The client
A multi-crew contractor on Colorado's Front Range doing multiple millions in annual revenue, structured as a multi-member LLC with an owner board. Strong reputation, healthy job margins, and a bank account that didn't match the workload.
The challenge
On paper, the company was doing everything right. Crews were working, gross margins on jobs were strong, and the sales team was closing work. But cash was tight, and nobody could say why with confidence.
- The books couldn't be trusted. Inventory in QuickBooks had been corrupted by a bad bulk import, pushing phantom costs into the P&L. Cash and accrual numbers told two different stories.
- Pricing lived in people's heads. Estimates weren't tied to real material costs, labor hours, or the company's true overhead.
- Sales numbers and cash numbers didn't match. The CRM showed what was sold, not what was collected, and change orders and cancellations never made it back into the reports.
- The board was flying blind. Owners were making big decisions without a consistent, reliable report in front of them.
What we did
Rather than handing over a stack of reports and walking away, Angie stepped in to lead the business day to day for a stretch, bringing Starflower's bookkeeping and systems playbook with her. That gave her a rare view of both the ledger and the job site, and it's the experience she now brings to every set of contractor books.
Cleaned up the books
Untangled the inventory accounting, wrote correcting entries, reconciled the cash-vs-accrual gap, and put a reliable quarterly close in place.
Built real board reporting
Quarterly board packets with a clear P&L, liquidity view, at-risk receivables, and plain-English commentary on what's driving results.
Found the real problem
An overhead analysis showed operating costs were running about 20% higher than everyone assumed. Job margins were never the issue.
Modeled the fix
Scenario models let the board see exactly how compensation and fixed-cost decisions would change the bottom line before anyone signed off.
Rebuilt pricing from the ground up
A master pricing system covering 77 service bundles, tied to actual material costs, labor hours, overhead, and commission, then loaded into the field estimating software.
Connected sales to cash
An automated weekly sales report with goal tracking, plus a “sold vs. collected” reconciliation that flags change orders, missing invoices, and unpaid jobs.
Tightened commissions
Clear commission rules paid on collected revenue, with a fair process for change orders and cancellations, and a clean one-page report for every rep.
Streamlined lead intake
Online inspection booking that routes customers to the right territory and captures the details the crew needs before they ever arrive.
Built the people side
Handbook updates, a structured performance review and raise tool, and consistent onboarding paperwork.
The results
- Decisions made with data. The board now gets a consistent quarterly report and can see the impact of a decision before making it.
- A leaner cost structure. More than $400K in annual fixed costs removed. Restated on identical revenue, the first half of the year swung from a loss to a six-figure profit.
- Pricing everyone can trust. Estimates come from a single source of truth instead of guesswork.
- A clear growth plan. With the foundation in place, the company has registered for federal contracting, launched a campaign to reactivate past quoted-but-unsold leads, and put a structured follow-up system on a multi-million-dollar pipeline of open estimates.
Busy isn't the same as profitable. Once the numbers were clean, the answer was right there, and so was the plan to fix it.
Why it worked
Most contractors don't need more reports. They need someone who understands both the ledger and the job site, and who will stay involved long enough to turn the numbers into decisions. That's what Starflower brings to every set of books we keep: clean numbers, CFO-level reporting every month, and a straight read on what they mean. When a business needs hands-on advisory beyond that, we bring in our CPA partner rather than pretend it's part of bookkeeping.