Job costing software for paving contractors
Paving bills by the ton or square yard. It spends plant material, trucks and crew in one day. CFOS for QuickBooks costs tonnage, haul and equipment hours to the job so overruns are visible before the plant statement posts.
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How paving bills and where the money leaks
Paving is bid by the square yard at a specified thickness, or by the ton, and sometimes as a lump sum. You sell area and buy tons, so a mat laid a little thick costs you material that never goes on the pay app. The overrun is visible in the scale tickets, and many of those never get compared to the quantity placed.
The cash timing is rough. A production day uses a lot of asphalt on short payment terms from the plant, weeks before the pay app is paid. A good quarter of paving can be a hard cash quarter, because you buy the material before you collect for it.
The schedule is the other leak. The plant slot, the trucks and the crew are bought ahead, and when the grade isn't ready at the start of the day, you pay for all of it and bill none of it. Base and binder go down early, the surface comes a year later, and the bid usually priced one mobilization.
How paving costs split and what CFOS tracks
Paving spends on asphalt from the plant, trucking from plant to site, the paving crew with paver, rollers and a tack or distributor truck, and prep work such as milling and base. Some contractors own the equipment and some sub the haul, so the split changes by shop. What stays the same is that tons, haul and crew time all need to be tied to the job.
CFOS reads jobs, cost codes and vendors from QuickBooks Online and compares actual cost to the estimate by cost code, updated every hour. Plant statements and trucking bills can come to your bills inbox, where they are coded to the job and checked against the PO. Each ticket then counts toward the job instead of waiting for a monthly statement.
Equipment daily rates charge the paver, rollers, milling machine and trucks to the job on every day they're on a daily. The rate comes from what the machine costs you to own. Idle days and shop time are then visible instead of hidden in overhead.
The workflow from the field to the office
The paving foreman fills out a daily with the crew, equipment, tons placed and photos. Time is approved and goes to QuickBooks Payroll, with wage classes and overtime handled. If the GC sends the crew home for a grade that wasn't ready, that day is recorded with photos, which gives you something to bring to the discussion.
Extra work like additional patching, a revised thickness or night work goes on a T&M ticket on the daily. The GC signs on site, and it becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. The change orders page covers how the numbers and revisions work.
For billing, you set up the schedule of values with unit price lines for tons or square yards. CFOS lays out G702 and G703 pay apps with retainage. Pay app due dates send reminders to the PM, which helps when the plant bill is due before the GC pays.
What the owner sees every month
The PM enters cost to complete each month and you approve it. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing, which is the number to watch in paving because material is bought in big bursts. A job that billed little but spent a lot in one week is easy to spot.
The CEO Report compares your gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes to the published average for paving and the CFOS target for your size. It tells you where the industry average and your numbers differ. The 13 week cash forecast marks the lowest week from your QuickBooks and pay apps, so a big paving week doesn't surprise you.
AP aging helps you see which plant and trucking bills are due soon, and AR aging shows which pay apps and retainage are late. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about any job. Each person sees only what their sign in allows.
Paving 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 and moves | Paver, rollers, milling machine and truck moves to the job and the return trips for surface course. |
| Milling and demolition | Milling, pavement removal, haul-off and disposal. |
| Subgrade and base course | Fine grade, aggregate base, geotextile, lime or cement treatment and compaction. |
| Asphalt material | Hot mix by the ton from the plant by mix type, with scale tickets reconciled. |
| Hauling and trucking | Trucks from plant to site by the hour or load, wait time and tolls. |
| Paving crew and equipment | Paver and roller operators, screed and raker labor, and the equipment daily rates. |
| Tack, seal and crack fill | Tack coat, sealcoat, crack sealing and the distributor truck. |
| Striping and markings | Layout, paint or thermoplastic, stencils and signage. |
| Testing and mix approval | Job mix formula submittals, cores, density testing and retests. |
| Standby and weather days | Crew and trucks held for grade or weather, tied to the daily and any signed ticket. |
How paving 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% Paving 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 20% Paving 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 6% Paving 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 13% Paving 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 22% Paving 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Paving 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 12% Paving 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 23% Paving 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Paving 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 11% Paving | 25.7% all-trade average 25% Paving | 13.7% all-trade average 14% Paving |
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 paving 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 paving contractors ask
How do I compare tons bought to square yards billed?
Plant bills and scale tickets can be emailed to the bills inbox, coded to the job and checked against the PO. You enter the measured quantity on the pay app, and cost is compared to the estimate by cost code. The difference between the tons you planned and the tons you bought is then in front of you.
Can CFOS track a paving day when the grade wasn't ready?
Yes. The foreman records the day on the daily with crew, equipment and photos. The cost goes to a standby cost code, and if the GC agrees to pay, a signed T&M ticket turns it into a change order draft.
How are paver and roller costs charged to jobs?
Each machine has a daily rate built from what it costs you to own. When it's on a daily for a job, that rate is charged to the job for the day. Operator time is added from approved field time.
Does it handle base course in one year and surface course in another?
Yes. Set up base, binder and top course as separate cost codes and pay app lines. The WIP schedule and the monthly cost to complete show what's still to be done on the job, and retainage is tracked until it's released.
Can I use it if I sub the hauling?
Yes. Trucking bills from your haulers are coded to the job like any other vendor bill. Vendors can use the vendor portal to upload documents like COIs and see their payments.
- 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
- Paving benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.