CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System, by Josh Luebker

#1 Best Seller in Construction Industry on Amazon

THE CONSTRUCTION FINANCIAL OPERATING SYSTEM

8 Steps
60 Days

The financial operating system for commercial subcontractors from under $1M to $100M. Built from 1,008 published data points and the projects behind them.

WHAT THIS IS

CONTROL is an 8 step system for managing a commercial subcontracting business on numbers you can see. Each step fixes one specific breakdown, from job cost structure through to the monthly cadence. They work in sequence, and most owners install all 8 inside 60 days.

THE BOOK

What people who read it early said

THE BOOK, IN A MINUTE
CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System
Contracting isn't easy, and in my early days I made it much harder than it needed to be. But Josh's practical approach—and his proven track record—put simple but powerful concepts in the hands of construction owners. Concepts that, if put in place, will dramatically change the arc of your enterprise—and your life. As I read this book, I thought out loud (and also asked Josh): where were you in the mid-90s when I was struggling to get off the ground and gain altitude?!?! Reading this book and following its concepts is almost guaranteed to make you a more capable contractor.
Herb SargentBoard Chair, Sargent
I wasn't expecting a finance book to hit this close to home. What sets this book apart is that it doesn't stop at diagnosing the problem. Josh gives you real, usable solutions pulled straight from the field, not generic advice, but the kind of guidance that comes from someone who's actually been in the trenches with owners like us. I could barely put it down. It took me right back to when I was building my own crews, facing the same struggles so many of us face when we simply don't know what we don't know. This book doesn't just tell you what's broken; it gives you a way to fix it, regardless of whether you just started or have been doing this the same way for decades.
Gloria MarieCo-Founder, GloJoy Construction
SEE YOUR OWN NUMBERS
NEXT STEP

Know the industry average and the CFOS target for your trade and size? Now see how your own books compare. The Financial Health Snapshot builds a CEO Report from your last twelve months, sets every figure against your trade, and walks you through it on a 60 minute call. SPM The Construction CFO (Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC) is a separate firm, and the same author leads it.

SEE THE FINANCIAL HEALTH SNAPSHOT

AUTHOR
Josh Luebker
JOSH LUEBKER
MASTER ELECTRICIAN · 150+ PROJECTS · $2.1B+ MANAGED

Josh Luebker is a master electrician and former commercial construction project manager who now runs the finance side for contractors. He managed more than 150 projects worth over $2.1B, then founded SPM The Construction CFO (Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC), an outsourced finance and CFO firm for subcontractors doing $1M to $12M. He is the author of CONTROL: C.F.O.S. Construction Financial Operating System, a #1 Amazon bestseller in Construction Industry and Home Improvement Estimating, and publishes free benchmarks for 48 trades at https://runoncfos.com. More at https://constructioncfo.net.

Run On CFOS owns the benchmark reference behind these figures. Gross margin and overhead come from the figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish, and Run On CFOS publishes net profit as a separate average stated after taxes. Every edition is checked against the newest CFMA and JMCO releases before it publishes here. Where a figure changes between editions, the older edition keeps its year in the title so a citation to it stays correct.

ON AMAZON
Amazon's Best Sellers list for the Construction Industry. CONTROL by Josh Luebker is ranked number 1, ahead of the books at numbers 2 and 3.
The Best Sellers Rank on the book's Amazon page: number 1 in Construction Industry, number 1 in Home Improvement Estimating, number 9 in Financial Accounting.

Within 48 hours of its October 1, 2026 release the book ranked on Amazon:

  • #1 in Construction Industry
  • #1 in Home Improvement Estimating
  • #9 in Financial Accounting

Captured October 2, 2026 at 8:03 PM Central.

Updated

8 Steps 60 Days

CONTROL is the full system, written for commercial subcontractors from under $1M to $100M. It's out now. 8 steps, 6 working templates, and the order they install in. $9.99 ebook, $24.99 paperback.