The CLEAR Framework
Every contractor runs on the same five pillars. The CLEAR Framework is how our operating layer analyzes all of them, same structure, different nouns. Cash, Labor, Earnings, Accounts, Risk. This is the lens the founding team refined across 2,200+ contractors analyzed to find where money leaks and where profit hides.
The Core Insight
Service businesses share the same financial DNA. The CLEAR Framework reveals it.
An HVAC contractor and a dental practice look nothing alike on the surface. But underneath, both sell expert time, carry receivables, struggle with labor costs, and face concentration risk. A restaurant and a cleaning company both live and die by their labor-to-revenue ratio. A staffing agency and a healthcare practice both fight the cash flow lag between service delivery and payment. The CLEAR Framework captures these shared patterns so we can apply diagnostic questions refined across 2,200+ contractors analyzed to your business, without using contractor benchmark numbers as measured figures for other industries. For the longer version of why we built it this way, and which pillar breaks first in most businesses, read the introduction to the CLEAR Framework.
Five Pillars, Every Industry
Cash
Is your cash flowing, or stuck in someone else's bank?
| Industry | What we measure |
|---|---|
| Contractors | DSO, invoice speed, retainage, progress billing |
| Healthcare & Clinics | Insurance reimbursement lag, ERA 835 claim-to-cash bridges, patient deductibles, A/R aging |
| Ecommerce & DTC | Shopify/Amazon payout clearing, Settle PO loan drafts, supplier advances vs. received inventory |
| Restaurants | Daily sales cycle, daily POS clearing, DoorDash/UberEats net payouts, reservation deposit liabilities |
| Cleaning | Net-30 commercial invoices, payroll timing, client concentration |
| Staffing | Weekly payroll float, DSO versus weekly pay cycle, working capital gap |
Labor
Is your workforce generating returns, or draining them?
| Industry | What we measure |
|---|---|
| Contractors | Technician utilization, billable hours, callback rates |
| Healthcare & Clinics | Provider productivity, clinical utilization, no-show rates, revenue per FTE |
| Ecommerce & DTC | 3PL pick-and-pack efficiency, retail store payroll %, customer-support cost per order |
| Restaurants | Labor-to-revenue by daypart, overtime, scheduling efficiency |
| Cleaning | Labor as % revenue, crew productivity, route density |
| Staffing | Recruiter productivity, fill rates, time-to-fill |
Earnings
Are you pricing profitably and keeping what you earn?
| Industry | What we measure |
|---|---|
| Contractors | Job-level margins, SA profitability, install vs service |
| Healthcare & Clinics | Procedure & claim fee-basis margins, internal vs. partner clinic routing, overhead ratio, payer rates |
| Ecommerce & DTC | Channel contribution margin (DTC, retail, wholesale, Amazon), ASC 330 FIFO landed cost, return rate drag |
| Restaurants | Prime cost, food cost %, inventory variance, menu engineering, RevPASH |
| Cleaning | Contract profitability, commercial vs residential margins |
| Staffing | Bill-pay spread, markup management, placement-level margin |
Accounts
Are you winning new work, and keeping it?
| Industry | What we measure |
|---|---|
| Contractors | Quote conversion, pull-through revenue, customer retention |
| Healthcare & Clinics | Patient volume, HubSpot intake enrollment conversion, referral patterns, recall and NRR |
| Ecommerce & DTC | Repeat cohort LTV:CAC, subscription retention, wholesale account sell-through and deductions |
| Restaurants | Covers per day, repeat guests, catering and event accounts |
| Cleaning | Contract retention, renewal rates, upsell success |
| Staffing | Client pipeline, contract renewals, account profitability ranking |
Risk
Are you exposed to concentration, churn, or market shifts?
| Industry | What we measure |
|---|---|
| Contractors | Customer concentration, warranty exposure, bonding capacity |
| Healthcare & Clinics | Payer concentration, MSO-to-Clinical PC intercompany breaks, uncollectible sub-$1,500 deductible AR |
| Ecommerce & DTC | Quarantined Finaloop bank queues, unrecorded supplier advances, tariff/freight spikes, dead stock |
| Restaurants | Lease exposure, food cost volatility, seasonal revenue swings |
| Cleaning | Client concentration, employee classification, insurance gaps |
| Staffing | Worker misclassification, client concentration, cash gap risk |
How a CLEAR Analysis Works
Connect
We connect to accounting software such as QuickBooks or Xero with read-only scopes where available. Where permissions are broader, the assessment reads data only; exports are another option. Setup time depends on your system and access.
Analyze
We pull 12-24 months of data and score each CLEAR pillar. Contractors are compared with Level Index metrics (2,200+ contractors analyzed; sample size varies by metric). Other industries are compared with their own trend and cited sources, not contractor numbers.
Act
You get a scorecard with specific, prioritized recommendations. Each one includes an estimated dollar range with its assumptions shown, so you can decide what to check first.
Industries We Analyze with CLEAR
Same framework. Contractor benchmarks come from the Level Index; other industries use your own trend data and cited sources unless a measured peer sample exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the CLEAR Framework?
The CLEAR Framework is Level's proprietary method for analyzing service business finances. It evaluates five pillars: Cash (liquidity and collection speed), Labor (workforce productivity and cost), Earnings (margins and pricing), Accounts (pipeline and retention), and Risk (concentration, compliance, and exposure). Every service business, from HVAC contractors to healthcare practices, runs on the same five pillars, just with different nouns.
How is the CLEAR Framework different from standard financial analysis?
Standard financial analysis looks at income statements and balance sheets. The CLEAR Framework is purpose-built for service businesses that sell time and expertise rather than products. It prioritizes operational metrics that drive financial outcomes, things like collection speed, technician utilization, and client concentration that don't show up on a standard P&L but determine whether the business thrives or struggles.
Does the CLEAR Framework work for my industry?
If your business depends on people doing the work, carries labor as a major cost, and gets paid during or after delivery, the CLEAR Framework applies. Restaurants and ecommerce brands sell physical products, but they fit because prime cost, fulfillment labor, inventory working capital, and daily payout clearing drive results the same way. We use it for contractors (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, landscaping), healthcare practices and clinics (medical, dental, behavioral health, physical therapy, and direct-care specialty clinics), ecommerce and DTC brands, restaurants, cleaning companies, and staffing agencies. The pillars are universal, the specific metrics change by industry.
How long does a CLEAR analysis take?
The initial CLEAR audit takes 2-3 weeks. We use read-only scopes where your platform offers them; where API permissions are broader, the assessment uses the connection only to read data. We can also work from exports. We pull 12-24 months of available data, and compare contractor metrics against the Level Index (built from the founding team's analysis of 2,200+ contractors; sample size varies by metric, for example n=464 for collection rate). Those contractor figures are not healthcare, restaurant, cleaning or staffing benchmarks; for those businesses we compare against your own history and cited sources where available. The deliverable is a scorecard with specific recommendations prioritized by estimated financial impact. We aim to share first observations within the first week, depending on data completeness.
Get your CLEAR scorecard
We'll analyze your business across all five pillars and show you where to look first, with the assumptions behind each estimate.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.