Job costing software for demolition contractors
Demolition is sold as a lump sum and paid for in machine days, truckloads and dump tickets. CFOS for QuickBooks costs disposal, equipment and crew time to the job, so you see what each building cost to take down.
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How demolition bills and where the money leaks
Most demolition is bid as a lump sum for a building, a structure or an interior scope, sometimes with unit prices for slab or foundation removal by the square foot. You bill progress on a schedule of values, often by building or by phase, and the GC keeps retainage on every line. The price you bid usually counts on scrap value from steel and copper to help pay for the job.
The leaks come from what you couldn't see at the bid. Hidden basements, a thicker slab than the drawings showed, buried tanks and asbestos found behind a wall all change the cost of the job. When the abatement sub is late, your crew and machines wait with nowhere to work. Each of those needs a signed ticket before the work starts, or it's your cost.
Disposal is the other leak. Concrete, mixed debris, metal and anything regulated go to different places at different rates, and a load sent to the wrong place costs more. Scrap prices move between the bid and the day you load the steel, so the credit you counted on can come in smaller than planned.
How demolition costs split and what CFOS tracks
A demolition job spends on heavy equipment like excavators with shears, grapples and breakers, plus operators and laborers, trucking, disposal fees by the ton or the load, and subs for abatement, utility disconnects and saw cutting. Selective interior demo is mostly labor and dumpsters. Structural demo is mostly machines and trucks.
CFOS reads your jobs, cost codes and vendors from QuickBooks Online and compares cost to your estimate by cost code, updated every hour. Set up disposal by material, such as concrete, mixed debris and regulated waste, and each one gets its own budget and actual. Dump tickets and hauler bills emailed to your bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO.
Equipment daily rates charge your excavators, attachments and skid steers to the job each day they're on a daily. A high reach machine that waits three days for abatement is a cost on that job, and you can see it. Record scrap and salvage checks in QuickBooks Online on the job, so the credit stays with the work that earned it.
Workflow from the field to the office
The foreman's daily records the crew, the equipment on site, loads hauled and photos of each area before and after. Field time is approved by the PM and sent to QuickBooks Payroll. Photos of what you found behind a wall or under a slab are dated and kept with the job.
When the crew finds a buried tank, an extra slab or material that needs testing, the foreman puts a T&M ticket on the daily. The GC signs it on site, and it becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. The change orders page covers how numbers and revisions are kept.
Billing comes from the schedule of values, set up by building, floor or phase. CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage each period. COIs and lien waivers from your abatement and hauling subs are read when they come in and flagged when one is missing or about to expire.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete and you approve it, and the WIP schedule shows over and under billing. Demolition jobs move fast, and the last loads of debris and the foundation removal often cost more than the early pay apps suggest. Cost to complete makes the PM count what's left to remove.
The CEO Report grades your gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average for demolition and the CFOS target for your size. It tells you whether your lump sum prices cover disposal and machine time over a full year. The 13 week cash forecast marks the lowest week from your QuickBooks and pay apps, which helps when the landfill wants payment weeks before the GC pays.
AP aging shows which hauler and disposal bills are due soon. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about any job, such as what disposal cost per load on the last three buildings. It reads your numbers and can't change them.
Demolition cost codes, matched to QuickBooks
Each group below is one set of cost codes in CFOS. Bills, time and equipment post to them. QuickBooks keeps the books underneath, so your bookkeeper sees the same numbers.
| Cost code group | What goes on it |
|---|---|
| Permits and utility disconnects | Demolition permits, utility cut and cap, and the survey of what has to come out. |
| Abatement | Asbestos and lead abatement subs, air monitoring, and crew and machine days spent waiting while it's cleared. |
| Selective interior demo | Labor, dumpsters and small equipment to strip interiors, ceilings and finishes. |
| Structural demolition | Excavators with shears, grapples and breakers, operators and the equipment daily rates. |
| Concrete and foundation removal | Slabs, footings and basement walls, crushing and saw cutting. |
| Hauling and trucking | Hired trucks and roll-offs by the load or the hour. |
| Disposal fees | Landfill and transfer station tickets by material, kept apart for concrete, mixed debris and regulated waste. |
| Scrap and salvage | Steel, copper and salvaged items, with the checks recorded against the job. |
| Dust control and protection | Water trucks, misters, fencing and protection of the buildings next door. |
| Backfill and site restoration | Fill for basements and holes, compaction, rough grade and seed. |
How demolition contractors do, by revenue
Each row shows the all-trade average, this trade's average and the CFOS target where one is published. These are the numbers your own job costing gets graded against. Net profit is before taxes in every row.
| Revenue | Overhead | Gross margin | Net profit, before taxes |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1M to $5M | 15.1% all-trade average 16% Demolition 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 20% Demolition 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 4% Demolition 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 15% Demolition 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 22% Demolition 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 7% Demolition 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 14% Demolition 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 23% Demolition 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 9% Demolition 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 13% Demolition | 25.7% all-trade average 25% Demolition | 13.7% all-trade average 12% Demolition |
Gross margin and overhead come from figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish by trade and size. Net profit is computed, not surveyed: net profit = gross margin minus overhead. Nothing comes out for taxes, interest or other income and expense, so it is a before tax figure, on the same basis as CFMA's net income before taxes.
CFMA's 2025 medians are 7.1 percent before interest and taxes and 6.7 percent net income before taxes. Gross margin minus overhead leaves out interest and other income and expense, so a figure here can come in a little above or below a reported net income on the same business.
Above the $10M to $25M band the gross margin and overhead rows are a modeled extension of the same curves. They have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker, so read those bands as a model and not as a survey result.
Problems demolition contractors write to us about
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We email you when CFOS for QuickBooks opens, plus a few updates before then. Your address stays with Run On CFOS. One click unsubscribes.
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime. It opens January 2027. We email you the day it opens.
What demolition contractors ask
How do I track disposal costs by type of material?
Set up disposal cost codes for concrete, mixed debris, metal and regulated waste. Dump tickets and hauler bills come to your bills inbox, where they're read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. You then see what each kind of load cost against what you bid.
Can scrap credits count toward the job?
Record scrap and salvage checks in QuickBooks Online on the job and give them their own line. CFOS reads the job from QuickBooks Online, so the credit shows next to the costs it was meant to offset. You can see whether the scrap value you bid came through.
What happens when the crew finds a buried tank or a hidden slab?
The foreman photographs it, puts a T&M ticket on the daily, and the GC signs on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. If the GC won't sign, the cost still goes on its own code so you know what the surprise cost.
How are excavator and attachment costs charged to the job?
Each machine and attachment can have a daily rate built from what it costs you to own. When it's on a daily for a job, that rate is charged to the job for the day. Days spent waiting on abatement are counted too, so they don't vanish into overhead.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for my demolition company?
No. QuickBooks Online keeps the books, and CFOS works on top of it. It reads and writes jobs, cost codes, vendors, bills and invoices, so there's no migration and your bookkeeper keeps working where they work now.
- Job costing software that runs on QuickBooks
- One price. Every module. Priced by your revenue.
- Use all of it, or just the part you need
- Job costing software that runs on QuickBooks
- One price. Every module. Priced by your revenue.
- Use all of it, or just the part you need
- Demolition benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.