You don't find out what a job made until it closes
By then it doesn't matter. The Financial Risk Assessment™ is an 86-checkpoint review of your books, your open contracts and your reporting, and it tells you both what's actually there before either of us commits to anything.
$497, one flat fee | required before we work together
None of this shows up as a finance problem
It shows up as a bond limit that didn't move, a pay application that got kicked, or a job that felt good and didn't price out. Every one of them is a number nobody is keeping.
"We made money last year and my limit didn't move"
The surety is reading a work-in-progress schedule, and if yours was rebuilt in a spreadsheet the weekend before renewal, it reads as an estimate. Capacity gets written off the reporting, not off the profit.
"They're holding ten percent and I don't know what that adds up to"
Retainage sitting inside accounts receivable makes your working capital read wrong to everyone who looks at it, including you. Aged by contract, it's usually the largest single number on the page.
"I did the extra work and the change order never came"
Performed and unapproved work that isn't logged anywhere stops being a receivable and becomes an argument you lose later. The same gap kicks pay applications and costs thirty days each time.
"My return is filed, so the tax side is handled"
Filing isn't the lever. The accounting method your contracts are reported under, IRC 460 and 263A, is decided once and then usually never revisited, and for a contractor it's worth more than every deduction underneath it.
It's a review of the books, not a conversation about them
The assessment runs on your actual accounting file and your actual contracts. It's the step between the first call and any decision either of us makes, and it exists because neither of us should be deciding on a guess. If it says you don't need us yet, that's a real answer and you keep the findings.
When it's done you'll know:
What We Review
How the FRA Works
From the first call to a scored report in 12 business days. Here's exactly what happens:
Initial Call
Thirty minutes with Colton or Tom. What you build, who you build it for, where the bonding sits, and what's currently getting in the way. Bring your last work-in-progress schedule if you have one. If you don't have one, that's useful to know too.
Access and Documents
You add us as a read-only user in QuickBooks Online or Xero, and send your prior year returns. Anything else is a bonus: an open contract list, a schedule of values, your last pay applications, your bond letter. Most of this is forwarding what you already have, and it's under an hour.
The Review
All 86 checkpoints across the six Focus Areas, scored. We rebuild percent complete from cost to cost, age retainage by contract, put contract margin against estimate, and review the accounting method your contracts are being reported under. It's run through our platform and then read by a person, because a score without a reason isn't worth much.
Findings, Walked Through
Sixty minutes going through what we found, contract by contract where it matters, and what each finding is costing you. Then a decision. You know what the work would be worth, and we know whether we can actually move your position.
Twelve business days runs from when we have access, not from when you book. The step that most often stalls a start is the accounting access, so it's worth doing first.
What We Actually Review
The six Focus Areas your report is built from, with a sample of the 86 checkpoints inside them:
Each Focus Area is scored independently on a 1–10 scale and rated Healthy, Needs Attention, or High Risk.
Tax Optimization
Are your contracts being reported under the right method, and is the structure around them working?
- Accounting method election, IRC 460
- Uniform capitalization under 263A
- Look-back interest exposure, Form 8697
- Reasonable compensation for the owner
- Equipment purchase and depreciation timing
- Operating, equipment and real estate entities
- Retirement vehicle and accountable plan
- Multi-state exposure as work crosses lines
Cash Flow Health
Do you know what's out, who's holding it, and when it lands?
- Retainage receivable aged by contract
- Retainage payable to your own subs
- Over and under billings by job
- Days from pay application to payment
- Receivables aged with retainage separated out
- Draw schedule against cash going out
- Line of credit use against work in progress
- Supplier and material terms
Growth Readiness
Would a surety underwriter write you more capacity on what your reporting says today?
- Contract margin against original estimate
- Fade visible at 40 and 70 percent complete
- Backlog and gross profit still to earn
- Working capital as an underwriter reads it
- Single job and aggregate limit against pipeline
- Overhead recovery rate and bid multiplier
- Bid hit rate and what you're losing on
- General contractor and customer concentration
Financial Accuracy
Do the books actually support a job-level number, or only a tax return?
- Chart of accounts structured for job reporting
- Accrual maintained alongside cash for tax
- Retainage posted to its own account, not buried in AR
- Labor, material, equipment and burden coded to the job
- WIP roll-forward that ties to the P&L
- Change orders recognized when performed
- Bank reconciliation and close timing
- Opening balances and prior restatements
Operational Efficiency
How much of the month goes into producing paperwork somebody else set the format for?
- Time to produce a G702 and G703 pay application
- Schedule of values maintenance
- Change order log, performed against approved
- Lien waiver and insurance certificate tracking
- Timecards reaching job cost, and how late
- Field purchases coded at the source
- Subcontractor and supplier payment process
- Hours spent rebuilding reports each month
Risk & Compliance
What's sitting there waiting for an auditor, a GC, or a missed deadline to find it?
- Certified payroll and prevailing wage, WH-347
- Workers comp class codes and audit exposure
- Subcontractor W-9, insurance certificate, license status
- Worker classification, 1099 against employee
- Sales and use tax on materials by jurisdiction
- Lien rights and notice deadlines
- Loan and bond covenant tracking
- Coverage against what your contracts require
Every Finding Gets a Number and a Verdict
Nothing in the report is an opinion about your business. Each checkpoint is scored on the same rule for every contractor we assess, which is what makes a score worth arguing with.
