Job costing software for post-tension contractors
Post-tension work pays by the pound, the square foot or the pour, and every pour means two trips: one to place and one to stress. CFOS for QuickBooks costs tendons, crews and jacks to the job so you see what each deck cost.
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How post-tension bills and where the money leaks
Post-tension contracts are priced by the pound of strand, by the square foot of slab or as a lump sum for each level or pour. On commercial decks and parking structures the schedule of values often splits tendon supply, placing and stressing, and fabricated tendons can bill as stored material when the contract allows it. Residential slabs on grade are usually priced per foundation to the foundation contractor or the builder.
The money leaks between trips. Each pour needs a placing crew before the concrete and a stressing crew after the cylinder breaks reach strength, and when the concrete schedule slips, your crews wait or come back twice. Small pours mean more trips, more travel and more jack setups for the same pounds of strand.
Tendons are cut to length for a drawing, so an opening added late or a slab edge that moves leaves you with tendons that don't fit. Sheathing torn by another trade, low elongations that need a second look, and pocket patching that was supposed to be someone else's scope all cost time. Without a signed ticket, those costs come out of your margin.
How post-tension costs split and what CFOS tracks
A post-tension job spends on shop drawings and tendon layout, fabricated tendons with anchors and wedges, chairs and supports, placing labor, stressing labor, jacks and pumps, freight, cutting tails and pocket grout. Bonded systems add ducts, grout and a grouting crew. Placing and stressing are different crews on different days, and they belong on different codes.
CFOS reads your jobs, cost codes and vendors from QuickBooks Online and compares actual cost to your estimate by cost code, updated every hour. With supply, placing and stressing on their own lines, you can see whether a deck lost money on material, on the placing crew or on return trips. Cost codes have three levels, so a parking structure can be split by level or pour.
Equipment daily rates charge your stressing jacks, pumps and trucks to the job on the days they're on a daily. Jack calibration and repairs can be coded to the equipment so the daily rate reflects what the jacks cost you to own. Tendon and hardware bills are coded to the supply line on the job.
Workflow from the field to the office
On placing day the foreman's daily lists the crew, the pour and photos of the tendon profile and anchors before the concrete goes in. On stressing day the daily lists the crew, the jacks and photos of the elongation records. Field time is approved and sent to QuickBooks Payroll, with placing and stressing time on their own codes.
When the GC asks for added tendons, a second stressing trip because the pour moved, or repairs to sheathing another trade cut, a T&M ticket goes on the daily. The GC signs it on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app.
Tendon fabricator and freight bills are emailed to the bills inbox, read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. The PM builds the pay app from the schedule of values with supply, placing and stressing lines, and CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage. Residential slabs can each be their own job, billed with an invoice in QuickBooks Online.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete on every job and you approve it. On post-tension that number has to include stressing trips, tail cutting and pockets for pours that haven't been placed yet. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing, so tendon supply billed early doesn't make a deck look finished.
No survey reports post-tension as its own trade, so in setup you pick the nearest comparable trade, concrete. The CEO Report grades your gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against its figures. A post-tension company with its own fabrication can look different from a concrete sub. Your own job costing over a year of decks and slabs is the real answer.
The 13 week cash forecast marks the lowest week from your QuickBooks and pay apps, which helps when the strand bill is due before the deck pay app is paid. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, such as how many stressing trips the last parking structure took. It reads your numbers and can't change them.
Post-tension 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 |
|---|---|
| Shop drawings and layout | Tendon layout drawings, calculations and revisions after review. |
| Tendon supply | Fabricated tendons, strand, anchors and wedges, tracked by job and checked against the PO. |
| Supports and accessories | Chairs, bolsters, support bars, pocket formers and edge form hardware. |
| Placing labor | Crew time to lay out, profile and tie tendons before each pour. |
| Stressing labor | Crew time for each stressing trip, recorded apart from placing. |
| Jacks and pumps | Stressing jacks and pumps at their daily rate, plus calibration and repairs. |
| Tails, pockets and grout | Cutting tails, pocket patching and grouting for bonded systems. |
| Freight and travel | Tendon delivery, crew travel and the extra trips small pours require. |
| Repairs and rework | Sheathing repairs, retensioning and tendons recut after a drawing change. |
| Extras and change orders | Added tendons and return trips tied to a signed T&M ticket. |
How post-tension contractors do, by revenue
No survey separates post-tension, so each row shows the all-trade average, the figures of concrete, the nearest comparable trade, labelled as derived, and the CFOS target where one is published. Use them to find the neighbourhood, then let your own job costing be the answer. 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% Post-tension, derived from concrete 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 21% Post-tension, derived from concrete 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 7% Post-tension, derived from concrete 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 13% Post-tension, derived from concrete 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 22% Post-tension, derived from concrete 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Post-tension, derived from concrete 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 12% Post-tension, derived from concrete 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 23% Post-tension, derived from concrete 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Post-tension, derived from concrete 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 11% Post-tension, derived from concrete | 25.7% all-trade average 24% Post-tension, derived from concrete | 13.7% all-trade average 13% Post-tension, derived from concrete |
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 post-tension 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 post-tension contractors ask
Can I bill fabricated tendons before they're placed?
If the contract allows it, put tendon supply on its own line of the schedule of values and bill it as stored material. CFOS tracks that line and the retainage on it. Placing and stressing then bill on their own lines as the work is done.
How do I cost the separate stressing trip?
Give stressing its own cost code. The stressing day's daily puts the crew time and the jacks on that code at their daily rates. You see what each trip cost next to the placing cost for the same pour.
What about tendons another trade damaged before the pour?
Photograph the damage on the daily and write a T&M ticket for the repair. The GC signs it on site and it becomes a change order draft. If it isn't signed, the repair still goes on its own code so you can see what it cost.
Can each residential slab be its own job?
Yes. Each foundation can be a job in QuickBooks Online with its own budget and actual cost. You bill it with an invoice, and the CEO Report and cash forecast count it with your commercial work.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for a post-tension 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
- Post-tension benchmarks
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