Job costing software for precast concrete contractors
Precast is cast in a plant, stored in a yard, hauled and then set. CFOS for QuickBooks costs each of those steps to the job. You see what a project cost before the last piece is set.
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How precast bills and where the money leaks
A precast contract usually has engineering and shop drawings, production, delivery and erection, and the schedule of values follows those steps. Pieces cast and stored in your yard can be billed as stored material when the contract allows it, often with a bill of sale or proof of insurance. Erection bills as pieces are set, with a pay app each month and retainage held on every line.
The money leaks between the plant and the site. Drawings wait on approval while your engineers keep working, and a late approval pushes casting into a busier month. A form built or changed for a few one-off pieces costs a lot for what it makes, and that cost is easy to lose in plant overhead.
Then the site isn't ready. Finished pieces wait in the yard for weeks, a crane and crew wait on the GC's foundations, and a piece chipped in hauling or erection has to be repaired or cast again. Each of those costs money, and none of it shows in the bid unless someone wrote it down.
How precast costs split and what CFOS tracks
Precast cost splits into engineering and drafting, forms and molds, rebar, strand and embeds, concrete batched at the plant, casting and finishing labor, yard storage and handling, hauling with permits, and erection with cranes and a crew. Plant labor and field labor are different crews with different rates. They belong on different codes.
CFOS compares your estimate by cost code to actual cost from QuickBooks Online every hour. Plant time is entered by job and cost code, so casting a project's wall panels is a cost on that project instead of a line in plant overhead. Bills for cement, aggregate, strand and embeds emailed to your bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO.
Forms, the yard crane, forklifts, trailers and erection cranes get an equipment daily rate built from what they cost you to own. That rate is charged to the job on each day the equipment is on a daily. A form used on three projects then spreads its cost across all three.
Workflow from the field to the office
In the plant, the daily lists the crew, the equipment and photos of the pieces cast, and time goes on the job and cost code. Field and plant time is approved and goes to QuickBooks Payroll. The PM can see casting cost build up piece by piece while the job is still in the yard.
On the site, the erection foreman's daily records the crew, the crane, the pieces set and photos. When the GC's anchor plates are off or the site isn't ready for a delivery, 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, so crane standby has a paper trail.
The PM builds the pay app from the schedule of values with lines for engineering, production, stored pieces, delivery and erection. CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage and stored materials. RFIs and submittals are tracked, so you can show when a casting delay came from drawing approvals.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete on each project and you approve it. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing, which is the number to watch in precast because you spend on drawings, forms and casting long before erection starts. You see which projects the GC is funding and which ones your line of credit is funding.
Your CEO Report grades gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average for precast concrete and the CFOS target for your size. It tells you if the plant and the field together are making the margin you bid. The 13 week cash forecast reads your pay apps and QuickBooks and marks the lowest week, which helps when a big casting month comes due before stored material is paid.
Retainage held until the building is closed in, or until final acceptance, stays visible by job. AR aging and a collections list flag pay apps and stored material billings that are late. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own projects, and it reads your numbers without changing them.
Precast concrete 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 |
|---|---|
| Engineering and shop drawings | Piece drawings, delegated design, erection drawings and revisions after GC comments. |
| Forms and molds | Form building, form changes for one-off pieces, and forms used across projects at a daily rate. |
| Reinforcing, strand and embeds | Rebar cages, prestressing strand, lifting inserts, plates and embeds cast into each piece. |
| Plant concrete | Cement, aggregate, admixtures and batching for each pour. |
| Casting and finishing labor | Plant crew time to set forms, pour, strip, and finish with sandblast, acid etch or form liner. |
| Yard storage and handling | Yard crane and forklift time, storage while the site isn't ready, and moving pieces to load. |
| Hauling and permits | Trucking, oversize and overweight permits, escorts and trailers. |
| Erection | Erection crew, crane days, rigging, shims, bracing and welding of plates. |
| Grouting and caulking | Grouting joints and keyways, sealant at panel joints and touch up. |
| Repairs and recasts | Patching chipped pieces and casting replacements, tied to a change order when someone else caused the damage. |
How precast concrete 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% Precast concrete 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 22% Precast concrete 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 7% Precast concrete 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 14% Precast concrete 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 23% Precast concrete 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Precast concrete 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 13% Precast concrete 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 24% Precast concrete 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Precast concrete 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 12% Precast concrete | 25.7% all-trade average 25% Precast concrete | 13.7% all-trade average 13% Precast 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 precast concrete 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 precast concrete contractors ask
Can I bill pieces stored in my yard before they ship?
Stored materials can 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 shows how much of the casting cost you're still funding.
How do I keep plant labor out of overhead?
Plant time is entered by job and cost code, so casting and finishing labor go on the project they were for. Plant overhead like the building and the office stays separate. Each project then shows its own cost to cast.
How do I spread the cost of a form across projects?
Treat the form as equipment with a daily rate built from what it costs you to own. Each day it's on a daily for a project, that rate is charged to the job. A form built for one project only goes on that project's budget as its own cost code.
What about crane standby when the site isn't ready?
The erection foreman records the day on the daily with the crew, the crane and photos. The cost goes on a standby cost code, and a T&M ticket signed by the GC on site turns it into a change order draft. You keep the photos with the ticket.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for a precast 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 your bookkeeper keeps working where they work now.
- 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
- Precast concrete benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.