Job costing software for door and hardware contractors
Doors, frames and hardware is mostly material, bought from many manufacturers and delivered over a year. CFOS for QuickBooks checks every bill against the PO and costs it to the job, so a wrong hardware set doesn't take the margin.
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How door and hardware work bills and where the money leaks
A Division 8 contract for doors, frames and hardware is usually a lump sum, furnish only or furnish and install, billed on a schedule of values with retainage. Frames go to the site early so the framers can install them, while doors and finish hardware come months later, so billing is spread across most of the building's schedule. Many contracts let you bill material delivered and stored, and the last retainage waits for permanent cores and the keying sign off.
The leaks start in the hardware schedule. One opening detailed with the wrong swing, function or fire rating means a reorder, often with a long lead time, plus freight and restocking on the wrong piece. A door built wrong at the factory waits on a replacement while the GC asks why the opening isn't done.
Material price is the other leak. The bid is priced from manufacturer quotes, and a long job buys from them over many months while prices change. Damaged doors on site, added openings from revisions and rekeying after the owner changes the plan come out of the same lump sum unless someone bills them.
How door and hardware costs split and what CFOS tracks
A door and hardware job spends on hollow metal frames and doors, wood doors, finish hardware, electrified hardware, freight, detailing time for the submittals, and installers when you install. Material is most of the cost, so the margin is the difference between what you bid and what the manufacturers bill. With one cost code for the whole job, you can't see which piece moved.
CFOS imports the estimate as the job budget by cost code and compares it to actual cost from QuickBooks Online every hour. Frames, doors, hardware, electrified hardware and installation each get their own budget and actual. Cost codes have three levels, so a building or a floor can be the top level with each scope under it.
Manufacturer and distributor bills are emailed to the bills inbox, read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. A bill for more hardware sets than you ordered, or at a price you didn't agree to, is caught before it's paid. On a job with dozens of POs and partial shipments, that check is where much of the margin is kept.
Workflow from the field to the office
When you install, the foreman writes the daily with the crew, the equipment and photos, and records which openings were installed and which are waiting. A photo of a frame installed out of square by others or a door damaged before it was installed is the record you need later. The daily also shows when the crew came out and found the openings not ready.
When the architect adds an opening or the owner changes the keying, the PM writes a change order with its number, and revisions are kept. Field extras, like rehanging doors after another trade's damage or adjusting closers the GC asks for, go on a T&M ticket that the GC signs on site and becomes a change order draft. Each change goes on the next pay app.
Field time is approved and sent to QuickBooks Payroll, posted to the job and cost code. The PM builds the pay app from the schedule of values with lines for frames, doors, hardware and install, with stored material and retainage where the contract allows. COIs and lien waivers 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 on every open job, and you approve it. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing, which in this trade often shows frames bought and billed early and hardware still to buy. The master WIP adds every job together, so the jobs with big orders still to place are easy to see.
In setup you pick the nearest comparable trade, interiors, and the CEO Report grades your gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against its figures. No survey reports doors and hardware on its own, and a furnish only distributor has a very different cost mix from an interiors contractor with field crews. Your own job costing is the real answer, and a year of it shows what each scope earns you.
The 13 week cash forecast reads your pay apps and marks the lowest week. Manufacturer invoices come due well before the GC's pay app is paid, so the low week can come from one big hardware order. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, read only, limited to what your sign in allows.
Door and hardware 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 |
|---|---|
| Hardware schedule and submittals | Detailing, schedules, product data and each resubmittal, by labor hour. |
| Hollow metal frames | Knock down and welded frames, anchors and frame delivery. |
| Hollow metal doors | Steel doors, labels for rated openings and glass kits. |
| Wood doors | Flush and stile and rail doors, factory finish and machining for hardware. |
| Finish hardware | Hinges, locksets, exit devices, closers, stops and seals by hardware set. |
| Electrified hardware | Electric strikes, power transfers, power supplies and coordination with access control. |
| Keying and cores | Construction cores, permanent cores, keys and the keying meeting. |
| Freight, reorders and restocking | Freight, expedite charges, reorders and restocking fees on wrong items. |
| Installation | Install crew hours for frames, doors and hardware, by opening. |
| Change orders and added openings | Architect and owner changes, rekeying and damage repair, tied to the signed change. |
How door and hardware contractors do, by revenue
No survey separates door and hardware, so each row shows the all-trade average, the figures of interiors, the nearest comparable trade, labelled as derived, and the CFOS target where one is published. Use them to find the neighbourhood, then let your own job costing be the answer. Net profit is before taxes in every row.
| Revenue | Overhead | Gross margin | Net profit, before taxes |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1M to $5M | 15.1% all-trade average 13% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 19% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 6% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 12% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 21% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 11% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 22% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Door and hardware, derived from interiors 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 10% Door and hardware, derived from interiors | 25.7% all-trade average 23% Door and hardware, derived from interiors | 13.7% all-trade average 13% Door and hardware, derived from interiors |
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 door and hardware 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 door and hardware contractors ask
Can CFOS check a hardware bill against the PO?
Yes. Bills emailed to the bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. A quantity or price that doesn't match is caught before it's paid. Partial shipments are checked the same way as they come in.
How do I bill frames delivered months before the doors?
Put frames, doors, hardware and install on their own lines in the schedule of values. Where the contract allows, the pay app lists delivered and stored material with retainage by line. You bill the frames when they're on site instead of waiting for the doors.
What does a reorder for the wrong swing cost me?
Give reorders, freight and restocking their own cost code. When the error was in the architect's documents, the PM writes a change order for it. When it was yours, the cost is still visible, and a year of those codes shows where the detailing needs another check.
Can I track furnish only and furnish and install jobs the same way?
Yes. Both use the same material codes, and install jobs add labor codes that approved field time posts to. The job cost report shows material and install apart. That tells you whether installing makes money for you or only adds risk.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for a door and hardware contractor?
No. CFOS works on top of QuickBooks Online, which keeps your books. Field time goes to QuickBooks Payroll, and Intuit bills QuickBooks Online separately.
- 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
- Door and hardware benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.