Job costing software for masonry contractors
Masonry is bid by the unit and the square foot and paid for in mason and tender hours. CFOS for QuickBooks costs labor, scaffold, mortar and stored brick to the job. You see what a wall cost before the last course goes on.
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How masonry bills and where the money leaks
Most commercial masonry bills progress on a schedule of values, with lines by building, elevation or floor and a pay app each month with retainage. Some contracts price the work by the unit or by the square foot of wall, and some are lump sum by scope, like CMU backup, brick veneer and stone. Brick and block are often ordered months early to lock in a color and a lot, so stored materials are a big part of the bill.
The leaks are mostly labor. A bid assumes a production rate for each mason, and openings, corners, lintels and cut units slow that rate down. Waiting on steel lintels, embeds or a wall inspection pays a crew that can't lay a unit, and scaffold moves, winter enclosures and heat are easy to underprice on every elevation.
Extras are the other leak. A changed opening, added control joints, a grout spec that fills more cells, or patching around another trade's penetrations are all change orders. Without a signed ticket they come out of your margin, and the mockup panel and the final cleaning usually cost more than anyone priced.
How masonry costs split and what CFOS tracks
A masonry job spends on masons and tenders, units, mortar, grout, sand and rebar, ties, flashing and accessories, scaffold and forklifts, and winter protection. Labor is the biggest piece, and the mason to tender ratio changes what an hour of wall costs. Tracking it by building and elevation shows where production fell behind.
CFOS imports your estimate as the job budget by cost code and compares it to actual cost from QuickBooks Online, updated every hour. Labor burden is set by class, so a mason hour and a tender hour each cost what they really cost. Bills for brick, block and mortar emailed to your bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO.
Scaffold frames, planks, mast climbers and forklifts get an equipment daily rate built from what they cost you to own. The rate is charged to the job each day they're on a daily. A building that kept the scaffold for an extra month then shows that cost, instead of leaving it in overhead.
Workflow from the field to the office
The foreman's daily lists the crew, the equipment, the wall worked and photos of the courses laid. Time is entered in the field, approved and sent to QuickBooks Payroll, posted to the cost code for CMU, brick, stone or grout. Weather days and days spent waiting on other trades are on the daily with photos, so the record exists when you ask for the time back.
When the GC changes an opening or asks for patching after the mechanical trades, a T&M ticket goes on the daily and the GC signs it on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app, with numbers and revisions kept. RFIs and submittals are tracked, so a delay from a late color approval has a date on it.
The PM builds the pay app from the schedule of values by building, elevation or floor. CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage, and stored materials go on it when the contract allows, such as brick in the yard before it's laid. Punch items like cleaning and tuckpointing are tracked, so closeout doesn't wait on a list in somebody's truck.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete on every open job and you approve it. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing, which is the check on a masonry job that billed stored brick early and still has most of the labor to spend. The master WIP shows the whole company on one page.
Your CEO Report grades gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average for masonry and the CFOS target for your size. It answers whether your unit price covers your crews. The 13 week cash forecast reads your pay apps and QuickBooks and marks the lowest week, so a winter of heat and enclosures doesn't catch you short.
Retainage is tracked by job, and masonry retainage often waits until the whole building is done. AR aging and a collections list keep it from being forgotten. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, and it reads your numbers without changing them.
Masonry 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 |
|---|---|
| CMU and block | Block units, cutting, and laying labor by building or elevation. |
| Brick veneer | Face brick, ties, laying labor, and stored brick kept in the yard for color and lot. |
| Stone and cast stone | Natural stone, cast stone sills and caps, anchors and setting labor. |
| Mortar, grout and sand | Mortar mix, grout, sand, admixtures, grout pump time and cell filling labor. |
| Reinforcing and embeds | Vertical and bond beam rebar, joint reinforcing, wall ties, anchors and embeds set in the wall. |
| Flashing and accessories | Thru-wall flashing, weeps, drainage mat, control joints and sealant. |
| Lintels and openings | Steel or precast lintels when they're in your scope, and the extra labor at openings. |
| Scaffold and lifts | Rented scaffold or your own at its daily rate, mast climbers, forklifts and each scaffold move. |
| Winter protection | Enclosures, heaters, fuel, blankets and heated materials. |
| Cleaning and punch | Wall cleaning, tuckpointing, patching and the final walk. |
How masonry 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% Masonry 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 21% Masonry 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 7% Masonry 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 13% Masonry 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 22% Masonry 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Masonry 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 12% Masonry 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 23% Masonry 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Masonry 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 11% Masonry | 25.7% all-trade average 24% Masonry | 13.7% all-trade average 13% Masonry |
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 masonry 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 masonry contractors ask
Can I track units laid per mason against the bid?
Yes, if you set up cost codes by wall type, building or elevation. Approved time puts mason and tender hours on those codes, and the daily records what was laid. You compare actual labor to the estimate by cost code and see where production fell behind.
How do I bill brick I bought months before it's laid?
Stored materials go on the schedule of values where the contract allows it. CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage on each line. The WIP schedule then shows how much of that brick you're still funding.
Can scaffold be charged to the job instead of overhead?
Yes. Scaffold and forklifts get a daily rate built from what they cost you to own, and that rate is charged to the job each day they're on a daily. Rented scaffold comes in as a bill coded to the job and checked against the PO.
What about winter heat and enclosures?
Set up winter protection as its own cost code so fuel, heaters and enclosure labor are visible. If the GC's schedule pushed the work into winter, a signed T&M ticket turns the extra cost into a change order draft. Either way, you see what the cold cost on that job.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for my masonry company?
No. CFOS works on top of QuickBooks Online, which keeps your books. 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
- Masonry benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.