Tallmont Virtual CFO for Construction & Real Estate Companies
For: Builders, developers, and multi-entity construction groups that need CFO-grade finance leadership between projects — without a $250k hire.
Construction breaks generalist CFOs
Construction finance runs backwards from normal business finance. Revenue doesn’t flow — it arrives in draws, milestones, and fee events months apart. Costs don’t hit the P&L — they capitalize into CIP on the balance sheet. Cash is hostage to pay-application timing, retainage, and lender funding cycles. And the “company” is usually five, ten, or twenty entities — each project its own legal structure with its own capital stack.
Hand that to a generalist CFO and you get generalist advice: P&L-watching in a business where the P&L barely tells the story. What a builder or developer actually needs is finance leadership fluent in the project lifecycle.
What our construction virtual CFO delivers
Cash flow you can trust between draws. Project-level cash forecasts that bridge the gaps between fee receipts, draw fundings, and payroll — rolled into a company view, so “can we start the next project?” gets answered with a schedule, not a feeling. Built on the rolling, GL-reconciled budget model we’ve proven with a multi-entity development group.
CIP- and WIP-aware oversight. We read your projects the way lenders do: budget vs actual by cost category, cost-to-complete, over/under-billing, interest reserves by financing layer. Problems surface while they’re still adjustments, not write-offs. (The bookkeeping layer underneath is our construction accounting practice.)
Capital-stack and financing management. Senior, mezzanine, and owner financing tracked by layer; covenant calendars; draw-package discipline; and the lender relationship handled with numbers that reconcile to the ledger — because they come from it.
Entity-level clarity. Which entities carry cash, which owe whom, where the next dollar should come from — kept clean by the same intercompany discipline we install in 20-entity groups.
A senior partner for the expensive decisions. Pricing the next development, structuring the next entity, timing the next raise — with someone in the room who has seen the numbers behind dozens of projects.
Where to start
Most engagements begin with the free books review: we look at your projects, entities, and reporting, and tell you candidly what a CFO layer would change — and whether your books are ready to support one. If they’re not, we fix that first. Book the review →
A Living Company Budget — Rolling, GL-Connected, and Reconciled Every Month
Runway, hiring costs, and raise timing turned from guesses into a schedule.
Read the case study →Frequently asked questions
Why does a construction company need a construction-specific CFO?
Because construction finance inverts normal rules: revenue arrives in lumpy draws and milestones, costs capitalize to CIP instead of hitting the P&L, cash flow depends on pay-app timing and retainage, and every project may live in its own legal entity. A generalist CFO reads your statements wrong; a construction CFO reads the project economics underneath them.
What does a virtual CFO actually do for a builder or developer month to month?
A rolling company-level budget reconciled to your ledger, project cash-flow forecasts that bridge fee events and draws, WIP/CIP review so over- and under-billing surface early, capital-stack and financing-cost oversight, and the lender/investor reporting package — plus a senior voice on pricing the next deal.
How is this different from our project accountants or bookkeeper?
They record what's happening inside projects; a CFO connects it to the company. Can we fund the next land closing? What does the overhead really cost per project? When does the interest reserve run out? Which entity funds payroll this quarter? That company-level view is the CFO layer.
What does it cost compared to hiring a CFO?
A full-time construction CFO runs $200–300k+ fully loaded. Our virtual CFO engagement is a fixed monthly fee scoped to your entity count and reporting needs — typically a fraction of one salary, with a whole firm's systems discipline behind it.
Book your free books review
Thirty minutes, your current setup, and a candid read on what it would take.