Construction finance
Do you need a construction CFO, or a WIP process that runs?
Contractors who start looking for a construction CFO are usually responding to a specific pain: the surety wants better numbers, the bank is asking questions, or the owner cannot tell which jobs are making money. Sometimes that calls for a CFO. Often it calls for a monthly WIP and close process that someone actually runs.
Blake Richardson, Founder, KBRC · Updated
What a fractional construction CFO does
A fractional CFO brings senior financial judgment part time: cash flow planning, banking and surety relationships, budgeting, pricing strategy, and decisions about growth. Good ones are worth what they cost, especially at a turning point like a major expansion or a change in ownership.
What a CFO usually does not do is sit with your project managers every month, update cost to complete, build the WIP, and post the entries. They may design that process. Someone else has to run it.
Signs the real gap is the monthly process
- Your WIP schedule is built once a year, for the CPA.
- Balance sheet overbillings and underbillings do not match the WIP, or nobody checks.
- The P&L swings from month to month in ways nobody can explain.
- Your bookkeeper is strong on payables, payroll, and billing, but nobody owns percent complete.
- Your surety or bank asks for a current WIP and it takes weeks to produce.
None of these is a strategy problem. They are signs that the monthly mechanics, described in the monthly close checklist, are not happening.
How KBRC fits
KBRC builds and runs the WIP and monthly close, then hands it to your team. The engagement starts with a one-week diagnostic of your books against a complete monthly package: WIP, P&L, balance sheet, AR, and AP. It continues with a 90-day rebuild of three monthly closes. In the first, KBRC runs the close end to end while your team observes. In the second, your team runs it alongside KBRC. In the third, your team runs the close and KBRC reviews.
Every close produces a Financial Ready Package from your own books for your CPA, surety, and bank. Your CPA still handles the year-end and tax work, and your team owns the ledger.
Our founder learned this process from a fractional CFO who built the WIP and trained him to run it. Within six months he was running it largely on his own. That handoff is the model.
When you need both
A CFO can only advise on numbers they trust. Contractors who already work with a fractional CFO often find that a reliable monthly WIP makes that relationship far more useful, because the conversation moves from reconstructing what happened to deciding what to do next.
Common questions
- Is KBRC a CPA firm?
- No. KBRC builds and runs your WIP reporting and monthly close and works alongside your CPA, who remains responsible for your year-end statements and tax work.
- Do we need to replace our bookkeeper?
- No. The 90-day rebuild is designed to hand the close to your existing team, with KBRC reviewing rather than replacing them.