Job costing software for siding contractors
Siding is bid by wall area and trim footage and billed per lot, by elevation, or on completion. Rotten sheathing and trim labor cost the most. CFOS ties QuickBooks Online costs to your estimate by cost code.
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How siding bills and where the money leaks
Siding is taken off in squares of wall area, with trim, corners, soffit and fascia counted in lineal feet. New construction for builders is often paid per lot at a fixed price per plan. Commercial panel work bills a schedule of values with a pay app each month and retainage, and replacement work for homeowners usually takes a deposit and bills the rest on completion.
Trim is where the bid and the labor part ways. Wall area goes up fast, and corners, window and door trim, frieze boards and soffits take much longer per foot. A house with many openings and gables costs more to side than its square count says. Fiber cement adds cutting, dust control and paint touch up that vinyl doesn't need.
On replacement and repair jobs, the leak is what's behind the old siding. Rotten sheathing, missing flashing and damaged framing turn up after tear-off, and the crew has to stop or fix it. Unless the owner or GC signs for it that day, that work is easy to give away.
How siding costs split and what CFOS tracks
Siding cost splits into tear-off and disposal, sheathing and wrap, siding material, trim and soffit, labor, and lifts or scaffold. Material is bought by the house or the job, and leftover boxes get moved to the next job without a record. Labor is worth tracking by phase, because tear-off, wall area and trim produce at very different rates.
CFOS compares your estimate by cost code to actual cost from QuickBooks Online every hour. Bills emailed to your bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO, so a siding drop goes on the right house. When supplier credits for returned boxes go to the same job in QuickBooks Online, material cost stays clean.
Field time is entered by job and cost code, approved, and sent to QuickBooks Payroll with labor burden by class. Equipment daily rates charge lifts, pump jacks, trailers and trucks to the job on the days they're on a daily. At closeout you can see cost per square for wall area and cost per foot for trim.
Workflow from the field to the office
The foreman files a daily with the crew, equipment and photos. On a replacement job, photos taken after tear-off show the rot and missing flashing before it's covered. That record is what gets the hidden condition paid.
When the GC, builder or homeowner approves sheathing repair or added trim, a T&M ticket goes on the daily and they sign it on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next pay app or the final bill. Repairs without a signature still go to their own code, so you see what they cost.
On commercial jobs the PM bills by elevation on the schedule of values and sends the pay app to the GC from QuickBooks, with retainage tracked. Per lot and homeowner jobs bill from QuickBooks when the work is done. Punch items like touch up and missing trim are tracked, so the final payment doesn't wait on a forgotten callback.
What the owner sees every month
Every month the PM enters cost to complete on open commercial jobs, and it gets approved. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing by job. For builder work, job cost by lot and by plan tells you which plans pay at the price you agreed to.
Your CEO Report grades gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average and CFOS target for siding at your size. The 13 week cash forecast reads your pay apps and QuickBooks and marks the lowest week. Deposits and builder payments come in on different timing, and seeing the lowest week helps you plan material buys around them.
Hidden condition repairs and trim labor stay visible on each job. When you bid the next house, you can price trim and repair from what they cost you last season. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, and it reads only what your permissions allow.
Siding 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 |
|---|---|
| Tear-off and disposal | Removing old siding, dumpsters and hauling. |
| Sheathing and framing repair | Rotten sheathing and framing found after tear-off, labor and material. |
| Housewrap and flashing | Wrap, tape, window and door flashing and kick-out flashing. |
| Siding install | Vinyl, fiber cement, wood or metal panels, labor and material by wall area. |
| Trim and corners | Corners, window and door trim, frieze and band boards by the lineal foot. |
| Soffit, fascia and gutters | Soffit, fascia wrap and gutters when they're in scope. |
| Caulk and paint touch up | Caulk and touch up paint on fiber cement and wood. |
| Lifts, scaffold and trucks | Lifts, pump jacks, scaffold, trailers and trucks charged by daily rate. |
| Callbacks and warranty | Return trips for loose panels, missing trim and warranty work. |
| Change orders and T&M | Hidden conditions and added scope, tied to the signed ticket. |
How siding 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% Siding 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 21% Siding 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 7% Siding 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 13% Siding 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 22% Siding 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Siding 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 12% Siding 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 23% Siding 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Siding 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 11% Siding | 25.7% all-trade average 24% Siding | 13.7% all-trade average 13% Siding |
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 siding 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 siding contractors ask
How do I get paid for rotten sheathing found after tear-off?
Photograph it on the daily and write a T&M ticket for the repair. The GC, builder or homeowner signs it on site. It becomes a change order draft for the next bill.
Can I track trim labor apart from wall area?
Yes. Put trim and corners on their own cost code and import your estimate as the budget. Crew time is entered by cost code. You'll see whether trim cost more than you bid.
Can each lot be its own job?
Yes. Set up lots as jobs in QuickBooks Online and CFOS costs each one against its budget. You can then compare plans and builders by what they cost you.
Can one company use CFOS for homeowner replacement jobs and commercial panels?
Yes. Each job has its own budget and cost codes, and commercial jobs can bill pay apps from a schedule of values with retainage. Homeowner jobs bill from QuickBooks Online the way they do today.
Will I still keep my books in QuickBooks Online?
Yes. CFOS works on top of QuickBooks Online and doesn't replace it. Intuit bills QuickBooks Online separately.
- 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
- Siding benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.