Financial operations for the trades
Do you know what you made on the last job? Exactly?
Most contractors don't, and it isn't their fault. The field software holds the job data. QuickBooks holds the money. True job-level profit lives in neither, so bids run on gut, the numbers arrive six weeks late, and the year-end surprise keeps showing up.
Bayman is a financial operations firm that works only with home services contractors. We close your books by the 10th and put one page in your hand: what you actually made, by job, by crew, and by service line.
Source: ACCA Financial Benchmarking Study, 2024 — HVAC industry
On $5M in revenue, moving your margin a single point is worth $50,000 a year — more than five times what the Close costs. The full gap to the top quartile runs to $370,000; one point is the floor, not the ceiling.
The Contractor Close
One product. Closed books, one page, thirty minutes.
The Contractor Close is a monthly service, not software. For $500 a month to start, you get your QuickBooks cleaned up and your books closed by the 10th, the one-page Margin Report showing true profit by job, by crew, and by service line, and a thirty-minute call to walk through what it means. That is the whole product. The report comes from your field software and your books read together, which is something an ordinary bookkeeper cannot do. You never log into anything; you just get the page.
Books closed by the 10th
On a contractor-specific chart of accounts, not a generic QuickBooks template. We clean up what's there before the first close, and that cleanup is included.
The Margin Report
One page showing true margin by job, by crew, and by service line, drawn from your field software and your books together. The number most contractors have never seen before.
The numbers call
Thirty minutes, plain English. What made money, what lost it, and the one thing worth changing next month. No jargon, no slide deck.
How it works
Three steps, and then a page every month.
We connect to your QuickBooks and your field software — ServiceTitan, Jobber, or Housecall Pro — with read-only access, under a mutual NDA. You hand over the logins once and never touch it again. We read your numbers, never move money, and never share your data with anyone.
We rebuild your books on a contractor-specific chart of accounts and clean up what’s there. The cleanup is included, not a separate project, and you don’t lift a finger for it.
The one-page Margin Report lands in your inbox, followed by a thirty-minute call. You never log into anything — you just get the page, and the one thing worth changing next month.
The Margin Report
The one page, before it has your name on it.
This is the whole product: true profit by service line and by crew, on a single page, in plain numbers. Most contractors have never seen their business read this way.
By service line
| Service line | Revenue | Gross margin | Gross profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maintenance & service | $182,000 | 38% | $69,160 |
| Repair | $156,000 | 29% | $45,240 |
| Install / replacement | $268,000 | 9% | $24,120 |
| New construction | $34,000 | −3% | −$1,020 |
| Total | $640,000 | 21.5% | $137,500 |
Install jobs, by crew
| Crew | Install revenue | Gross margin |
|---|---|---|
| Crew A | $104,000 | 15% |
| Crew B | $92,000 | 10% |
| Crew C | $72,000 | −1% |
Illustrative sample. Figures show the format, not a real client. Your report carries your own jobs, crews, and service lines.
What it surfaces
The number changes the decision.
One company came to us projecting $3.3M in revenue for the year. Read job by job, it was tracking closer to $1.9M — nobody had looked at it that way. Knowing it in month two, instead of at year-end, changed everything that followed: what they bid, who they hired, where the owner spent his time.
What the first close usually surfaces:
A line that always loses
A whole service line — often install or new construction — that looks busy and turns out to lose money on nearly every job.
A crew that doesn’t price out
One crew whose work consistently comes in under bid, invisible until margin is read crew by crew.
Jobs that only looked good
Work that read as profitable until real labor was loaded against it — the gap between the quote and the cost.
Industry benchmarks
The gap shows up in every trade.
We work across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing, and the same pattern holds in all four: a wide gap between the typical operator and the top quartile. Independent industry surveys put real numbers on it — and the gap is rarely effort. It’s whether the owner can see profit at the job level.
The dark bar is what the best operators in each trade keep. The brass bar is the typical one. That distance — not effort — is what job-level visibility buys. Sources: ACCA (HVAC), NECA (electrical), NRCA (roofing), and 2025 plumbing benchmarks; figures approximate.
Source: ACCA Financial Benchmarking Study, 2024 (HVAC).
The difference isn’t hustle — it’s job-level visibility.
Source: 2025 plumbing industry benchmarks (Profitability Partners; Housecall Pro).
Same trucks, same trade — the spread is in knowing which jobs pay.
Source: NECA Financial Performance Report.
Below an 8% net, one bad job can swing the year. You have to see it coming.
Source: National Roofing Contractors Association.
Thin margins punish anyone flying blind. Visibility is the whole game.
What the gap is worth
Put your own number on it.
The spread between a typical operator and the top quartile is real money. Set your trade and revenue, and see what that gap is worth on your books each year — against what the Close costs.
Gap = the difference between typical and top-quartile net margin in your trade (see benchmarks above). Illustrative; your actual result depends on your books.
A fair question
Why can’t my bookkeeper do this?
Your bookkeeper lives in QuickBooks, and QuickBooks knows what came in and what went out. It does not know which job, which crew, or which service line earned it. That detail lives in your field software — ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro — and the two systems never talk to each other. We read them together, which is the whole trick. It isn’t a knock on your bookkeeper; it’s a gap in the tools, and closing it is the entire product.
Engagements & fees
Fixed fees, agreed before work begins.
| Engagement | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Contractor Close — founding rate | $500 per month | 3 spots left Three spots open for summer 2026. Full service locked at this rate for 90 days in exchange for candid feedback on what works and what doesn't. Month to month after that; your reports are yours to keep regardless. |
| The Contractor Close — ongoing | From $750 per month | The same product for clients who come on after the founding period closes, priced by company size. |
| Exit-ready financials | Quoted fixed fee | For owners in conversation with a buyer or private equity group: financials prepared to withstand diligence. |
The first close is on us if it isn’t worth it. You get your first Margin Report, and if it doesn’t show you something about your own business you didn’t already know, you don’t pay for it. We’re that confident the number surprises you.
Serving HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing companies between $2M and $20M in revenue, on ServiceTitan, Jobber, or Housecall Pro. Tax filing is handled with a partner CPA.
The name
Named for the baymen of the Great South Bay.
The clammers and oystermen of Long Island built a living with their hands and weighed every catch at the dock. They knew exactly what the day had earned them, every day. We grew up on the Island. The tools may have changed, but the standards haven't. Most contractors work as hard as any bayman ever did, and have no idea what they made on the last job. We fix that.
The principals
Jack Ward
Commercial
Has spent years inside growing service businesses where the reported numbers and the real numbers didn't match, and that gap is exactly what he fixes. The most recent example was a company projecting $3.3M in revenue that was actually tracking closer to $1.9M because nobody had looked at it job by job. He brought the same discipline to Bayman. Long Island born and raised.
Logan Bardunias
Operations & Systems
Tax and financial operations background in trade and field-service businesses, with a focus on expense discipline and reporting that owners can actually rely on. The kind of clarity he brings tends to change how a business makes decisions, because the numbers stop being something to argue with and start being something to act on. Long Island born and raised.
Correspondence
Speak with a principal.
If you run a home services company and want a straight answer to "did we make money on that job?", write to us. If a founding engagement is open, your first close can land this month — and it’s on us if it doesn’t show you something new.