The core financial mechanics of a contractor business
Most contractor problems trace back to one of four areas. These guides go deep on each, with benchmarks from 2,200+ contractors and the playbook to fix what's broken.
Guide
Job Costing for Contractors
Why 91% of jobs in our dataset have revenue but no cost data, what real job-level margin looks like, and how to fix the cost-allocation problem in QuickBooks and your FSM.
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Guide
DSO and Collections
The median contractor collects 85.1% of invoiced revenue. Top decile: 96.0%. The full playbook on billing speed, retainage, AIA billing, and AR escalation.
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Guide
Service Agreement Profitability
Bottom 10% lose 30% on every SA. Top 10% make 70%. Same trade. Pricing, scope control, customer mix, and the pull-through math.
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Guide
Cash Flow for Service Businesses
Why profitable companies go bankrupt, how to build a 13-week cash forecast, the seasonal trap, and the 7 numbers every owner should check weekly.
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Guide
Gross Profit Per Hour
Skilled labor is the scarce input, so gross profit per human hour is the number that matters, not revenue. Labor carries 47.7% margin but 40% of jobs run over their hour budget. How to price and protect the hour.
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Guide
Why Your Software Doesn't Talk to Each Other
Your field platform and accounting system each hold half the truth, so margins look inflated and one person copies data all week. Fewer than 30% of business apps are integrated. How to reconcile what you already run, without a rip-and-replace.
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