Job costing software for tilt-up contractors
Tilt-up money is decided on one crane day, then spent for weeks on braces, pour strips and patching. CFOS for QuickBooks costs each panel step to the job. You see what the building cost before the braces come out.
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How tilt-up bills and where the money leaks
Most tilt-up work is a lump sum for the wall panels of a building, sometimes with the floor slab in the same contract. The schedule of values usually follows the work: casting slab, panel forming and rebar, panel pours, erection, pour strips, then patching and caulking. A big share of the contract bills in the month the crane sets the panels, and retainage is kept on every line.
The crane day is where a tilt-up job makes or loses its margin. Panels can't be lifted until the cylinder breaks show they have the strength, and wind, rain or a GC who hasn't cleared the site can cost you a crane, a rigging crew and your own crew for the day. That cost is real whether a panel goes up or not.
The other leaks come after the big pay app. Braces stay on the panels until the roof structure ties them in, and if the steel or joist crew is late, you keep paying for braces and come back again to pull them. Openings moved after the panel drawings were approved, embeds added for another trade, and casting slab damage from the crane all cost money that the original lump sum didn't include.
How tilt-up costs split and what CFOS tracks
A tilt-up job spends on panel drawings and lift and brace engineering, edge forms and opening blockouts, bond breaker and curing, rebar, lifting and brace inserts, weld plates, concrete and pump for the panels, the crane and riggers, braces, pour strips, and patching and caulking. The crane usually comes as a vendor bill with an operator. Braces are often rented by the month, so their cost grows with the schedule.
CFOS reads your jobs, cost codes and vendors from QuickBooks Online and compares actual cost to your estimate by cost code, updated every hour. When the estimate has forming, panel pours, erection and bracing as separate lines, you can see which step went over. Cost codes have three levels, so a large building can be split by wall line or panel group.
Equipment daily rates charge your own forklifts, telehandlers, man lifts and welders to the job on the days they're on a daily. The crane bill and the brace rental invoices are coded to the erection and bracing codes. At closeout you can compare the crane day you bid to what the crane day cost.
Workflow from the field to the office
The foreman's daily lists the crew, the equipment and photos of each panel before the pour, with the rebar, inserts and embeds in place. Those photos are your record when an embed or an opening is questioned after the panel is up. Field time is approved and sent to QuickBooks Payroll, with forming, pouring and erection time on their own codes.
On erection day the daily records the crane, the riggers, the panels set and any time lost to wind or site access. If the GC causes the delay or asks for added openings or embeds, 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.
Crane, rebar, ready-mix and brace rental 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, CFOS lays out the G702 and G703, and retainage is tracked on each line. Panels cast and not yet erected can have their own line when the contract allows it.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete on every job and you approve it. On tilt-up that number has to include brace removal, pour strips, patching and caulking, which can come months after the crane leaves. The WIP schedule then shows over and under billing, so a job that billed erection in one month doesn't look more profitable than the work in place.
No survey reports tilt-up 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. Treat those figures as a starting point. Your own job costing on a few buildings is the real answer to what a tilt-up job should earn.
The 13 week cash forecast reads your QuickBooks and pay apps and marks the lowest week, which helps when the crane and the panel pours are due before the erection pay app is paid. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, such as what the last three crane days cost. It reads your numbers and can't change them.
Tilt-up 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 |
|---|---|
| Panel drawings and engineering | Panel layout drawings, lift and brace design, and revisions after review. |
| Casting slab and casting beds | Slab protection, bond breaker, curing and any separate casting bed for panels that won't fit on the floor. |
| Panel forming | Edge forms, reveals, opening blockouts and form labor by panel group. |
| Rebar, inserts and embeds | Panel rebar, lifting and brace inserts, weld plates and embeds for other trades. |
| Panel pours | Ready-mix by the yard, pump time, finishing and cylinders for each panel pour. |
| Crane and erection | Crane and operator, riggers, your erection crew and any lost time on erection day. |
| Braces | Brace rental by the month, brace installation and the return trip to remove them. |
| Pour strips and closures | Pour strips, closure pours and column or footing work after the panels are set. |
| Patching, caulking and finish | Panel patching, joint caulking, sandblasting and touch up before the painter. |
| Extras and change orders | Moved openings, added embeds and other work tied to a signed T&M ticket. |
How tilt-up contractors do, by revenue
No survey separates tilt-up, 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% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 21% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 7% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 13% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 22% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 12% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 23% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Tilt-up, derived from concrete 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 11% Tilt-up, derived from concrete | 25.7% all-trade average 24% Tilt-up, derived from concrete | 13.7% all-trade average 13% Tilt-up, 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 tilt-up 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 tilt-up contractors ask
Can I bill panels that are cast but not yet erected?
If the contract allows it, give cast panels their own line on the schedule of values. CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with that line and tracks retainage on it. Erection then bills on its own line when the crane sets the panels.
How do I cost a crane day lost to wind or a site that isn't ready?
The foreman's daily records the crane, the riggers and the crew for that day, so the cost goes on the erection code even when no panel goes up. If the GC caused it, a T&M ticket on the daily gets signed on site and becomes a change order draft. If it was weather, you still see what the lost day cost.
How do I track braces when the roof is late?
Put brace rental and brace removal on their own cost code with their own budget. Rental bills come to the bills inbox and are coded to that line each month. The PM keeps removal in cost to complete until the braces are off the building.
Can I see cost by wall line or panel group on a big building?
Yes. Cost codes have three levels, so forming, pours and erection can be split by wall line or panel group. Your estimate imports as the budget on those codes. Actual cost from bills, time and equipment posts against each one.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for a tilt-up contractor?
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 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
- Tilt-up benchmarks
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