Job costing software for fencing contractors
Fencing bills by the foot, the gate and, for temporary fence, the month. Rock under a post line or a site that isn't ready can take the margin. CFOS for QuickBooks costs posts, fabric, gates and trips to the job.
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.
How fencing bills and where the money leaks
Fencing is priced by the linear foot by fence type and height, plus each gate, and sometimes as a lump sum for the whole line. Commercial work bills a schedule of values on a monthly pay app with retainage, and residential work collects a deposit and the balance when the fence is done. Temporary construction fence bills its own way: install, a monthly rental for as long as the GC keeps it up, and removal.
The leaks start under the post line. A bid assumes clean digging, and then the auger finds rock, old footings or an unmarked line the locate missed, so a day of posts becomes three. Concrete for the footings, a rented rock auger and the extra crew days all come out of the same price per foot.
Trips are the other leak. The GC wants the fence before the grading is done, so the crew sets temporary panels, moves them twice as phases change and comes back for gates after paving. Temporary panels get damaged or hauled off by someone else, and unless someone tracks it, the replacement cost goes into overhead instead of the job.
How fencing costs split and what CFOS tracks
A fencing job spends on posts, framework and fabric or panels, concrete, gates and hardware, crew time, an auger or post driver, and the truck and trailer. Gate operators and access control are often subcontracted to an electrician, and some shops sub the installation on residential work. Each of those has its own vendor and its own timing.
CFOS reads your jobs, cost codes and vendors from QuickBooks Online and compares actual cost to the estimate by cost code, updated every hour. The estimate imports as the budget, so line fence, gates, footings and temporary fence each have a budget and an actual. Seven cost types keep labor, materials, equipment, subs and other costs apart inside each code.
Bills from the fence supplier go to the bills inbox by email, where they're read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. When a supplier ships a lighter gauge or bills a price you didn't agree to, it's caught before it's paid. Leftover posts and fabric go back to the yard all the time, so the bill and the PO are the record of what each job bought.
Workflow from the field to the office
The foreman writes the daily with the crew, the equipment and photos, and records the footage set and the gates installed that day. A photo of rock in the auger hole or a fence line blocked by a stockpile is what turns a lost day into a paid one. Equipment on the daily, like the skid steer with the auger, is charged to the job at its daily rate.
When the GC moves the fence line, adds a gate or asks for another temporary fence move, the work goes on a T&M ticket that the GC signs on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app, priced from your T&M rate sheet. The change orders page covers how numbers and revisions are kept.
Field time is approved by the PM and sent to QuickBooks Payroll, posted to the job and cost code. The PM builds the pay app from the schedule of values, with unit price lines for footage and gates, and retainage. COIs and lien waivers from your 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 on every open job, you approve it, and CFOS builds the WIP schedule with over and under billing. On a job where the fence went in early and the gates wait for paving, this shows what's been earned and not billed. The master WIP adds every job together, which helps when you have dozens of small ones open.
In setup you pick the nearest comparable trade, sitework, and the CEO Report grades your gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against its figures. No survey publishes an average for fencing on its own, so treat those figures as a reference point. Your own job costing is the real answer, and after a year you'll know what a foot of each fence type costs you to put in.
The 13 week cash forecast reads your QuickBooks Online and pay apps and marks the lowest week. That helps in the months when steel posts and fabric are bought ahead and the commercial pay app hasn't been paid. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about a job, read only, and each person sees only what their sign in allows.
Fencing 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 |
|---|---|
| Layout and locates | Staking the line, utility locates, survey pins and clearing along the fence line. |
| Post holes and footings | Augering, rock drilling, concrete and setting posts, with the auger's daily rate. |
| Chain link fabric and framework | Fabric, line and terminal posts, top rail, tension wire, ties and barbed wire. |
| Ornamental and panel fence | Steel or aluminum panels, posts, brackets and powder coat touch up. |
| Wood and vinyl fence | Pickets, rails, posts, vinyl sections and fasteners for residential and privacy work. |
| Gates and hardware | Swing and slide gates, hinges, latches, drop rods and gate posts. |
| Gate operators and access control | Operators, keypads and the electrician's subcontract to power them. |
| Temporary construction fence | Panels, bases, screen, install, each move the GC asks for, removal and damaged panels. |
| Removal of existing fence | Tear out, haul off and disposal of old fence and footings. |
| Change orders and T&M | Line moves, added gates and rock work, tied to the signed ticket. |
How fencing contractors do, by revenue
No survey separates fencing, so each row shows the all-trade average, the figures of sitework, 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 15% Fencing, derived from sitework 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 18% Fencing, derived from sitework 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 3% Fencing, derived from sitework 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 14% Fencing, derived from sitework 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 20% Fencing, derived from sitework 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 6% Fencing, derived from sitework 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 13% Fencing, derived from sitework 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 22% Fencing, derived from sitework 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 9% Fencing, derived from sitework 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 12% Fencing, derived from sitework | 25.7% all-trade average 24% Fencing, derived from sitework | 13.7% all-trade average 12% Fencing, derived from sitework |
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 fencing contractors write to us about
Get on the list for the day it opens
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime.
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 fencing contractors ask
Can CFOS compare what a fence line cost to the footage I billed?
Yes. Your estimate imports as the budget by cost code, and actual cost from QuickBooks Online posts against it every hour. The foreman records footage set on the daily and the pay app bills footage on a unit price line, so you can put the cost next to the feet.
What happens when the auger finds rock?
The foreman records it on the daily with photos, the crew and the equipment. If the GC agrees it's extra, a T&M ticket signed on site becomes a change order draft. If it isn't billable, the cost goes on its own code so your next bid in that area prices it.
How do I track temporary fence that stays out for months?
Set it up as its own job or its own cost codes, with lines for install, monthly rental and removal. Every move the GC asks for goes on a daily and, when it's extra, a signed T&M ticket. Replacement panels and bases are coded to that job, so you see whether the rental covered them.
Can gates and gate operators be tracked apart from the line fence?
Yes. Gates, hardware and operators get their own cost codes and their own lines on the schedule of values. The electrician's bill for the operator is emailed to the bills inbox, coded to the job and checked against the PO. You then see whether gates make money or just make work.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for a fencing 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
- Fencing benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.