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Financial insights for service businesses. Margins, cash flow, benchmarks, and profitability data for contractors, healthcare practices, restaurants, and more.

Benchmarks

The industry answer is 45-55% of revenue. The useful answer is where YOUR number sits by account, because in cleaning one underpriced contract can drag the whole book, and the benchmark taped to the wall will not tell you which one.
Benchmarks

Cleaning Business Labor Cost as a % of Revenue: The 2026 Benchmark

Janitorial and commercial cleaning labor runs 45-55% of revenue; top operators hold the low 40s. What drives the gap by account, and how to read your own number before it eats your margin.

2026-07-23·7 minute read

Construction Accounting

Every one of these systems can hold your general ledger. The question that actually separates them is narrower: does it produce a WIP schedule and a certified payroll report without a workaround. That is where contractors get surprised after they have already migrated.
Construction Accounting

Which Contractor Accounting Software Actually Does WIP and Certified Payroll? (2026)

A finance-first comparison of 12 contractor accounting and ERP systems on the two features that actually break: native WIP / percentage-of-completion and certified payroll. Which do it natively, which need a workaround.

2026-07-23·9 minute read

Business Growth

Two electrical contractors at the same revenue can sell 4x apart. The one wired into data-center and mission-critical power is being bid up. The one doing general commercial resi is a tuck-in. Revenue mix now moves the multiple as much as size does.
Business Growth

What EBITDA Multiple Do Electrical Contractors Sell For? (2026)

Electrical contractors sell for 5.5-8x EBITDA in the lower-middle market, but data-center and mission-critical specialists pull 8-12x+. Why revenue mix now matters as much as size.

2026-07-23·8 minute read

Business Growth

Two HVAC shops with identical revenue can sell 4x apart. The gap is almost never size. It is how much of your revenue is locked-in service agreements, and whether a buyer's accountant can trust your numbers without a six-month cleanup.
Business Growth

What EBITDA Multiple Does an HVAC Company Sell For? (2026)

HVAC companies sell for ~9.5x EBITDA on average, 4-8x for tuck-ins up to 15-18.5x for service-dense platforms. What moves you up the range, and how to find where you sit.

2026-07-23·9 minute read

From the founding team's contractor analysis

Most contractors track revenue and jobs booked. Neither tells you if you are making money. These are the 8 numbers that do, ranked by how much they actually move the bottom line.
Job Costing

Contractor Finance KPIs Ranked by Profit Impact (2026)

The 8 financial KPIs that actually move a contractor's bottom line, ranked by profit impact, each with its median and top-quartile benchmark.

2026-07-20·9 minute read

From the founding team's contractor analysis

The margin on your bid sheet is not the margin you earn. The gap is labor burden you didn't fully load, callbacks nobody charged to the job, material that drifted after you quoted, and receivables you're financing for free.
Job Costing

Your 45% Job Was Really a 24% Job. Here's Where the Margin Went.

A contractor job bid at 45% gross margin usually earns closer to 24% once labor is fully burdened, callbacks counted, material drifts, and AR is financed.

2026-07-20·8 minute read

From the founding team's operator analysis

The route looks like a 50% job on the estimate. Then load the burden, the windshield time no client pays for, the equipment per crew-hour, and the off-season you still pay wages through, and the real margin is about half that.
Job Costing

Landscaping Margin: Why a 50% Route Earns 27%

A landscaping route quoted at 50% margin usually earns closer to 27% once burden, drive time, equipment per crew-hour, and off-season labor land.

2026-07-20·7 minute read

From the founding team's operator analysis

A full schedule is not the same as a collected schedule. No-shows leave fixed-cost slots empty, denials force rework and partial write-offs, and undercoding gives away revenue you already earned. The practice looks 20% profitable and takes home closer to 10%.
Job Costing

Practice Revenue Leakage: 20% on Paper, 10% Real

A practice that looks 20% profitable often earns closer to 10% once no-shows, claim denials, and undercoding are counted. The leakage waterfall, sourced.

