What does a fractional CFO cost for a construction company?
Short answer: we price it by scope, not by a public menu. A $1.5M remodeler and an $8M builder do not need the same work, so a one-size price would either overcharge you or short-change you. You get the exact number for your business in writing, on a free call, before you pay a dime.
For scale: a full-time construction CFO costs $170,000 to $360,000 a year all-in (CFMA 2025). A controller runs $130,000 to $200,000. A fractional seat gives you that financial leadership for a fraction of the cost, with your books handled inside the engagement, never a separate fee.
Book your free callWhy don't you just publish a price?
Because a fixed menu is the wrong tool for real financial work. It overcharges the small builder and short-changes the big one, and both are unfair. A remodeler with clean books and one PM tool needs far less than a GC with eight active jobs and two years of backlog.
So we scope the work to you and put the number in writing before you commit a dollar. What drives it is simple: your revenue and number of active jobs, the shape your books are in, the PM software we wire to QuickBooks, and whether you need catch-up cleanup. On the free call we tell you exactly where you land, and why.
Here is the whole engagement, step by step, and exactly what you get.
How does engaging a fractional CFO work, step by step?
You start with a fixed-fee diagnostic, move into a defined six-week sprint that pays for itself in fast cash wins, then keep a CFO on retainer month to month. Each step earns the next. You are never asked to commit to the whole thing on day one.
The 14-Day Financial X-Ray
One flat fee, quoted in writing before you start. Free for exit or PE-track owners above $10M.
We connect QuickBooks and produce your baseline in 14 days: a financial snapshot, a 7-KPI scorecard against construction benchmarks, your real cash position, the top profit and cash leaks, and a 90-day roadmap. The deliverable is the plan.
- Financial snapshot plus a 7-KPI scorecard
- Cash position and your top profit and cash leaks
- A prioritized 90-day roadmap
The 6-Week Profit Command Sprint
One flat fee for the six weeks, scoped and quoted in writing.
Six weeks, defined scope, fast cash wins. We clean the data, build job costing and a WIP schedule, recover under-billing, set a driver-based budget and a 13-week cash forecast, then hand you a board-grade package and a live plan.
- Job costing, WIP, and under-billing recovery
- Driver budget plus a 13-week cash forecast
- Board-grade package and the forward plan
The Command Retainer
Scoped to your revenue and workload. Month to month after 90 days.
Your fractional CFO every week. We keep the forecast live, run the monthly board package, review jobs weekly, and steer the numbers, with your books handled inside the engagement.
- Weekly job reviews and a live 13-week cash forecast
- Monthly board-grade package
- Quarterly strategy, books included
Books behind? Catch-up is handled inside the engagement and scoped on the call. There is no separate bookkeeping bill.
How does a fractional CFO pay for itself?
By finding money you already earned and stopping the leaks. It is usually cheaper than one under-billed job or one missed retainage check. Here is real, single-client proof, not cross-client averages.
Results vary by contractor, but that is the kind of cash a CFO finds. And it is backed in writing: we find at least 3x our fee in recoverable cash, margin, or tax within 90 days, or you do not pay.
What do you actually do each month?
We run your numbers for you, on a set rhythm. You do not learn a new system or do homework. You get clear answers on your phone, and one operator who actually picks up.
We review your active jobs and update your cash. You get a short read on which jobs are printing cash and which are bleeding, plus anything that needs a decision. Answers land on your phone, not as homework.
We close your books by the 15th and hand you a board-grade package: job-by-job margin, a live 13-week cash forecast, and a WIP schedule your bank and bonding agent will trust.
We sit down on the numbers: where the money went, what to bid next, and how to fund it. You walk in as a businessman, not a guy with a truck.
What is in the Command Retainer
One flat monthly fee, scoped to your revenue and workload. A fractional CFO running your numbers every week, with your books handled inside the engagement.
- NAHB job costing, run for you
- QuickBooks + PM software wire-up (Buildertrend, Procore, Knowify, CoConstruct)
- 13-week cash flow forecast
- Weekly job cost reviews
- WIP schedule for bonding and banks
- Custom owner dashboard
- Monthly board-grade strategy call
- Rapid response (24 hr, 5 days a week)
Three easy steps to real numbers.
No long onboarding. No homework. You book one call, we show you the leaks, and then we run it for you.
