Job costing software for insulation contractors
Insulation is bid by the square foot or board foot and paid by the house, the phase or the pay app. Material is the biggest swing. CFOS ties QuickBooks Online costs to your estimate by cost code, job by job.
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How insulation bills and where the money leaks
Residential insulation is usually priced per house from the builder's plans and paid per lot, often split between the walls before drywall and the attic blow after. Commercial work bills on a schedule of values with a pay app each month and retainage. Spray foam is bid in board feet, and batts and blown products in square feet at an R value.
Material is where the money moves. Spray foam yield changes with temperature, the substrate and the rig, so the same job can use more sets than the bid. Blown products settle and need a depth that someone has to check. Batts get cut, wasted and left in a garage for the next job, and that cost can end up on the wrong house.
Return trips are the other leak. An electrician pulls batts to add a box, a plumber moves a wall, or the energy inspection fails on air sealing, and the crew drives back. Small trips on a per house price eat into the margin, and few of them get a signed ticket.
How insulation costs split and what CFOS tracks
Insulation cost splits into material by product, labor, rig and truck time, fuel, air sealing and disposal. On spray foam jobs the rig is a large piece of the cost, and it's worth charging to the job like any other equipment. Batts and blown work are lighter on equipment and heavier on material and travel.
CFOS compares your estimate by cost code to actual cost from QuickBooks Online every hour. Bills emailed to your bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO, so a foam delivery or a pallet of batts goes on the right job or lot. If each house is its own job, you can compare the plans a builder repeats.
Equipment daily rates charge spray rigs, blowing machines and trucks to the job on the days they're on a daily. Field time is entered by job and cost code, approved, and sent to QuickBooks Payroll with labor burden by class. Sprayers and helpers can be on different classes so the burden is correct.
Workflow from the field to the office
The crew lead files a daily for each house or area with the crew, equipment and photos. Photos of the wall cavities and the attic depth before drywall are your record if the inspector or the builder questions the work. Writing the sets used on the daily lets the office compare yield to the bid.
When a return trip comes from someone else's work, a T&M ticket goes on that day's daily. The builder's super or the GC signs it on site. It becomes a change order draft, and the trip is coded to its own cost code even if it never gets billed.
On commercial jobs the PM bills phases complete on the schedule of values and sends the pay app to the GC from QuickBooks, with retainage tracked. Per lot work bills from QuickBooks as each house is done. Inspection results and punch items are tracked by job.
What the owner sees every month
Every month the PM enters cost to complete on open commercial jobs, and it gets approved. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing on those jobs. Builder work turns over quickly, so job cost by lot and by plan is where most of the owner's answers are.
Your CEO Report grades gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average and CFOS target for insulation at your size. The 13 week cash forecast reads your pay apps and QuickBooks and marks the lowest week. Foam bills are large and due on terms, so seeing them next to builder payments helps you plan.
Return trips and material per job stay visible. If one builder's houses always need a second trip, you'll see it in the numbers before the next price sheet goes out. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, and it reads only what your permissions allow.
Insulation 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 |
|---|---|
| Batt and roll insulation | Fiberglass and mineral wool batts, labor and material by job or lot. |
| Blown insulation | Loose fill fiberglass and cellulose in attics and walls, with the machine time. |
| Open cell spray foam | Sets, labor and rig time on open cell work, budgeted in board feet. |
| Closed cell spray foam | Sets, labor and rig time on closed cell work, kept apart from open cell. |
| Rigid board and continuous insulation | Foam board, mineral wool board and fasteners on walls and foundations. |
| Air sealing and fire blocking | Caulk, foam sealant and fire rated sealant at penetrations. |
| Sound attenuation | Sound batts in interior walls and floors where in scope. |
| Rigs, trucks and fuel | Spray rigs, blowing machines, generators and trucks charged by daily rate. |
| Return trips and inspections | Trips back for pulled batts, failed inspections and touch up. |
| Change orders and T&M | Added scope and work caused by others, tied to the signed ticket. |
How insulation 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 14% Insulation 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 22% Insulation 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 8% Insulation 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 13% Insulation 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 23% Insulation 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 10% Insulation 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 12% Insulation 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 24% Insulation 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 12% Insulation 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 11% Insulation | 25.7% all-trade average 25% Insulation | 13.7% all-trade average 14% Insulation |
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 insulation 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 insulation contractors ask
Can I budget spray foam in board feet and track sets used?
Your estimate imports as the job budget by cost code, with the quantities from your takeoff. Foam bills are coded to the job as they come in. You can compare what each job used to what you bid.
Can each house be its own job?
Yes. Set up each lot as a job in QuickBooks Online, and CFOS costs it against its budget. Then you can see which plans and which builders pay.
How do I charge my spray rig to a job?
Equipment daily rates charge the rig to the job on each day it's on a daily. That cost goes on the rig code, apart from material and labor. You'll see what rig time cost on every foam job.
What about trips back after other trades pull insulation?
Put the trip on the daily with photos and a T&M ticket, and have the super or GC sign it on site. It becomes a change order draft. Trips that aren't signed still get coded to return trips, so you can see them.
Do I keep QuickBooks Online if my insulation company uses CFOS?
Yes. CFOS reads from and writes to QuickBooks Online, which keeps your books. It doesn't work with QuickBooks Desktop.
- 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
- Insulation benchmarks
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