Fractional CFO support for growing Maple Ridge trades businesses

Maple Ridge CFO work starts from $2,750 a month. The year-end covers the T2 with Schedule 1 and Schedule 50, the CCA schedule, the small business deduction, T4 or T5 slips for the owner’s pay, and the instalments for the year ahead.

Fractional CFO services for a Maple Ridge trades business run by the month, remotely, and the fractional controller half, margin by crew and the close, is where the next-hire decision gets its numbers.

Margin by crew, not by company

Company gross margin tells an owner whether the year worked, not which crew carries the business. With two or three crews, results diverge — different lead hands, work types and rework — and the average hides the strong and the weak.

Revenue and direct cost by crew can usually be split from existing records, and the result changes decisions. A crew consistently below margin is doing mispriced harder work or working in a way that needs addressing. Both are fixable; neither shows in a company total.

Does the next hire pay for itself?

Hiring is the decision trades owners most often get wrong, both ways. Compare the fully loaded annual cost (contributions, vehicle, tools, insurance, supervision) with the extra billable output in year one, not year three.

It usually reveals that the revenue increase needed to stand still is larger than expected. That is no argument against hiring, only for knowing the number first and having a plan to fill the capacity rather than hoping the work appears.

Overhead recovery inside the price

Every billed hour must carry the fixed costs: the yard, truck payments, insurance, the phone, administration, the owner’s time off tools. If your rate reflects overhead from two years ago, you are under-recovering on every hour.

Divide real overhead by billable hours, not available hours, which ignore travel, quoting, warranty work and slow days. That gap is where trades lose most money, and no extra work closes it.

The owner stepping off tools

At some size the owner must estimate, schedule and manage instead of produce. Their tool hours are the cheapest labour; quoting and running jobs is what grows the business. The switch costs money first.

Planning it means knowing what the owner’s production time is worth, what replacing it costs, and how long both costs run before new capacity fills. Done deliberately, it is manageable. Done by drift, the owner does two jobs badly and the business stalls.

Compensation and what to leave in the company

How the owner takes money out — salary, dividends or both — affects personal tax, corporate tax, contribution room and working capital. One yearly decision shapes household and business alike.

Retention is most often neglected. A business that pays out everything has no buffer for a slow quarter, no capacity for a large job, and no equity to show a lender. Decide the split deliberately. See the salary versus dividends calculator and the retention guide.

When this is premature

If the books are behind, jobs are not costed, or the owner still knows every number, this is not the right spend. Accurate records come first, and a three-person business with clear economics is better served by good bookkeeping and a timely year end.

The trigger is usually a specific problem: a busy year with no cash left, a hire that did not pay, growth straining cash, or unclear profitability. Without one, the honest answer is not yet.

How the arrangement works

Maple Ridge engagements run remotely, and scope, cadence and cost are agreed in writing before any work begins.

It suits incorporated framing, finishing, mechanical, electrical, landscaping, site and small service companies. One CPA also does the year end, so the analysis uses reconciled figures. See Maple Ridge contractor accounting.

Remote CFO support

CFO support is remote. There is no Maple Ridge office and no local team. Meetings are virtual, documents e-signed, and crew margins and the return come from one set of books.

Strategic decisions run on figures that arrive in time to use, which is a monthly reporting pack.

If the real gap is a month-end close that lands on time, a fractional controller instead costs less and is often the right first step.

The companion page on Maple Ridge GST filing covers that side of the work.

Owners who need Maple Ridge and Maple Ridge corporate returns as well will find it on the same terms.