Job costing software for irrigation contractors
Irrigation goes in over several trips: sleeves before paving, then mainline and zones, then years of service. CFOS for QuickBooks costs each trip, part and service call to the job. You see which installs and service accounts make money.
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How irrigation bills and where the money leaks
Commercial irrigation usually bills on a schedule of values with a monthly pay app and retainage. Lines often follow the phases: sleeves, the tap and backflow preventer, mainline, valves and zones, the controller, and testing and as-builts. Service work is separate, with spring startups, winterizations and repairs billed per visit or on a seasonal contract.
The leaks come from the trips. Sleeves go in under the paving months before anything else, and the bid often priced one mobilization for a job that takes four. Other trades cut lines and damage heads after you've tested a zone, and without a signed ticket the repair is on you.
Approvals and power are the rest. A backflow test or a water meter waits on the city, and the controller waits on an electrician. Coverage adjustments after the plants go in add trips that weren't in the bid, and retainage waits on the whole site, so the last check comes long after the last head was set.
How irrigation costs split and what CFOS tracks
An irrigation job spends on pipe and fittings, sleeves, valves, heads and drip, wire, controllers and sensors, backflow preventers and meters, trenching and pulling equipment, and crew labor. Material comes in many small drops from a supply house. Labor is spread across trips that can be months apart.
CFOS reads your jobs, cost codes and vendors from QuickBooks Online and compares actual cost to your estimate by cost code, updated every hour. Supply house bills emailed to your bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. A box of rotors picked up for one job doesn't end up on another.
Trenchers, vibratory plows and trucks get an equipment daily rate built from what they cost you to own, charged to the job on each day they're on a daily. If you set up sleeves, mainline, zones, controller and startup as separate cost codes, each phase has its own budget and actual. You see which trip went over.
Workflow from the field to the office
The crew lead's daily lists the crew, the equipment and photos of open trenches, sleeve locations and finished zones. Field time is approved and goes to QuickBooks Payroll, coded to the phase. Those photos also give you a record of where the sleeves and mainline went.
When another trade cuts a lateral, the GC moves a bed or the city requires a different backflow assembly, a T&M ticket goes 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 shows how numbers and revisions are kept.
Installs bill from the schedule of values, and CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage. Service accounts can be their own jobs, with startups, winterizations and repairs coded so each visit is counted. Pay app due dates send reminders to the PM, so a small monthly bill isn't forgotten.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete on every open install, including the startup and the coverage walk still to come, and you approve it. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing by job. A job that billed sleeves and mainline early shows how much of the work is still ahead.
The CEO Report grades your gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average for irrigation and the CFOS target for your size. It tells you if your install and service work together make the margin you bid. The 13 week cash forecast reads your QuickBooks and pay apps and marks the lowest week, which helps in spring when supply house bills and startup payroll come before the checks.
AR aging and a collections list flag the small service invoices and held retainage that tend to age. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, such as which service accounts cost more than they billed last season. It reads your numbers and can't change them.
Irrigation 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 |
|---|---|
| Sleeves | Sleeves under paving and walks, the trip to install them, and marking their locations. |
| Tap and backflow | Tap, meter, backflow preventer, enclosure and the certified test. |
| Mainline | Mainline pipe, fittings, isolation valves, thrust blocks and trenching. |
| Valves and zones | Zone valves, valve boxes, lateral pipe, wire and splices. |
| Heads and drip | Spray heads, rotors, nozzles, drip line and emitters by zone. |
| Controller and sensors | Controllers, rain and flow sensors, wiring and programming. |
| Trenching and equipment | Trenchers, vibratory plows and trucks at their daily rates. |
| Testing, startup and as-builts | Pressure testing, coverage adjustments, startup and as-built drawings. |
| Damage repair | Cut laterals, damaged heads and cut wire after other trades, tied to a signed T&M ticket. |
| Seasonal service | Spring startups, winterizations, repairs and service visits on maintenance accounts. |
How irrigation 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 15% Irrigation 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 22% Irrigation 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 7% Irrigation 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 14% Irrigation 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 23% Irrigation 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Irrigation 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 13% Irrigation 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 24% Irrigation 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Irrigation 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 12% Irrigation | 25.7% all-trade average 25% Irrigation | 13.7% all-trade average 13% Irrigation |
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.
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 irrigation contractors ask
How do I cost sleeves installed months before the rest of the job?
Set up sleeves as their own cost code with their own budget. The crew's time and the equipment on that day's daily post to it, and the pay app bills it as its own line. When the rest of the job starts, you already know what the sleeve trip cost.
Can I get paid for lines another trade cut?
Put the repair on the daily as a T&M ticket with photos, and have the GC sign it on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. If it can't be billed, the cost still goes on its own code so you see it.
How do I track winterizations and startups?
Set up service accounts as jobs with cost codes for startup, winterization and repairs. Each visit has a daily with the crew and truck. You compare what each account cost to what it billed.
Does CFOS track retainage until the whole site is accepted?
Yes. Retainage is tracked on every pay app, and the 13 week cash forecast reads from them. You see what's held on each job and plan around it.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for my irrigation company?
No. QuickBooks Online keeps your books, and CFOS works on top of it. It reads and writes jobs, cost codes, vendors, bills and invoices, so there's no migration.
- 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
- Irrigation benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.