs CPA vs Level
| Capability | Bookkeeper | CPA | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record transactions | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| File taxes | — | ✓ | — |
| Job-level profitability | — | — | ✓ |
| Cash flow forecasting | — | — | ✓ |
| Benchmark against industry | — | — | ✓ |
| Monthly strategy calls | — | — | ✓ |
| AR aging & collections tracking | — | — | ✓ |
| Crew utilization analysis | — | — | ✓ |
| Exit readiness preparation | — | — | ✓ |
| Understands general contracting operations | Rarely | Rarely | ✓ |
Record transactions
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
File taxes
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
Job-level profitability
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
Cash flow forecasting
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
Benchmark against industry
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
Monthly strategy calls
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
AR aging & collections tracking
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
Crew utilization analysis
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
Exit readiness preparation
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
Understands general contracting operations
Bookkeeper
CPA
Level
Your bookkeeper and CPA handle critical functions. Level fills the strategic gap between recording transactions and filing taxes.
We connect to the tools you already use
15-minute setup. Read-only access. Your data stays secure.
From clients
What general contractors say after working with us.
“We were a $14M commercial GC and our WIP schedule was a quarterly exercise — by the time we knew a job was upside down, it was over. Sam set up monthly WIP with margin variance flags. Caught a $180K overrun on a hospital project before the next pay app went out, restructured the schedule, recovered most of it.”
“Residential remodel and our change orders were leaking. Customers requested upgrades, we did them, never billed for half because nobody tracked them. Sam built a change-order log into our weekly project meeting. First quarter we found $62K of unbilled work. That's our entire net margin on a typical month.”
“Bonding capacity was capping us at $2M single jobs and we wanted to chase $4M. Sam restructured our financial statements with our bonding agent — cleaned up working capital presentation, added a comfort letter, got us bumped to $5M aggregate / $4M single. Won a job we couldn't have touched 6 months earlier.”
Simple pricing
Three tiers, one ladder.
$99/mo
Books
Clean monthly books, tax-ready year-end. Same flat rate for catch-up.
$1,500+/mo
Fractional CFO
Cash forecasting, profitability analysis, monthly strategy calls.
$3,000+/mo
CFO + Operations
Dedicated CFO, AI-native workflows, dashboards, and integrations.
Book a call
Book a free 15-min General Contracting audit.
We'll review your general contracting numbers, benchmark them, and tell you what to fix first. No commitment.
Or have us reach out instead.
Drop your info and we'll review your general contracting financials within a few hours. Free audit included.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.