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When an HVAC company grows revenue 30 percent and the HVAC profit margin still shrinks, the cause is almost always one of four things. Pricing didn’t keep pace with costs. Growth landed in a lower-margin service line. The shop added crews faster than the schedule could use them. Or overhead grew ahead of the revenue […]
Read articleJob costing for movers means working out what each move actually cost to run, then comparing that number to what you charged. Three inputs drive it: cost per crew hour, cost per truck hour, and materials per job. Most movers price from a market rate or a competitor’s quote. So some jobs quietly lose money […]
Read articleStandard costing vs. actual costing comes down to this. Standard costing assigns each product a predetermined cost based on expected material, labor, and overhead. Then it tracks variances against actual results. Actual costing assigns each product the real cost incurred for that specific run. Most small manufacturers between $5M and $25M in revenue do better […]
Read articleLabor cost percentage for a home services business commonly lands somewhere in the high teens to mid-thirties percent of revenue. That wide range isn’t a mistake. It depends on whether you’re measuring direct field labor alone or a fully loaded figure. It also depends on your specific service mix. The number matters less than knowing […]
Read articleA home services fractional CFO gives HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and similar trade businesses CFO-level financial management. No full-time hire required. That means pricing discipline, labor cost control, cash flow forecasting, and monthly reporting an owner can actually use. It’s the role that answers the question every growing home services owner eventually asks: why did revenue […]
Read articleCustomer deposits are not revenue. They’re a liability. The boat builder still owes the customer a finished boat, or the money back, until the work is actually done. Recording a deposit as revenue the day it hits the bank is the single most common mistake we see in boat builders’ books. It’s a mistake that […]
Read articleMoving companies run out of cash in the off-season because the P&L takes an annual view, but the bank account runs on a weekly one. Moving and storage businesses typically see their slowest stretch from late September through March. A year can close profitable while still including several months where payroll is a genuine question. […]
Read articleAlmost every owner I have worked with has had the same week at least once. The month closed profitable. Yet the bank balance says something different. Payroll is Friday, a quarterly insurance renewal just cleared, and the two biggest invoices are still sitting in a customer’s approval queue. Nothing is wrong with the business. Everything […]
Read articleRevenue was up 34%. Net income was down 11%. It’s a classic revenue up, profit down pattern, and it almost never means what owners assume it means. The owner’s first instinct was that costs had gotten away from him. Somebody wasn’t watching closely enough, or someone had gotten sloppy while the whole team scrambled to […]
Read articleAccounting for landscaping companies looks simple on the surface. You bill clients, you pay crews, you buy fuel. But under that, the books are pulled in three ways at once. Sales swing hard with the seasons. Trucks and mowers lose value on a schedule that few owners track well. And labor, the biggest cost on […]
Read articleWhat Is Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and How to Improve It You sent the invoice 47 days ago. The customer hasn’t paid. They haven’t called. They haven’t responded to the polite follow-up your bookkeeper sent two weeks back. Meanwhile, you’ve already paid the labor and materials it took to do the work. That gap kills […]
Read articleHow the Monthly Financial Close Process Works It’s the 22nd of the month. You still don’t have last month’s financials. So you ask your bookkeeper. The answer matches what you heard last month: “Almost done — just a few things to clean up.” The books finally land in your inbox days later. By then, the […]
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