CASE STUDY
From WIP Rebuild to $4M Raised
Commercial General Contractor — $40M annual revenue, 50 employees
GROSS MARGIN
+2 points
~$800K per year
GROWTH FINANCING
$4M
SECURED
AT A GLANCE
COMPANY
Commercial General Contractor
SIZE
$40M Annual Revenue;
50 Employees
INDUSTRY
Commercial Construction
ENGAGEMENT
FOCUS AREAS
WIP Reporting, Pipeline Visibility, Rolling Forecasting, Billing Discipline, Workforce Planning, Lender-Ready Financials
The Situation
A $40M commercial general contractor with 50 employees and a healthy backlog — and the financial infrastructure of a company half its size. Job margins were discovered at closeout, not managed during construction. The WIP schedule was assembled from numbers project managers didn’t consistently feed. Billing lagged the work. And leadership was weighing growth plans — including outside financing — on financials that couldn’t survive a lender’s diligence.
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The business wasn’t broken. The visibility was.
The Install — parallel workstreams from day one, landing in sequence
This wasn’t a tidy one-thing-at-a-time engagement — at $40M, nothing waits its turn. The pipeline system, the WIP rebuild, and the rolling forecast all launched in the first week and ran in parallel, each landing as it matured:
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Day 90 — the Pipeline Report goes live. A complete pipeline system built in Excel and integrated into Jirav, feeding directly into the revenue forecast. For the first time, backlog converted to a forward revenue view leadership could plan against — not a gut feel, a model.
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Day 120 — the rebuilt WIP lands. The work-in-progress system was rebuilt from the ground up — and critically, the process changed with it: project managers now enter estimated costs as part of the standard workflow. Compliance became routine instead of a month-end chase. Billing accelerated. The WIP schedule became a document the company — and later, its lender — could trust.
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Day 180 — the rolling forecast and budget take over the operating rhythm. A complete rolling forecast model now drives the business — including headcount and resourcing decisions. Combined with benchmark analysis, the company right-sized its team against a two-year forward revenue view instead of reacting quarter to quarter.
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The capstone, built throughout and completed last: a five-year income statement and balance sheet — funding-grade financials resting on a pipeline system, a trusted WIP, and a forecast that had already proven itself internally. Not projections bolted onto hope: infrastructure a lender could walk through and verify.
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Throughout: the controller, supported continuously. Every system was installed with the company’s controller, not around them — so when the engagement completed, nothing left with the consultant.
The Results
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Gross margin up 2 points — roughly $800K a year on $40M of revenue — driven by forward-looking job visibility replacing closeout surprises
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Billings now run 10% ahead of revenue recognized — a deliberate overbilled position, meaning jobs are financed with project cash flow instead of the company’s working capital
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Billing is materially more timely, pulling cash forward every single month
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Headcount right-sized against a two-year outlook — growth hiring on evidence, not optimism
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$4M in growth financing secured on the strength of the five-year financial package — the infrastructure itself passed a lender’s diligence
THE OUTCOME
The installation is complete. The pipeline report, the WIP discipline, the rolling forecast, and the five-year model are all running today — operated day to day by the company’s own controller, with ThinkCFO staying on for ad hoc requests as they arise. That’s the design: FICS installs a system the company owns, with expert backup on call — not a dependency on the consultant who built it.
The infrastructure stayed. The funding came. The day-to-day runs without us. That’s what done looks like.