The same engine every time. Thirty years of construction, coded into agents
that connect to the software you already run — and that do not just hold the information,
they apply it. What changes between levels is how much of it is switched on, and how much
of Iron House comes with it.
Iron Clad
Foundation
See where the money went
16 of 29 modules running
Your office runs, your numbers become visible, and you get a back-cost on a real job. Most builders have never seen one.
Two ways in
Done for youWe index the files, load the cost codes and structure the chart of accounts with your accountant.
Self-installYou do the work to our standard, using our code set and templates. Costs less, takes your time.
Either way, nothing goes live until we have checked the coding ourselves.
Stage 00 — install & indexFiles indexed · cost codes loaded · chart of accounts structured · job folders built · your voice and contracts captured. Every level starts here.
The system underneathRules & knowledge · live systems · governance
Front of houseResearch · outreach · marketing · writing · community · right hand · builder
This level buys you sight. You find out what your jobs actually make, while there is still time to do something about it — and you get the coding underneath that makes every number after it trustworthy.
What it costs
Install — done for you$5,500We do the work: files indexed, cost codes loaded, chart of accounts structured with your accountant.
Install — self-install$1,000You do the work to our standard, with our code set and templates. We still check it before it goes live.
Monthly$200The standard stays current, new skills as they are built, and we sort it when something misbehaves.
What you get back
The honest answer is that we cannot tell you what your business is leaking until we
have looked. What we can tell you is what a first back-cost found on one small job of our own
— a $36,366 spouting replacement that finished at $62,580.
What the back-cost found
On one job
Variations, against a contract priced at $36,366
$26,214
Billed with no approved variation behind it
$1,760.56
Cost passed through at zero markup
$3,189.61
Wages that never reached the job cost report
about $10,000
None of that showed up anywhere until somebody ran the numbers. On a small job.
Now do the arithmetic on your own book: at $2m across fifteen jobs, one percent of
margin is $20,000. Foundation is what lets you see the percent.
A year of business coaching in New Zealand runs $12,000 to $30,000. Foundation is a fraction of the bottom of that — and at the end of the year you still have the system.
Iron Clad
Framework
The whole pipeline
Everything in Foundation, plus all six stages of the job. This is where the hours are, and it is the level most builders actually need.
What it costs
Install$11,000Everything in the Foundation install, plus estimating, contracts and the full delivery pipeline switched on.
Monthly$500The standard stays current, new skills as they are built, and we manage the edges.
Year oneabout $17,000Install plus twelve months.
Time poor to time rich
Two jobs eat a builder’s year, and neither of them happens during the day.
Where the hours go
Now
With the system
A year
Tendering — and a tender takes about the same hours whether the house is $700k or $2m
100+ hrs each
about 50
400–600 hrs
Payment claims, compiled with the supporting detail
4–5 days
1 day
about 336 hrs
Between eighteen and twenty-four working weeks. Those are our
own figures off our own business, not an industry estimate. Apply your own hourly value to
them:
If your time is worth
750 hours
950 hours
$60/hr
$45,000
$57,000
$80/hr
$60,000
$76,000
$100/hr
$75,000
$95,000
$120/hr
$90,000
$114,000
And there is a part that is not money. Builders quote at eleven o’clock
at night, early mornings and on weekends. That is when the hundred hours a tender takes
actually happens. Those hours currently come out of family time.
Year one costs about the same as a year of business coaching in New Zealand. The difference is what you are holding in January: 26 sessions and a folder of notes, or a system that is still running.
Iron Clad
Fortress
We run it with you
Everything in Framework, plus Iron House actually in the business — Eddie on the numbers and the commercial calls, Ankica on the back office, both working off the same coding the system was installed on.
What it costs
Install$11,000The full Framework install.
Monthly$1,300The system, plus Eddie’s monthly review and Ankica’s back office on the same coding.
Year oneabout $26,600Install plus twelve months.
What you get back
This level replaces people, not software. Price it against what you would otherwise
be paying for the same two jobs.
What you would otherwise pay
A year
A part-time office person, 20 hours a week, before on-costs
about $30,000
A full-time bookkeeper in-house
$60,000–$70,000
An outsourced construction back office at the market rate
about $9,600
A year of business coaching in New Zealand
$12,000–$30,000
Fortress carries both, for less than either pair. And the back
office is doing the work on books that were structured properly during the install — which
is why the same money buys more of it here than anywhere else.
What Iron House being inside actually means: your back-cost and job P&L gone
through together every month, your tender reviewed before it is issued, your payment claims
checked before they go rather than after they fail, variations hunted with you, and
adjudication and counsel when a job turns.
Which level fits is a conversation, not a checkout.
It depends on the size of your book, what software you already run, and how much
of it you want us inside. Start with a straight-talk session on your own numbers and
we will tell you which one you need — including if it is the cheapest one.