Fractional CFO for Mechanical Contractors. NYC Metro. $2M to $10M.

Five financial problems specific to this work.

1. Long-cycle project revenue recognition

   Mechanical projects often run 9 to 24 months. Percentage-of-completion accounting is mandatory and frequently mishandled. WIP reporting that does not tie to cost-to-date estimates is a banker red flag.

2. Prefab vs. field labor allocation

   Prefab shop labor produces field labor savings that need to be allocated correctly to job costs. Most mechanical contractors absorb shop labor into overhead, distorting both the shop's profitability and the field jobs that benefit from it.

3. Sub-tier subcontractor exposure

   You sub plumbing, you sub sheet metal, you sub controls. Lien rights, COI tracking, and bonding back-to-back are constant. Lapsed COIs become your workers comp audit problem.

4. Bonding capacity utilization

   Surety bonds tie up working capital. Inefficient bonding utilization leaves jobs uncompetitive or working capital starved.

5. Mechanical contractor banker fluency

   Mechanical contracting is a specialty banking niche. Generalist commercial bankers under-lend to mechanical contractors because they do not understand the WIP cycle.

Result (anonymized).

A $7.2M mechanical contractor restructured prefab labor allocation, recovered $190K of misclassified overhead into direct job cost, and the resulting cleaner gross margin presentation supported a refinance that lowered the effective interest rate by 175 basis points on a $1.8M line.