Job costing software for structural steel contractors
Steel jobs split into detailing, fabrication and erection, and each bills differently. CFOS tracks all three by cost code from QuickBooks Online. You can see where a job made or lost money.
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How structural steel bills and where the money leaks
A steel subcontract moves through three stages, and each one has its own cost and its own billing. Detailing and engineering come first, and you've spent real money before any steel ships. Fabrication comes next, billed as fabricated and stored material, if your contract allows it. Erection is last, billed as the frame goes up, with a pay app each month and retainage held on every line.
The leaks are between those stages. Shop drawings can wait on engineer comments while your detailers keep working. Material gets bought at a price that moves between your bid and your mill order. Anchor rods that are out of tolerance, crane days spent waiting, and rework after the GC changes a connector detail all cost money that a schedule of values doesn't show. Retention can also be held until the building gets its certificate of occupancy.
How steel costs split and what CFOS tracks
Steel cost splits into engineering and detailing, material, shop labor, paint or galvanizing, freight, and erection labor and equipment. Material is bought by weight and by section, so tracking it by cost code lets you compare what you bid to what you paid. Shop labor and erection labor are different crews with different rates, and they belong on different codes.
CFOS compares your estimate by cost code to actual cost from QuickBooks Online every hour. Shop hours are tracked by job through field time entry, so you can see what fabrication costs on each project instead of burying it in shop overhead. Equipment daily rates are charged to the job each day a crane or lift is on a daily.
Workflow from the field to the office
In the shop, time is entered by job and cost code, and the PM can see fabrication cost build up as pieces get cut. In the field, the foreman's daily lists the crew, the equipment and photos, and notes issues like anchor rod conflicts. If the GC wants extra work done or crane time for someone else's pieces, the T&M ticket rides on the daily and the GC signs it on site.
That ticket becomes a change order draft that goes on the next pay app. The PM builds the pay app from the schedule of values with lines for detailing, fabricated material, stored material and erection, then sends it to the GC from QuickBooks. RFIs and submittals are tracked, so you can show when a delay came from drawing approvals and not from your crew.
What the owner sees every month
Every month the PM enters cost to complete, and it gets approved. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing, which is critical on steel because you spend heavily on detailing and material before a pay app can catch up. You'll see which jobs are funded by the GC and which are funded by your line of credit.
Your CEO Report grades gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average and CFOS target for structural steel at your size. The 13 week cash forecast reads your pay apps and QuickBooks, and marks the lowest week. Retention held until occupancy is easy to forget, so it stays visible by job.
Structural 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 |
|---|---|
| Engineering and detailing | Detailers, delegated engineering and shop drawing revisions, tracked apart from fabrication. |
| Structural material | Beams, columns, plate, angle and tube, with mill buys and service center buys tracked by job. |
| Joist and deck | Joists, girders and metal deck when they're part of your scope. |
| Shop fabrication labor | Cutting, fitting, welding and assembly by job. |
| Paint, primer and galvanizing | Shop primer, intumescent coating and galvanizing, plus touch up in the field. |
| Hardware and anchor bolts | Bolts, anchor rods, embeds, shims and connector hardware. |
| Freight and delivery | Hauling from the mill, the shop and to the site, plus oversize permits. |
| Erection labor | Ironworkers setting, bolting and welding the frame. |
| Cranes and equipment | Crane days, lifts, welding rigs and trucks charged by the day. |
| Field welding and punch | Field welds, inspections, touch up and punch list work. |
How structural steel 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% Structural steel 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 23% Structural steel 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 8% Structural steel 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 14% Structural steel 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 24% Structural steel 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 10% Structural steel 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 13% Structural steel 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 25% Structural steel 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 12% Structural steel 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 12% Structural steel | 25.7% all-trade average 26% Structural steel | 13.7% all-trade average 14% 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 structural steel 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 structural steel contractors ask
Can I bill detailing and fabrication before erection starts?
Your schedule of values can have lines for detailing, fabricated material and stored material, depending on what the contract allows. The pay app tracks what you've billed on each line. It also tracks the retainage held on it.
How does CFOS show me the cost of the shop apart from the field?
Shop and field time are entered by job and cost code, so fabrication labor and erection labor stay on separate lines. Overhead stays out of the job. The overhead calculator handles it separately.
What about crane days wasted on site problems?
The foreman's daily records the crew, the equipment and photos. If the GC causes the delay, a T&M ticket rides on that daily. The GC signs it on site and it becomes a change order draft.
Does CFOS track retention that's held until occupancy?
Yes. Retainage is tracked by job through the pay apps, and the 13 week cash forecast reads from them. You'll see what's held and which jobs it belongs to.
Can the estimate become the job budget?
Yes. Estimates import as the job budget by cost code. Detailing, material, fabrication and erection are then compared to actual cost from QuickBooks Online.
- 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
- Structural steel benchmarks
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