Guide
15 key metrics every contractor should track. Real benchmarks from CFMA, BLS, KPMG, and FMI — not made-up numbers.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are measurable values that tell you whether your contracting business is healthy, profitable, and improving. They turn gut feelings like “we're pretty busy” into hard numbers like “we have 8 months of backlog at 28% gross margin.”
Most small contractors track revenue and maybe profit. But without tracking the metrics below, you're flying blind on project performance, cash flow health, and operational efficiency.
Revenue minus direct costs (labor, materials, subs) divided by revenue. This is the #1 metric most contractors should track. If your margin is below 25% on residential work, you're likely underpricing or over-spending on materials and labor.
Source: CFMA Financial Benchmarker
What's left after all expenses -- overhead, insurance, truck payments, office costs. A 5% net margin on $1M revenue is $50K in profit. Many small contractors don't know this number until tax time.
Source: CFMA Annual Financial Survey
Total value of signed contracts not yet completed. Too little backlog (under 3 months) means feast-or-famine cycles. Too much (over 18 months) can strain cash flow and quality.
Source: AGC/FMI Survey of Construction Industry
Total revenue divided by full-time employees. Varies significantly by trade -- a plumber with a helper generates different revenue than a GC with 10 subs. Track your own trend over time.
Source: CFMA/Industry benchmarks
How long it takes to collect payment after invoicing. AR over 60 days is a cash flow warning sign. Over 90 days often means you'll collect pennies on the dollar or nothing.
Source: CFMA Financial Benchmarker
Percentage of projects completed by the original scheduled date. The industry average is shockingly low. Tracking this helps you identify whether you're over-promising, under-scheduling, or dealing with systemic delays.
Source: KPMG Global Construction Survey
Actual cost vs. estimated cost, expressed as a percentage. A project estimated at $50K that costs $55K has a 10% overrun. Consistently tracking this across projects reveals whether your estimating is accurate.
Source: Industry standard
Total change order value as a percentage of the original contract. Some change orders are inevitable (unforeseen conditions), but a high rate may indicate incomplete scoping or poor client expectation management.
Source: FMI Research
Number of items on the final punch list. A decreasing trend means your quality is improving. High counts (50+ items on residential) suggest rushed work or poor quality control during construction.
Source: Internal metric
Percentage of revenue from repeat clients and referrals. If this is below 50%, you may have a quality, communication, or follow-up problem.
Source: FMI Corporation
Percentage of paid hours spent on billable project work vs. travel, admin, training, shop time. If your crew is only 50% utilized, you're paying for 20 hours of non-billable time per person per week.
Source: Industry benchmarks
Total Recordable Incident Rate -- OSHA-recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers per year. Construction's rate is higher than the all-industry average of 2.5. Tracking this is both a safety imperative and an insurance cost driver.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023
Percentage of project cost spent on fixing or redoing work. Rework above 10% indicates systemic quality issues -- either in workmanship, communication, or scope definition.
Source: Construction Industry Institute
Percentage of bids or proposals that result in signed contracts. Below 15% may mean you're bidding too high or on the wrong projects. Above 40% may mean you're leaving money on the table.
Source: Industry surveys
Time between completing work and sending the invoice. Every day you delay invoicing is a day you delay getting paid. Best-in-class contractors invoice within 24-48 hours of milestone completion.
Source: Best practice
Start with 3-5 KPIs, not all 15. Pick the ones that matter most to your current situation. If cash flow is your pain point, start with AR aging, days to invoice, and backlog.
Review weekly, not monthly. Monthly reviews mean you don't catch problems until they're 4 weeks old. A 10-minute weekly check is more valuable than a 2-hour monthly review.
Track trends, not snapshots. A single month's gross margin doesn't tell you much. Six months of gross margin shows you whether you're improving or declining.
Make it visual. A simple dashboard -- even a whiteboard -- that your team can see daily is more effective than a spreadsheet nobody opens.
Use software that calculates automatically. If tracking a KPI requires 30 minutes of manual data entry, you'll stop tracking it within a month.
JobSite Viewer tracks project health, completion percentages, job costing, labor hours, and AR aging automatically. The project health dashboard uses these metrics to flag at-risk projects before they blow up.
Get free KPI dashboard templateGross profit margin should be 25-35% for residential work and 10-20% for commercial, according to CFMA data. Net profit (after all overhead) averages 3-7% in the construction industry. If your net margin is consistently above 10%, you're outperforming most of the industry.
Divide billable hours (time spent on project work) by total paid hours (including travel, admin, training, shop time). A crew member who works 40 hours/week but spends 8 hours driving, 4 hours in meetings, and 2 hours on admin has 65% utilization (26/40).
6-12 months of revenue in signed contracts is generally considered healthy. Under 3 months creates feast-or-famine cycles. Over 18 months can strain cash flow, quality, and crew morale. The right number depends on your project size and sales cycle.
Weekly for operational metrics (utilization, active project health, AR aging). Monthly for financial metrics (margin, revenue, backlog). Quarterly for strategic metrics (win rate, repeat client rate, year-over-year trends).
JSV calculates project health, job costs, and completion metrics in real time.