Job costing software for marine contractors
Marine contractors build docks, piers and bulkheads from a barge, paid by the pile and the foot. CFOS for QuickBooks charges barges, cranes, boats and weather days to the job that used them.
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How marine work bills and where the money leaks
Marine work bills a few ways. Public piers and bulkheads are usually unit price, with piles by the each or the linear foot driven, sheet pile by the foot or the square foot, and decking, fenders and hardware as their own lines. Private docks and seawalls are often lump sum with progress draws, and repair work after a storm is often T&M.
Mobilization is the first leak. Getting a crane barge, a tug, work boats and material to the site by water costs a lot before anything is driven, and one mobilization line on the pay app doesn't cover a second trip if the job is stopped and the equipment has to leave. Environmental windows can limit when in-water work is allowed, so a late start can push the job into a season you didn't bid.
The water costs you time. Tides, wind, waves and storms stop work while the barge, the crane and the crew are still costing you by the day. Piles that hit refusal early or obstructions buried in the mud change the quantity and the hours, and the turbidity curtain and monitoring the permit requires cost money every day you're in the water.
How marine costs split and what CFOS tracks
Marine costs split into floating equipment, cranes and hammers, piles and sheet pile, timber and decking, hardware, labor, divers, permits and monitoring. Equipment is the biggest piece on most jobs, and it costs money every day it's on site whether or not the weather lets anyone work. Labor and equipment have to be tracked together, because a crew without a working barge isn't producing.
Equipment daily rates charge each barge, crane, hammer and boat to the job on the days it's on a daily. That puts your owned fleet on the job at a rate built from what the equipment really costs you, instead of leaving it in overhead. Rented equipment comes in on vendor bills, read from your bills inbox, coded to the job and checked against the PO.
CFOS imports your estimate as the job budget by cost code and compares it to actual cost from QuickBooks Online every hour. With three levels of cost code, a pier can be split into piles, framing, decking and utilities, each with labor, material and equipment under it. You see which part of the structure is over budget before the job is done.
Workflow from the field to the office
The foreman files a daily with the crew, the equipment and photos, and the daily is your record of weather days and piles driven. When the tide or a storm stops work, the daily records that the barge and crew were on site and why nothing was driven. That record is what supports a weather claim or a time extension later.
If the owner or GC adds piles, changes a length after refusal or asks for extra work, the T&M ticket rides on the daily and is signed on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. Field time is approved and goes to QuickBooks Payroll, and on public work the certified payroll week is laid out from approved time with wage classes.
The PM builds the pay app from the schedule of values, entering measured quantities against the unit price lines, with retainage and stored materials. Piles bought and stored on a barge or in the yard can be billed where the contract allows it. Submittals, RFIs and punch items are tracked on the job.
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, which tells you how far you're funding mobilization and stored piles. The master WIP puts every job on one page.
Your CEO Report grades gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average and CFOS target for marine at your size. Because the fleet is charged to jobs by the day, equipment cost that isn't on a job stays in overhead. Idle months between jobs are easy to find that way.
The 13 week cash forecast reads your QuickBooks Online data and your pay apps and marks the lowest week. A mobilization by water and the first weeks of driving piles are paid long before the first pay app is. AR aging and a collections list keep retainage and past due pay apps in view after the barge has moved to the next job.
Marine 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 |
|---|---|
| Mobilization by water | Towing barges, moving cranes and hammers, and return trips after a weather stop. |
| Floating equipment | Barges, tugs and work boats charged to the job by the day. |
| Cranes and pile hammers | Cranes, vibratory and impact hammers, leads and templates. |
| Piles | Timber, steel and concrete piles by the each or the foot, including stored piles. |
| Sheet pile and bulkhead | Sheet pile, wales, tie rods, anchors and caps. |
| Framing and decking | Pile caps, stringers, decking and the labor to build them. |
| Fenders and hardware | Fender systems, cleats, bollards, ladders and fasteners. |
| Divers and underwater work | Dive crews, underwater inspection and cutting. |
| Permits and environmental controls | Permits, turbidity curtains, monitoring and work window limits. |
| Weather days and standby | Crew and equipment days lost to tide, wind or storms, on their own code. |
How marine 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% Marine 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 22% Marine 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 7% Marine 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 14% Marine 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 23% Marine 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Marine 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 13% Marine 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 25% Marine 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 12% Marine 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 12% Marine | 25.7% all-trade average 26% Marine | 13.7% all-trade average 14% Marine |
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 marine 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 marine contractors ask
Can CFOS charge a barge and crane to the job by the day?
Yes. Equipment daily rates charge each piece to the job on the days it's on the foreman's daily. Rented equipment comes in on vendor bills coded to the job. Both count in job cost every hour.
How do I track weather days?
Give weather and standby their own cost code. The daily records the crew and equipment on site and why work stopped. You see what the weather cost you on each job, and you have the record if the contract allows a claim.
How do I bill piles by the each or the foot?
Set up the schedule of values with unit price lines for each pile type. Each period you enter the measured quantity, and CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage. Stored piles can be added where the contract allows.
What happens when piles hit refusal short of the bid length?
Put the changed length and any extra work on a T&M ticket on the daily and have it signed on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. The measured quantity on the unit price line follows what was driven.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for a marine contractor?
No. CFOS works on top of QuickBooks Online and reads from and writes to it. QuickBooks keeps your books, and you still pay Intuit for it 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
- Marine benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.