Billing ahead of the work
Claims run ahead of costs, so the bank balance looks healthy. Part of that cash is money you haven't earned yet, and it has to fund the rest of the job.
Adelfi Job Control · Adelaide, SA
Is the money in your account actually yours?
Monthly financial control for South Australian builders and civil contractors. Every month you know whether each job is making money, and whether you can pay for it. Fixed date, fixed price.
Every job. Every month. On a date we both know.
The problem
Profitable on paper. Short on Friday.
Most builders find out a job lost money when it finishes. By then the cash has been spent on the next one. The warning signs were in the numbers months earlier. Nobody put them on one page.
Nobody owns cost to complete
Final margin depends on one estimate: what's left to spend. If nobody updates it each month, a job can slide from 11% to 8% without anyone noticing.
Claims and retention drift
An unanswered progress claim, a retention release nobody chased. Under the SA Security of Payment Act, dates matter, and missing one is expensive.
Adelfi Job Control
What arrives, every month
Six items, on the same date each month. CFO-level financial control without the CFO salary, delivered as a fixed pack rather than an open-ended retainer.
WIP schedule
Percentage complete on cost, earned revenue, whether each job is over- or under-billed, and its estimated final margin. Prepared on the AASB 15 basis your accountant and bank expect.
Margin movement
Which jobs moved since last month, by how much, and why.
13-week cash flow
What comes in and goes out each week for the next quarter, tied to your actual claims and supplier commitments.
Claim & retention register
What's lodged, what's overdue, what's held, and when it releases.
One-page owner summary
Three numbers, one risk, one decision. What to look at first.
30-minute review call
The same slot each month to go through the pack and agree what happens next.
Nothing else is included. That's why nothing slips.
See it before you buy it
One page. One number to act on.
This is the owner summary from a sample pack built for a fictional Adelaide builder with six active jobs and $7.75M in contracts. Your pack looks like this, with your own jobs in it.
Illustrative example · fictional business
Northgate Construction: owner summary
Net overbilled
$106K
across 6 jobs, $87K of it on one duplex
Est. final margin
13.3%
down from 14.1% last month
Cash low point
−$430K
week 9, if claim 24 goes unpaid
- The numberThe cash in the bank includes $106K the business hasn't earned yet. Don't spend it on the next job.
- The riskThe Gawler warehouse margin fell from 11% to 8% in a month, as cost to complete rose $63K.
- The decisionClaim 24 ($612K) got no payment schedule within 15 business days. The full amount is payable, and adjudication is available.
All names and figures are fictional, built to show the format. Not a real client.
How it works
Three steps. Then the same date, every month.
Discovery call
Forty-five minutes on how you track jobs today: what's coded, who owns cost to complete, where the cash goes. If it isn't a fit, we'll say so.
WIP Set-Up
We build your job model from Xero or MYOB, your contracts, variations and claims. We count your active contracts, which sets your monthly band. The price is confirmed here, not before.
Monthly Job Control
Your pack arrives on the agreed date, followed by your review call. Replies to questions within two business days.
Pricing
Priced by the number of jobs you're running.
The same six items at every band. You pay for the number of active contracts the pack covers, never for hours.
$1,950 / month
Up to 6 active contracts
$2,750 / month
7 to 15 active contracts
$3,950 / month
16 to 25 active contracts
How the band is set
An active contract is one over $100,000, open at month end, running across more than one month. We count them at the WIP Set-Up and review quarterly. If the count changes, the band follows.
More than 25 active contracts? Talk to us about a bespoke arrangement.
Priced separately
- WIP Set-Up$3,500–$5,000
- Tender Review$1,500–$3,000
- Bank / Surety Pack$3,000–$4,000
- Day rate, when something goes wrong$1,800–$2,400
All prices in Australian dollars. GST is added where applicable.
Who it's for
Built for one kind of business. On purpose.
A good fit
- South Australian builders, civil contractors, fit-out and larger commercial subcontractors
- Around $3M to $15M revenue, 5 to 50 staff
- Jobs over $100K that run across month ends
- Progress claims under the SA Security of Payment Act, with retention held
- Books in Xero or MYOB, with costs coded to jobs (a spreadsheet is workable)
Probably not a fit
- Sole-trader trades and small-job operators
- Property developers (a different kind of accounting)
- Tier-1 contractors with an in-house finance team
- Anyone wanting an adviser on call
Honest about limits
What we don't do
Adelfi Advisory provides management advice only. Your accountant, lawyer and broker keep their jobs, and we'll tell you when you need one of them.
Tax advice or lodgementYour registered tax agent
AuditA registered auditor
Financial product adviceA licensed adviser
Formal valuationsAn accredited valuer
Legal advice on contractsYour construction lawyer. We review the financial terms only
About the name
Same side by origin. Not by contract.
Adelfi comes from the Greek adelphos: kinship and closeness, literally “from the same womb”. The name isn't about who's inside the firm. It's about who's on the other end.
It describes whose side we're on: the builder's. We look at the same numbers the owner looks at, the way the owner needs to see them, every month. Not the bank's view, not the software's view, and not a view that arrives at year end.
Close to your numbers, not on call.
Closeness here means knowing your jobs, not being available at all hours. It comes from consistency: the same pack, the same standard, on a date agreed in advance, and a reply within two business days.
Ivan Ocampo
Founder · Adelfi Advisory
Book a discovery call
Forty-five minutes on how your jobs are tracked today.
No pitch deck. We'll walk through a sample pack and ask how you track jobs, claims and cash now. Then you decide whether it's useful.
- No charge, no obligation
- In person in Adelaide, or by video
- Replies within two business days
Prefer email? hello@adelfiadvisory.com.au