Fractional CFO for specialty contractors
Strengthen the finances under a business that's already standing.
Underpin Advisors gives commercial subcontractors doing $3M to $25M the WIP schedule, cash forecast and job-cost discipline that banks and sureties expect, without the cost of a full-time CFO.
Profitable on paper. Tight in the bank.
The WIP doesn't tie out
Percent complete is a guess, overbillings read as profit, and the schedule your surety sees doesn't match the books.
Cash surprises you
Payroll is weekly, general contractors pay in 45 to 90 days, and retainage sits for a year. Nobody is looking 13 weeks ahead.
You find out at closeout
A job bid at 22 points finishes at 9, and the first clear signal is the final cost report.
Your finance person just left
The controller quit, the close is late, and the bank wants a package by the end of the month.
What Underpin does
Monthly WIP review
Cost-to-complete checked with your project managers, overbillings and underbillings by job, and projected final margin you can act on.
13-week cash forecast
Receipts dated to how each general contractor actually pays, payroll and vendor timing, and early warning of tight weeks.
Job costing that matches your estimate
Cost codes aligned with how you bid, so actual cost is compared to the number you sold.
Bank and surety readiness
A financial package and WIP schedule an underwriter can rely on, and support in the meetings that set your credit line and bonding program.
Interim finance coverage
When your finance team steps out, Bob steps in to run the close, the WIP and the cash until a permanent hire is in place.
Restructuring support
Cash collateral budgets, lender forecasts and operating discipline for contractors under financial pressure, including through Chapter 11.
Experience under real load
Bob has run finance inside construction and multistate businesses through recessions, restructurings and bankruptcy. Every example is anonymized.
Multistate retailer, about $30M
- Situation
- Revenue collapse in the 2008 recession and unsustainable debt
- Action
- Managed the company through a Chapter 11 reorganization
- Result
- Right-sized to about $12M with a supportable debt load; ended in a generational ownership transfer
Multistate architectural metals contractor, about $90M
- Situation
- Strained liquidity and inconsistent job reporting
- Action
- Led an out-of-court restructuring and standardized the WIP process and monthly review
- Result
- Line of credit expanded
National unionized institutional construction contractor, about $70M
- Situation
- Chapter 11 filing
- Action
- Ran cash collateral budgets and regular monthly closes through the case and wind-down
- Result
- Identified a claim of more than $25M against a creditor
Twenty minutes, no pitch.
Tell Bob where the numbers are going wrong. By the end of the call you'll know whether Underpin can help and what it would cost.
Book a 20-minute call