Short answer: $1,500 to $5,000 a month, depending on how much help you need. Here's the real breakdown by tier, with what you get at each price.
Your time, QuickBooks subscription, and maybe a 1099 contractor bookkeeper a few hours a week. Works when you're just starting out. Breaks at scale.
An independent bookkeeper who knows QuickBooks but not construction. Fine for clean P&L and reconciliation. No job costing. No WIP. No CFO work.
Monthly close with an NAHB chart of accounts, bank rec, P&L, balance sheet, year-end tax package. This is our 'Just the Books' tier ($1,500/mo + $1,500 setup), at the floor of the specialist band. Catch-up cleanup quoted separately: $500 if 3 months behind, $1,500 if 6-12 months behind, $5,000-$12,000 if 2+ years behind.
Everything in the bookkeeping tier plus NAHB job costing, WIP schedules, 13-week cash forecast, weekly job reviews, dashboard, quarterly CFO calls. Our version is the Command Retainer, which runs $3,500 to $12,000/mo by revenue tier (up to $15M+ at $9,000 to $12,000/mo), with the front-door 14-Day Financial X-Ray at $3,500. Standalone construction CFOs run $3,000-$9,000/mo across the market.
Full W-2 hire. Benefits, PTO, payroll taxes. Only makes sense once your finance workload is truly full-time for most contractors.
Most construction bookkeepers charge a one-time setup fee to rebuild your chart of accounts, clean up historical transactions, wire up PM software, and set up job costing. This is where a messy book gets made useful. Typical 2026 ranges:
A builder paying $3,500/mo for our Command Retainer is typically well under 1% of revenue. If your bookkeeping cost is above 1.5% of revenue, you're overpaying - or your bookkeeper is doing controller work.
What matters more than the price: are your books giving you answers? If you can't open The Builder's Financial Command Center and see margin per job in real time, the lowest-priced bookkeeper in the world is still too expensive.
Most contractors we talk to need at least two of these four roles. Sometimes three. Here is the honest breakdown of what each one actually does, and when it makes sense to bring each one in.
Records what happened.
What they do well
Scope
A traditional bookkeeper isn't trained in construction-specific reports like WIP schedules, retainage tracking, or job-level profitability. Those are specialty skills.
When to hire
Your books are clean and you mostly need someone reliable for monthly close, not forecasting or job-level analysis.
Files taxes and keeps you compliant.
What they do well
Scope
A CPA's job is to look back accurately, not to forecast next quarter's cash or call out an underperforming job mid-stream. Different muscle.
When to hire
Every contractor needs one. CPAs are the foundation of compliance, non-negotiable.
Looks forward. Reads the future of your books.
What they do well
Scope
A fractional CFO sits next to your bookkeeper and CPA, not in place of them. The output is forecasts and decisions, ours delivered through The Builder's Financial Command Center, not transaction entries or tax returns.
When to hire
You already have a bookkeeper and a CPA, but nobody is telling you what the numbers MEAN for next month's bidding.
Runs the entire finance function in-house.
What they do well
Scope
A full-time controller runs $130K to $200K per year all-in. Most contractors can't justify that overhead until the finance work is truly full-time.
When to hire
Your finance workload has grown to the point where it needs full-time, in-house ownership.
Salisbury CFO operates as your fractional CFO, sitting alongside your CPA and bookkeeper, not replacing them. If you don't have a CPA or bookkeeper yet, we'll refer good ones in your state who already understand construction.
You'll meet with
Cory Salisbury
A 30-minute working call. Tell us your revenue, your PM software, and your pain, and we'll give you a real number - not a range. We take a limited number of construction clients each quarter, and we'll tell you on the first call if we're not the right fit.
What we'll cover
Pick a date
Weekdays, 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM MT
