Tag: CFO Engagement

Construction owners face constant financial pressure—tight margins, slow pay cycles, and unpredictable job costs. But one of the most avoidable financial pain points is flying blind without a reliable work-in-progress (WIP) report. If you’re not using a WIP report to track real-time job profitability and cash flow exposure, you’re leaving money—and control—on the table.

 

Top 5 Financial Pain Points in Construction

1. Over/under billing surprises: unexpected tax hits or cash shortfalls due to billing not aligning with actual progress.
2. Delayed receivables: long AR cycles, especially from GCs, slow down cash flow.
3. Cost overruns: inaccurate estimates or weak job costing bleed profits.
4. Cash flow crunches: payroll is due weekly—your payments are not.
5. Missed forecasts: without integrated project data, financial forecasting is just guesswork.

The WIP Report – Your Financial Lifeline

• What it is: a WIP report compares actual costs and billings against estimated progress.
• Why it matters: it reveals over/under billings, identifies jobs at risk, and helps plan cash flow.
• How It Helps:
  • Catch Revenue Leakage Early
  • Prioritize Billing Actions
  • Prepare For Tax Liabilities
  • Strengthen Bonding Capacity

Real-World Impact

Example: a contractor was underbilled by $400k across several projects without realizing it. Once we implemented a monthly wip review, they improved collections, smoothed cash flow, and gained leverage with their bank and bonding agent.

What To Do Next

• Implement monthly WIP reporting—review it like a P&L.
• Use it to guide billing, collections, and job costing updates.
• Don’t wait for year-end CPA reports—use WIP to manage now.
• Work with a financial partner who understands construction nuances.

Want clarity on your job performance and cash position?

A properly built WIP report gives you real-time visibility, accountability, and leverage. If you’re ready to get a handle on your numbers, Gray Feather CFO can help.

At Gray Feather CFO, we bring the same skills, strategic lens, and playbook to every client. And yet, not every engagement delivers the same outcome. Some clients unlock real traction: streamlined operations, tighter forecasting, better decisions. Others hit friction or stall out. What’s the difference?

Alignment.

Despite common inputs, success comes down to how aligned we are on values, pace, and purpose. Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Shared Core Values

We have to be rowing in the same direction. That means more than hitting revenue targets, it’s about building a healthy culture and genuinely valuing the people behind the numbers. Our most effective partnerships are with leaders who care about their teams, lead with integrity, and believe in the purpose of their work. When there’s mutual respect and shared values, everything gets easier.

Openness to Change

You don’t bring in a fractional cfo to preserve the status quo. We come in to assess, challenge, and evolve systems, financial, operational, even cultural. That only works when leaders are willing to make changes and trust the process. The biggest gains come from clients who say, “show us a better way, and let’s do it.”

Responsiveness

This one’s deceptively simple. Timely communication builds momentum. It creates rhythm, sharpens decision-making, and keeps the flywheel turning. Engagements thrive when teams are quick to respond, open to discussion, and ready to move forward. When that’s missing, even great strategy can lose steam.

Appreciation

We do our best work when there’s trust, respect, and appreciation on both sides. That doesn’t mean perfection. It means honest conversations, shared wins, and treating each other like partners. At gray feather, we don’t take that lightly.

The Bottom Line

Alignment isn’t a soft metric, it’s the core driver of a successful engagement. We can bring the best tools and insights in the world, but without shared values, a willingness to evolve, and strong communication, progress slows. The good news? When alignment is there, the results speak for themselves. Our philosophy at gray feather is pretty simple: we’re all here for a short time. To maximize our impact we should throw our skills and energy behind the people and causes we believe in.

That belief has shaped how we work at gray feather cfo, and increasingly, who we choose to work with. So these days, we’re paying more attention to the fit out of the gate. Because we’re not here forever. And if our time here is going to matter, alignment has to come first.