Job costing software for reinforcing steel contractors
Rebar is sold by the ton and placed one pour at a time on the concrete crew's schedule. CFOS for QuickBooks costs bar, fabrication and placing labor to the job. You see what a ton cost you to furnish and to place.
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.
How reinforcing steel bills and where the money leaks
Rebar contracts are usually priced by the ton, often with one price to furnish and another to place, and some are a lump sum for a scope like foundations or a parking deck. Some companies furnish and place, some only fabricate and some only place bar someone else bought. Fabricated bar can bill as stored material when the contract allows it, and placing bills as each area is tied and inspected.
The tons on the contract come from a takeoff, and the tons you buy include laps, waste and bar the drawings didn't show. Placing cost moves with the work, not the weight. Walls, columns and congested beams take more crew hours per ton than an open slab, and a job with many small pours means more trips and more setup for the same tons.
Revisions are the other leak. When an RFI answer changes a bar list after the shop has cut and bent it, you own the scrap and the second fabrication. Dowels added for another trade, bars moved for a sleeve, and crew time spent waiting on the concrete sub's forms all cost money that needs a signed ticket.
How rebar costs split and what CFOS tracks
A rebar job spends on detailing and bar lists, bar from the mill or a service center, cut and bend labor in the shop, epoxy or galvanized bar, chairs and tie wire, couplers and dowels, freight, placing labor and hoisting. Shop labor and field labor are different crews with different rates. Bar price can move between the bid and the buy, so material belongs on its own code.
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 furnish and place on separate codes, you can compare material cost to the tons billed and placing labor to the tons placed. Cost codes have three levels, so placing can be split by footings, walls, columns and decks.
Shop time is entered by job and cost code, so fabrication cost stays on the job instead of in shop overhead. Equipment daily rates charge your own trucks, forklifts and bending equipment to the job when they're on a daily. Mill and supplier bills are coded to the material line.
Workflow from the field to the office
In the shop, time goes on the job and the fabrication code as bundles are cut, bent and tagged. In the field, the foreman's daily lists the crew, the area placed and photos of the tied steel before inspection. Field time is approved and sent to QuickBooks Payroll with placing labor on the code for that area.
When the GC asks for added dowels, bars moved for a sleeve or a second trip because the forms weren't ready, a T&M ticket goes on the daily. The GC signs it on site and it becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. RFIs and submittals are tracked, so you can show when a bar list revision came from the drawings.
Mill invoices and supplier 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 unit price lines for tons furnished and placed. The PM enters the tons for the period. CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete on every job and you approve it. Rebar bills the furnish side early, while placing labor is spent pour by pour for months, so the WIP schedule's over and under billing shows whether the early billing still covers the tying left to do. A master WIP puts every job on one page.
No survey reports reinforcing steel as its own trade, so in setup you pick the nearest comparable trade, structural steel. The CEO Report grades your gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against its figures. A placing-only company spends mostly on labor, and a fabricator spends mostly on bar, so neither looks quite like a steel erector. Your own job costing is the real answer.
The 13 week cash forecast marks the lowest week from your QuickBooks and pay apps, which helps when the mill wants payment before the GC pays for the bar. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, such as placing cost on walls against slabs on the last three projects. It reads your numbers and can't change them.
Reinforcing steel 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 |
|---|---|
| Detailing and bar lists | Placing drawings, bar lists and revisions after RFI answers. |
| Bar material | Black bar by the ton from the mill or a service center, tracked by job and checked against the PO. |
| Coated bar | Epoxy-coated and galvanized bar, plus touch up material. |
| Fabrication labor | Shop time to cut, bend, bundle and tag by job. |
| Accessories | Chairs, bolsters, support bars, tie wire and bar supports. |
| Couplers and dowels | Mechanical couplers, dowel bar and drilled dowels set for later pours. |
| Freight and hoisting | Delivery to the site, crane or forklift time and unloading. |
| Placing labor | Ironworker time by area, such as footings, walls, columns and decks. |
| Scrap and refabrication | Bar cut for a revised drawing and the second fabrication. |
| Extras and change orders | Added dowels, moved bars and return trips tied to a signed T&M ticket. |
How reinforcing steel contractors do, by revenue
No survey separates reinforcing steel, so each row shows the all-trade average, the figures of structural steel, 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 15% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 23% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 8% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 14% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 24% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 10% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 13% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 25% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 12% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 12% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel | 25.7% all-trade average 26% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel | 13.7% all-trade average 14% Reinforcing steel, derived from structural steel |
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 reinforcing steel contractors write to us about
Get on the list for the day it opens
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime.
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 reinforcing steel contractors ask
Can I bill furnish and place by the ton on separate lines?
Yes. Set up the schedule of values with unit price lines for furnish and for place, and enter the tons each period. CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 and tracks retainage on both. Stored bar can have its own line when the contract allows it.
How do I see what placing cost per ton on walls against slabs?
Split placing labor by area with cost codes, and the pay app tracks the tons billed on each line. Placing labor posts from approved field time to each area code. You can then compare labor cost to tons placed for walls, columns and slabs.
What about bar fabricated for a bar list that changed?
Put the scrap and the second fabrication on their own code, so the cost of the revision is visible. If the change came from the drawings, the RFI and the T&M ticket record why. The signed ticket becomes a change order draft.
How do I keep fabrication shop labor out of overhead?
Shop time is entered by job and cost code like field time. Cutting and bending for a project posts to that project's fabrication code. The shop's rent and power stay in overhead, where the CEO Report measures them.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for a rebar contractor?
No. QuickBooks Online keeps the books, and CFOS works on top of it. It reads and writes jobs, cost codes, vendors, bills and invoices, so there's no migration and 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
- Reinforcing steel benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.