Job costing software for interiors contractors
Interiors contractors package several scopes on one tenant improvement job, often on a schedule measured in weeks. CFOS ties QuickBooks Online costs to your estimate by scope, so you can see which part of the package made money.
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How interiors bills and where the money leaks
An interiors contract usually bundles framing, drywall, ceilings, doors, frames and hardware, and sometimes specialties like toilet partitions, accessories and corner guards. Tenant improvement work bills a schedule of values each month with retainage, and the GC wants a line for each scope. Some jobs are lump sum for the whole package, and some are priced per suite for a landlord with many spaces to finish.
The leaks come from the speed. A TI schedule of a few weeks leaves no room for a late door or a hardware set ordered wrong, and a missing frame stops the framing and drywall crews around it. Night and weekend work in occupied buildings costs overtime the bid may not include.
Change orders are the other leak. Tenants change layouts after framing starts, add a wall, move a door or upgrade a finish, and the GC wants it done that day. Small changes add up across a job, and a dozen unsigned tickets can take most of the margin on a short project.
How interiors costs split and what CFOS tracks
Interiors cost splits into labor by scope, material from several suppliers, purchased items like doors and hardware, and subcontracted pieces like glazing or flooring when you take them on. Each scope has its own margin, and a package total hides which scope lost money. Doors, frames and hardware are bought items with little labor, so they need their own codes apart from the field labor.
CFOS imports your estimate as the job budget by cost code and compares it to actual cost from QuickBooks Online every hour. Cost codes have three levels, so a suite or floor can be the top level with each scope under it. On a landlord program with many suites, you can see the cost of each suite against its price.
Vendor bills emailed to your bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. A hardware supplier's bill that doesn't match the hardware schedule on the PO is caught before it's paid. Subcontractor bills are coded to their scope the same way, so the package margin shows what you kept.
Workflow from the field to the office
The foreman files a daily with the crew, the equipment and photos, which documents what was open, what was in place and what was waiting on another trade or a delivery. On a short TI job, that record decides whether a delay gets paid or argued. The daily also lists night and weekend crews, so overtime is tied to the reason for it.
When the tenant or GC changes the layout, a T&M ticket is attached to the daily and the GC signs it on site, before the crew leaves. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app, priced from your T&M rate sheet. On a job with many small changes, you can see which ones are signed and which ones aren't.
Field time is approved and goes to QuickBooks Payroll, posted to the scope it was worked on. The PM builds the pay app from the schedule of values with a line for each scope, with retainage and stored material where the contract allows. Punch items and RFIs are tracked, which helps when the tenant's move in date is fixed and the punch walk is the day before.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete on every open job, and it gets approved. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing, and on short TI jobs it often shows work finished and not yet billed. The master WIP shows every job on one page, so a month with ten small jobs closing is as clear as one with a single large one.
Your CEO Report grades gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average and CFOS target for interiors at your size. The 13 week cash forecast reads your pay apps and marks the lowest week. Fast jobs mean payroll every week and payment a month or more later, so knowing the low week early is useful.
Each scope's margin stays visible across jobs. After a year you can see whether doors and hardware, ceilings or specialties pay their way in the package, and bid the next one with that in mind. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, read only, limited to what your sign in allows.
Interiors 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 |
|---|---|
| Metal framing | Studs, track, headers and blocking for walls, soffits and backing. |
| Drywall and finish | Board, mud, tape and finish labor by suite or floor. |
| Acoustic ceilings | Grid, tile and specialty ceilings when they're in the package. |
| Doors, frames and hardware | Hollow metal frames, wood doors and hardware sets, bought and installed. |
| Specialties | Toilet partitions, accessories, corner guards, fire extinguisher cabinets and signs. |
| Insulation and firestopping | Sound batts, firestopping and sealant at rated walls. |
| Selective demolition | Demo of existing walls, ceilings and finishes in occupied buildings. |
| Overtime and after hours | Night and weekend labor premium, tied to the reason on the daily. |
| Equipment and protection | Lifts, carts, floor protection and dumpsters charged to the job. |
| Change orders and T&M | Tenant and GC changes coded separately, tied to the signed ticket. |
How interiors 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 13% Interiors 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 19% Interiors 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 6% Interiors 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 12% Interiors 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 21% Interiors 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Interiors 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 11% Interiors 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 22% Interiors 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Interiors 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 10% Interiors | 25.7% all-trade average 23% Interiors | 13.7% all-trade average 13% 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 interiors 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 interiors contractors ask
Can I see margin by scope inside one interiors package?
Yes. Each scope gets its own cost codes, and your estimate imports as the budget on them. Actual cost from QuickBooks Online is posted to the same codes every hour. You see which scope made money and which one didn't.
How do I track a landlord program with many suites?
Set each suite up as its own job or as the top level of the cost codes. The budget and actual cost then show by suite. That tells you whether the per suite price covers what the work costs.
Can doors, frames and hardware be billed as stored material?
Where the contract allows it, yes. The pay app lists stored material on the schedule of values with retainage by line. The bill is coded to the job and checked against the PO when it comes in.
How do small tenant changes get paid?
The T&M ticket is attached to the foreman's daily and the GC signs it on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. Unsigned tickets show on the daily, so they don't wait until closeout.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for an interiors 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
- Interiors benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.