Below is a real walkthrough of the product — the same screens and the same components a signed-in owner sees. The only difference is that the business is made up.
Bridgewater Mechanical is not a real company. Every figure on this page is invented to show the shape of a real answer. We would rather show you a fiction that is clearly labelled than a customer’s books, or a testimonial we do not have yet.
1
What Solomon already knows
Bridgewater Mechanical is a commercial HVAC and refrigeration contractor in Kamloops, BC — 11 people, about $3.4M a year at 7% net. The owner connected QuickBooks and answered the setup questions once. Nothing here was re-typed for this conversation.
Revenue, trailing 12
$3.4M
up 18% on last year
Net margin
7%
down from 11%
Cash on hand
$81k
5.5 weeks of payroll
Receivables over 60d
$134k
61% sits with two GCs
2
He answers the question underneath the question
The owner asks about a contract. Solomon starts with the thing that actually decides it — and ends by naming what he has not checked.
Should I take on the Riverside contract? It’s $480k over eight months.
Before the yes or no — that contract is 14% of your trailing revenue and Riverside pays on 60-day terms. You are already carrying $134k over 60 days, and $82k of that is one GC.
So the real question is not whether the work is good. It is whether you can float eight months of labour and materials while your two slowest payers are already sitting on six weeks of your cash.
What are their payment terms, and is there a holdback?
60 days, 10% holdback until substantial completion.
Then at peak you would be out roughly $95k–$110k before the first cheque clears, and the holdback keeps $48k out of reach until the end.
You have $81k on hand. That does not work without either a deposit, a draw schedule, or the overdraft — and using the overdraft to fund a contract at 7% margin means the financing cost eats a meaningful slice of the profit.
I would go back to Riverside and ask for a 15% mobilisation deposit and monthly draws. If they say no to both, this contract is a cash-flow problem wearing a revenue costume.
That is a read on the figures you have given me — your bookkeeper should confirm the receivables ageing before you sign anything.
Note the last line of his answer. Solomon names the figure he is relying on and who should check it, because an answer you cannot audit is not much use.
3
On the hard calls, he argues it more than one way
This is the actual output, rendered by the same component the product uses. He gives every angle its own weakest point, says where he lands, and lists what he cannot see.
Working through a decision
Whether to hire a second service tech or keep running overtime
Overtime is currently costing about $6,200 a month and is concentrated on two people. A tech is roughly $78k all-in. The question is not really the money, it is whether the work is durable enough to carry a permanent seat.
The cash case
Argues against
At 7% net margin a $78k seat needs about $1.1M of additional revenue to carry itself before it improves anything. You do not have that booked — you have it hoped for. Overtime is expensive per hour but it is variable, and variable is what a business with 5.5 weeks of cash should be buying right now.
Weakest point: This treats the overtime as if it were free of risk. It is not — it is concentrated on two people, and if either leaves the cost of replacing them lands all at once.
The people case
Argues for
Both techs carrying the overtime are past nine months of it. That is the point where good people start taking calls from competitors, and losing either one costs you more than the seat does — a replacement search, six weeks of reduced capacity, and the institutional knowledge that walks out with them.
Weakest point: You have not actually asked them how they feel about it. This is inferred from the hours, not from a conversation, and the conversation is free.
The margin case
Cuts both ways
Margin fell from 11% to 7% while revenue rose 18%. That pattern usually means the extra work is being won at prices that do not carry the cost of delivering it. Another tech would add capacity to a machine that is currently converting growth into less profit, which is not obviously an improvement.
Weakest point: The margin drop might be materials inflation rather than pricing, in which case hiring is neutral to it and this angle is aimed at the wrong problem.
Where they conflict
The cash case and the people case point in opposite directions, and both are right. The tension is real: the safest thing for the balance sheet this quarter is also the thing most likely to cost you a tech next quarter.
Where I land, for what it's worth
Do not hire yet. Have the conversation with both techs this week, and fix the pricing before you add capacity to it.
The margin drop is the actual problem — a second tech added to 7% work produces more 7% work. Find out whether the drop is pricing or materials first, because that answer changes what the right hire even is. Meanwhile the retention risk is real but it is not yet a resignation, and a direct conversation buys you information for nothing.
The weakest point in my reasoning: I am assuming you have four to six weeks before the retention risk becomes a resignation. If either tech is already interviewing, this recommendation is wrong and the sequencing should flip.
What I can't see from here
Cheap things to find out first
Pull the last six months of job costing and split margin by job type
Tells you whether the drop is pricing or a specific kind of work
Ask both techs directly how long they want to keep this up
Costs nothing and replaces the biggest assumption in this answer
Confirm the Riverside terms before it changes the cash picture
A $480k contract on 60-day terms would change what you can afford
Drawn fromYour QuickBooks figuresRoadmap milestones9 months of overtime recordsTwo earlier conversations about pricing
Note: Solomon argued this more than one way and told you where he lands — that is a structured opinion, not a verdict. He also names what he cannot see; read that part before you act on the recommendation.
4
And he remembers it next month
Decisions, constraints, people and commitments carry forward. You do not re-explain your business every time you open it.
DecisionHeld off hiring a second tech in August pending job-costing review
ConstraintWill not use the overdraft to fund contract work
PersonTwo service techs carrying sustained overtime since November
CommitmentPricing review before adding any capacity
If the owner later says something that contradicts one of these, Solomon says so rather than quietly going along with it.
Your numbers, your business, same treatment.
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