On a recent episode of Constructive Conversations, Josh Luebker from The Construction CFO walked me through his systematic approach to implementing financial processes in construction businesses. What I found most valuable is that five of these six steps can be implemented by any construction business on their own—you don't necessarily need outside help, though having it certainly accelerates the process.
The first step is getting everyone aligned. Josh and his team use this to integrate with the client's existing team, set meetings, and establish a cadence. If you're doing this internally, this means getting your project managers, bookkeeper, and ownership all on the same page about what you're trying to accomplish and how you'll work together.
This is where you integrate your estimating into your job costing and create a feedback loop. Josh's team has worked with various estimating software—from Procore's Estacom to AccuBid to simple Excel spreadsheets. The specific tool matters less than creating a system that connects estimating data to accounting data and back again.
The goal is to track information from estimating into accounting, into actual spending, and then send it back to estimating so you can improve what you're doing well and correct what you're not.
This often involves moving off QuickBooks to a more robust job costing software. But it's not just about switching systems—it's about properly setting up your chart of accounts and ensuring data is organized correctly from the start.
This step is more complex than it sounds. Josh gave a great example: If you have to replace tracks on a skid steer, is that overhead or project-specific maintenance? His answer: It depends. Was it caused by hitting a big rock on a specific project, or was it general maintenance?
These kinds of questions come up constantly, and you need to make sure everything is going into the right buckets so you can track it accurately moving forward. Getting this wrong means your job costing will be unreliable, and you'll make decisions based on bad data.
This involves establishing three key forecasts:
Having these forecasts in place helps you see where you're headed, not just where you've been.
This is where the magic happens—and it's really about consistency and fundamentals. Josh's team does four meetings per month:
Josh compared it to football fundamentals—tackling drills and basic plays. It's not fancy or spectacular, but if you do these basic things consistently, you get the best results.
What struck me most about this system is its simplicity. It's not about having the most expensive software or the most complex dashboards. It's about doing the fundamental things right, every single time.
As Josh said, if you do these things consistently, you're going to have clarity and growth. His clients tell him it's like sports fundamentals—the drills you do over and over that make you better.
The beauty of this system is that you can start implementing parts of it right now, even without outside help. Pick one area—maybe start with a weekly bookkeeping check-in or begin tracking one project more granularly. As Josh learned in project management: it's not what you know, it's what you can figure out.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by the financial side of your construction business, remember that even the largest, most sophisticated companies are just doing these fundamentals really, really well. You can too.
Eddie Thompson is a Director with Brown Edwards and host of the Construct-ive Conversations podcast, where he discusses important topics affecting the construction industry.