Fractional controller for contractors, with books closed by the 10th

Signs you need a controller, not just a bookkeeper

A bookkeeper keeps the record. You may need a construction controller when the questions change:

• The books are still open weeks after the month ends.
• The books show a profit, and the bank account doesn't.
• Nobody can say which jobs made money.
• The surety or the bank asked for a WIP schedule, and nobody keeps one.
• Someone enters the transactions, but nobody reviews them.
• You're about to bid the next job on a hunch about the last one.

Sound familiar? That's controller work. Here's what it looks like, month by month.

What a fractional controller does for a contractor

“I'd get phone calls on weekends. ‘Hey Jordan, can you look at my QuickBooks for a second?’ That ‘second’ would turn into two hours of untangling miscategorized transactions and explaining why their profit number didn't match their bank balance.”Jordan Peacock, MBA, founder

That gap between profit and bank is the controller's job. A fractional controller is a part-time controller you don't have to hire: they close the books each month and tell you what the numbers mean, for a monthly fee instead of a salary. For a contractor, the job comes down to two answers: which jobs made money, and which week cash runs short. Some firms call the same job an outsourced controller.

It starts with the monthly close, because the close is where mistakes get caught.

Here's what lands on your desk on our Outsourced Controller plan, and when.

The close, by the 10th

On the 10th, last month is closed and reconciled, and you know what you actually made. The 10th is our service standard on every plan.

A payment recorded twice, a miscoded bill or a missed retainage invoice stays hidden until someone reconciles every account against the bank. That's what a monthly close is for.

Profit by job

Costs get coded to the job they belong to, so each job shows its own contract, cost to date and profit so far. Before you bid the next job, you know which jobs made money.

The WIP schedule, every month

The WIP schedule sets each open job's contract and estimated cost against its cost and billing to date. From that you get percent complete, the revenue you've earned, and whether the job is over or under billed.

Under billed means you've done work you haven't billed yet, so it goes on the next pay app. In the sample, that's $63,000 across two jobs. Over billed means you've billed ahead of the work, and that cash still has work to pay for. If you're bonded, your surety looks at this schedule too. Here's how a WIP schedule works.

The forecast, every Monday

Payroll and suppliers go out every week. Pay apps come in weeks later, and retainage waits for closeout. So the forecast lays out cash in and cash out, week by week, and every Monday it's checked against your bank.

The short week shows up while there's still time to chase a pay app, push a purchase or line up the bank. Without a forecast, week 6 shows up as a payroll you can't cover.

Picture the first Monday with the plan running: last month closed by the 10th, the forecast checked against your bank, and the week that needs a call to the GC already marked. Want to see the format first? Start with the free 13-week cash flow template.

What it costs: $3,250 a month

Our fractional controller services come as one plan at one price: the Outsourced Controller plan, $3,250 a month, month to month. Stop any month.

3 founding spots on the Controller plan: $1,750 a month for your first 90 days, in exchange for a written case study about your numbers. Then $3,250 a month, the plan's full price. Once the three spots are taken, the plan is $3,250 from the start. Month to month after your first 90 days. Stop any month.

It includes everything in the Outsourced Bookkeeper plan (books closed by the 10th, every account reconciled) and adds profit by job, a WIP schedule each month and a 13-week cash forecast checked every Monday. If your books are behind, we quote the catch-up work in writing before we start, so you know that cost up front too.

Not included: tax returns. Those stay with whoever prepares your taxes, and we hand them books that are closed and reconciled. We record payroll from your payroll provider, but we don't run payroll or file payroll or sales tax returns.

See the Controller plan, line by line.

Next to a full-time controller

A year of the plan is $39,000. O*NET files controllers under financial managers, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the national median wage for financial managers at $166,570 a year (May 2025). That's wages only: a hire also costs benefits and payroll taxes. For full-time workers in private industry, benefits were 31.5% of what employers spent on them in June 2026, by the same bureau's count. The plans page sets each plan beside the hire it stands in for, using Pittsburgh-area wages.

Book your free 13-Week Cash Review

30 minutes, then a one-page summary in 2 business days.

Fractional, outsourced or full-time: what changes

The difference between a controller and a fractional controller is the arrangement, not the work. A full-time controller is a salary, benefits and one more person in your office. A fractional or outsourced controller is part of one person's time, for a monthly fee. The close and the reports are the same job either way.

With us, that person is Jordan Peacock, working in your QuickBooks. What you still do: send us the month's bills and pay apps through the private folder set up for your company, so everything is in one place when we close your books.

Fair warning: if you need someone in your office every day, hire. If what you need is the month closed, profit by job, the WIP schedule and the cash forecast, a fractional controller does that work without the salary.

Bookkeeper, controller or CFO?

A bookkeeper closes the month, a controller turns the closed books into job numbers and a forecast, and a CFO takes those numbers to the bank, the surety and the big decisions.

Higher plans include everything in the lower ones.

The test, in plain words: if you need to know which jobs made money and which week cash runs short, that's controller work. If the bank or the surety wants someone across the table with your numbers, that's a fractional construction CFO. And if you only need the books closed and reconciled, the Bookkeeper plan covers it.

Who does the work

Jordan Peacock, MBA, does the work: seven years in corporate accounting and finance, in month-end close, financial reporting and budgets. He works in your QuickBooks, alongside whoever does your taxes, and checks your forecast against your bank every Monday.

We're based in Pittsburgh and work with contractors anywhere in the US, remotely. The best fit is a contractor doing $2 million to $20 million a year. If your accountant, bond agent or banker sent you, here's how we work alongside your accountant, bond agent and banker.