The GO First Blog

Subcontractors

Construction Subcontract Agreement: What to Include to Protect Your Business

Most builders use a subcontract agreement that a sub's lawyer would laugh at. Missing scope specifics, no lien waiver requirements, no payment trigger language, and no change order protocol. One bad sub relationship will cost you more than everything you saved skipping a proper agreement. Here's what goes in a subcontract that actually protects you.

JobTread

JobTread Allowances: How to Set Up Client Selections Without Losing Margin

Allowances are the most margin-leaking line item in residential construction. Most builders set them too low, don't track overages in real time, and end up absorbing the difference between what the client was told and what the client actually picked. Here's the JobTread configuration that closes that gap.

Estimating

How to Price a Kitchen Remodel: A Builder's Cost Breakdown

Kitchen remodels are the most estimating-error-prone residential project type — not because the work is hard to estimate, but because scope variance is extreme, client selections swing cost by 40–60%, and trade sequencing creates schedule dependencies that inflate labor when one phase runs late. Here's the cost-by-category framework that protects your margin.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks Progress Invoicing for Builders: Bill What You've Earned

Most builders create separate invoices for each draw manually or bill in full at the end — leaving a cash flow gap that QuickBooks progress invoicing eliminates in under an hour of setup. Here's the configuration that matches your billing to your draw schedule and keeps your cash position from going negative mid-project.

Operations

When to Hire a Construction Office Manager (And What to Pay)

Most construction business owners wait far too long to hire admin help — doing $150-per-hour owner work at $18-per-hour tasks for years. The three signals that tell you it's time, what a construction office manager actually costs fully loaded, and the six responsibilities that should transfer on day one.

JobTread

JobTread Subcontractor Bid Tracking: The Setup Most Builders Miss

Most builders manage sub bids in their heads, a spreadsheet, or a string of texts while JobTread sits unused for one of the most time-consuming parts of estimating. Here's the three-part setup inside JobTread that keeps all your sub bids organized, comparable, and fully auditable — and why it recovers 3–5 hours per project on a typical $300K–$700K job.

Estimating

Construction Overhead Recovery Rate: Build It Into Every Estimate

Your overhead recovery rate is the percentage of every revenue dollar reserved to cover fixed costs before you earn a cent of profit. Most builders at $500K–$2M use a flat markup they've never validated against actual overhead. Here's how to calculate your real rate, why it changes as you scale, and how to embed it into your estimating system so you stop subsidizing your own jobs.