Book a free call
We look at your situation together and scope the work. You leave with a plain-English list of where cash is likely hiding, and the exact number for your engagement in writing. No pitch, no pressure.
Get your 14-Day Financial X-Ray
We plug into QuickBooks and hand you the truth in 14 days: a financial snapshot, a 7-KPI scorecard against construction benchmarks, your real cash position, your top profit and cash leaks, and a 90-day roadmap. The plan is the deliverable.
We run it for you
The 6-Week Sprint fixes the leaks and builds your job costing, WIP, and cash forecast. Then your Command Retainer runs your numbers every week. Done for you. You get the money-brain out of your truck cab.
One operator, two systems: add AI agents to the CFO work
Top Builder AI is our sister product. It plugs into your ServiceTitan and runs the back office it never automated. Booking and Routing agents that outclass ServiceTitan's own, plus Collections, Financial, Inventory, Workforce, Documents, and Pricebook agents it has no answer for. You approve every change. The numbers stay locked. It is scoped to your team and quoted on a walkthrough, same as the CFO work.
Our promise: we find at least 3x our fee in recoverable cash, margin, or tax within 90 days, or you do not pay.
We put it on the engagement letter. We sign it. You sign it. If we don't deliver, we keep working. For free.
Start with the 14-Day Financial X-RayQuick message from Jenni
We'll find the money hiding in your books.
30 minutes. Free. We look at your books and show you exactly where cash is slipping - missed change orders, uncollected retainage, under-billings. No pitch. No pressure. You walk away with a list.
What owners ask before they book.
- What does a fractional CFO cost for a construction company?
- We price by scope, not by a public menu, because a $1.5M remodeler and an $8M GC do not need the same work. You move through three steps: a fixed-fee 14-Day Financial X-Ray, a fixed-scope 6-Week Profit Command Sprint, then a monthly Command Retainer scoped to your revenue and workload. For scale, a full-time construction CFO costs $170,000 to $360,000 a year all-in (CFMA 2025), and a controller runs $130,000 to $200,000. A fractional seat is a fraction of that. You get the exact number in writing on a free call before you pay anything. Your books are handled inside the engagement, never a separate fee.
- Why don't you just publish a price?
- Because a fixed menu either overcharges the small builder or short-changes the big one, and both are wrong. A remodeler with clean books and one PM tool needs far less work than a GC with eight jobs and two years of backlog. So we scope the work to you and put the number in writing before you commit a dollar. That is the honest way to price real financial work.
- What drives the investment?
- Four things: your revenue and number of active jobs, the shape your books are in, the PM software we wire to QuickBooks, and whether you need catch-up cleanup. More complexity means more work, and the number reflects that. We tell you exactly where you land, and why, on the free call.
- How does a fractional CFO pay for itself?
- By finding money you already earned and stopping the leaks. Real single-client outcomes: $8,400 in missed change orders recovered in 60 days, $34,000 in retainage collected in one quarter, and AR cut by 21 days at a $4.5M GC. One builder cut bank-draw reports from 3 weeks to 36 hours. Those are real cases, not averages, but they are the patterns we look for. And it is backed in writing: we find at least 3x our fee in recoverable cash, margin, or tax within 90 days, or you do not pay.
- What do you actually do each month?
- We run your numbers for you on a set rhythm. Every week we review your jobs and update your cash. Every month we close by the 15th and deliver a board-grade package with job-by-job margin, a live 13-week cash forecast, and a bank-ready WIP schedule. Every quarter we plan the money with you. You get answers on your phone, not another system to learn.
- Do you lock me into a contract?
- No. The first 90 days are the minimum, because that is how long it takes to make the fee pay for itself. After that, the Command Retainer is month to month. You can stop any time.
- What if my books are behind?
- That is normal, and it is exactly where we start. Catch-up cleanup is handled inside the engagement and scoped separately on the free call, before you commit a dollar. You will never get a surprise bookkeeping bill.
- When should a contractor hire a fractional CFO?
- When the numbers start driving real decisions and nobody owns them. A common first touch is $500K to $2M in revenue, and $2M to $10M is where weekly job costing and a live cash forecast pay for themselves fast. If you are bidding bigger work, chasing a bond line, or cannot see 60 days of cash, it is time.