2026-07-20·8 minute read

From the founding team's contractor analysis

Most bookkeeping is the same across industries. Contractor bookkeeping is not. Job costing, WIP, retainage, and certified payroll create a level of complexity a generalist will learn on your books, at your expense.
Job Costing

5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Bookkeeper for Your Contracting Business

A generalist bookkeeper who doesn't grasp job costing, WIP, and retainage quietly costs you margin. The 5 questions that reveal a trades specialist.

2026-07-20·7 minute read

From the founding team's contractor analysis

A good generalist CFO can read a P&L. A contractor CFO can tell you which jobs made money, why the profitable month left you short on cash, and which service agreements are quietly underwater. Those are different skills.
Job Costing

5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Fractional CFO for a Contracting Business

A fractional CFO who has never run trades finance gives generic advice. The 5 questions that reveal whether one actually understands how contractors make money.

2026-07-20·7 minute read

From the founding team's operator analysis

Markup is not margin. A spread that looks like 34% of the bill rate can net closer to 3% once you load the full employment burden, the recruiter time to fill the req, and the cost of fronting weekly payroll while the client pays in 45 days.
Job Costing

Staffing Markup vs Margin: Why 34% Nets Closer to 3%

A staffing spread that looks like 34% often nets closer to 3% after employment burden, recruiter time, and financing net-30 terms. The full teardown.

2026-07-20·8 minute read

Benchmarks

Pittsburgh's median building was built in 1917. Austin's in 1999. That 82-year gap is the single best structural predictor of whether your metro is a replacement market or a new-install market.
Benchmarks

The 82-Year Gap: How Building-Stock Age Maps Trade Demand Across America

Pittsburgh's median building was built in 1917; Austin's in 1999. Building-stock age is the best structural predictor of trade demand, replacement belt vs. new-install belt, by metro.

2026-07-17·6 minute read

Benchmarks

577,373 contractors, $7.5T in permit value. The top 0.7% control 32% of the market. The permit-volume threshold where a contractor actually needs a CFO is more specific than you think.
Benchmarks

When Do Contractors Actually Need a CFO? The Data Says 0.7% Control a Third of the Market

577,373 contractors, $7.5T in permit value. 0.7% control 32% of it. The permit-volume threshold where a bookkeeper stops being enough, and why it's complexity, not deal size.

2026-07-17·8 minute read

Benchmarks

You think you have thousands of competitors. For a $10M contractor, the real number in any single metro is fewer than 400, and only a handful actually compete for your jobs.
Benchmarks

How Many Competitors Do You Really Have? For a $10M Contractor, Fewer Than 400 in Any Metro

2.3M specialty-trade contractors, but only 0.6% clear $10M. Real competitor density by metro and revenue tier, your true rivals number in the hundreds, not thousands.

2026-07-17·7 minute read

Cash Flow

Roofing permits spike 46% in a single month, then the cash crunch hits. The busiest month on the calendar is the one that quietly drains contractor cash the fastest.
Cash Flow

The October Problem: Roofing Permits Spike 46% in One Month, Then the Cash Crunch Hits

Roofing permits spike +45.8% above average in October, then collapse into winter. Why every trade's Q4 revenue peak funds a Q1 cash crunch, and how to plan for it.

2026-07-17·6 minute read

Level playbook

If your team cannot give you a credible 13-week cash forecast, the problem is usually not the forecast template.
Cash Flow

The 13-Week Cash Forecast Is a Data-Layer Test

A 13-week cash forecast exposes whether field status, billing, AR, AP, payroll, backlog, and accounting data actually tie.

2026-06-30·9 minute read

Level data-layer playbook

An inbox is not a messy workaround if the sender, file, columns, and reconciliation checks are controlled.
Operations

The AI Inbox: Emailed Reports as Finance Pipelines

An inbox can be a controlled finance data pipeline when reports, senders, columns, timing, and reconciliation are designed.

2026-06-30·8 minute read

Level data-layer playbook

The API is not the data layer. It is one witness in a room full of witnesses.
Operations

The API Is Not Enough for Finance Automation

APIs matter, but service-business finance automation still needs exports, PDFs, inboxes, browser workflows, and reconciliation.

2026-06-30·9 minute read

Grow without losing control of the numbers

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