These figures are illustrative and show the format of a scorecard. They aren't a client, and they aren't an industry benchmark. Yours will be your contracts, your retainage and your books.
What You Receive
A six-part report, and it's yours whether or not we ever work together.
Executive Summary
One page. Your overall score, the six Focus Area scores, and the findings that are costing you the most right now.
Six Focus Area Scorecards
Each area scored 1 to 10 and rated Healthy, Needs Attention or High Risk, with the specific checkpoint that produced the score.
WIP and Retainage Position
Percent complete cost to cost, over and under billings by job, and retainage aged by contract. For most contractors this is the first time all three have been on one page.
Construction Tax Position
The accounting method your contracts are reported under, whether it's the right one, and what changing it is worth. Plus look-back exposure, entity structure, and owner compensation.
90-Day Priority Roadmap
Every checkpoint scoring 6 or below becomes an action, sorted into 30, 60 and 90 days by how badly it scored. You can run it without us.
Risk Register
Anything scoring 4 or below, logged with severity and likelihood: classification exposure, certified payroll gaps, expired certificates, covenants, notice deadlines.
One Assessment. One Flat Fee.
No tiers to pick through. The complete 86-checkpoint review for one price, and the step where both of us decide whether to work together.
Financial Risk Assessment™
Every checkpoint that applies to you, across all six Focus Areas, run on your real books and your real contracts. It sits after the initial call and before either side commits to anything ongoing.
- All 86 checkpoints, scored where they apply
- Six Focus Area scorecards
- WIP and retainage position
- Construction tax position and method election
- 90-day priority roadmap
- Risk register
- 60-minute findings call
This isn't a step you skip, and the fee is the fee: there's no credit toward services either way. What we need from you is read-only access to QuickBooks Online or Xero plus your prior year returns. You add us from your side, under Manage Users and Accountants, because QuickBooks Online doesn't let us send the invitation. That one step is where most starts stall, so it's worth doing the day you book.
It can tell you that you don't need us
That's a real result and we'll say it plainly. If your books already do what your bonding and your general contractors need, you'll hear so, and you still keep the report and the roadmap. We'd rather lose the engagement than sell you work that doesn't move anything.
Book the Initial CallWhat an assessment actually turns up
One real engagement, described plainly. We'd rather show you one we can stand behind than four we can't.
A Houston commercial GC was leaving $127K a year on the table
What we found
What it was worth
This is a real Today CFO client. It's one engagement, not an average, and your assessment will find what it finds.
"The Financial Risk Assessment found $127K in tax savings my previous CPA missed. In the first year alone. I thought my books were fine. Turns out, 'fine' was costing me six figures."
This is a real Today CFO client. We shorten the last name and show the client’s industry in place of their company name to respect their privacy, the same discretion we’d give you.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Financial Risk Assessment is $497, one flat fee. It's a required step after the initial call and before either side agrees to work together, so it isn't an optional add-on and it isn't a way of selecting a package. There's no credit toward services: the fee is the fee. What you get for it is the findings and the plan, and they're yours whether or not you go further.
Commercial construction. Bonded specialty subs and small general contractors, and emerging commercial subs working under a GC with retainage, AIA pay applications and prequalification. Mechanical, electrical, concrete, steel, glazing, fire protection. It isn't built for a residential service and replacement business: no WIP, no retainage, no schedule of values, so most of what the assessment reviews wouldn't apply to you and we'd be taking your money.
That's common, and it's a finding rather than a disqualifier. If there's no work-in-progress schedule we build the first one from your contracts, your costs to date and your billings, and it's usually the most useful page in the report. If you do have one and it was rebuilt in Excel for the bond renewal, we check whether it ties to the books.
About 2 hours total: a 30-minute initial call, roughly an hour on access and documents, and a 60-minute findings call. Most of the middle hour is forwarding what you already have.
Your report and 90-day roadmap are yours to keep regardless. Many contractors implement the recommendations with us. Others hand the report to the bookkeeper they already have, and that's a legitimate outcome we price for rather than discourage.
Every applicable checkpoint is scored 1 to 10. Those roll into six Focus Area scores, each rated Healthy, Needs Attention or High Risk, and then into one overall score. Anything at 6 or below becomes a roadmap item. Anything at 4 or below also lands in the risk register, so the low scores produce work rather than just a colour.
No, and that's deliberate. Checkpoints are gated on what you actually do. No public work means you're not scored on certified payroll. Never carried retainage means you're not scored on retainage administration. A checkpoint that doesn't apply is recorded as a finding rather than counted against you, because it tells us not to scope that work and tells you not to pay for it. Half of what the assessment is doing is working out which parts of the service you actually need.
A PDF with an executive summary, six scored Focus Area reports, your WIP and retainage position as we found it, your construction tax position including the accounting method election, a prioritized 90-day roadmap, and a risk register ranked by severity.
Most contractors we assess do, and this doesn't replace either. A bookkeeper keeps the books current. A CPA files a correct return. Neither one owns whether your percent complete is right, whether retainage is aged by contract, or whether the accounting method your contracts are reported under is the one you should be on.
Documents are uploaded over an encrypted connection, and the accounting access we ask for is read-only, so nothing in your file can be changed. We never share or sell your information, and you can revoke our access from inside QuickBooks Online yourself, at any time, without asking us.
Find out what your jobs are actually making
Thirty minutes on the phone first. If it sounds like a fit, the assessment goes next, and twelve business days after that you know where you stand whether or not you ever hire us.