A commercial refrigeration CFO runs the books, cash and job costing for a contractor paid three ways: service agreements, emergency repairs and installs billed in stages. They price the technician hour, flag chain accounts that cost more to serve than they pay, and manage the bank, surety and sales tax side.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, HVAC and plumbing contractors · BLS, May 2025
Refrigeration Install & Service - Chief Financial Officer
Company Name:
[INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE]
Department:
Finance
Reports to:
Chief Executive Officer
Location:
[INSERT LOCATION HERE]
1. Position Summary
You'll run the money side of a commercial refrigeration contractor with three different kinds of revenue: recurring service agreements, emergency and repair work, and installs billed as they progress. You'll own job costing, cash flow, pricing support and the reporting the owners, bank and surety rely on.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Own the monthly close, financial statements and annual budget by branch and by line of business: service, agreements and installs.
Run install job costing and the work-in-progress schedule, including over and under billings, retainage and change orders.
Manage cash through seasonal swings in repair work and long install payment cycles, including the bank line of credit.
Set the true cost of a technician hour, including truck, tools, training and on-call time, and use it to set labor rates and agreement prices.
Review the profit on each service agreement and flag accounts that cost more to serve than they pay.
Track refrigerant and parts costs, and work with the Warehouse Manager on inventory value and shrink.
Manage insurance, bonding, sales and use tax, and the annual audit or review with outside accountants.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review cash, the receivables aging and large invoices stuck in customer portals.
Meet with General Managers about job cost overruns and completed work that hasn't been billed.
Approve large purchases, such as install equipment orders and trucks.
Review the Bookkeeper's entries and the payroll register before payroll runs.
Update the [13]-week cash forecast.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Days sales outstanding: [your target].
Gross margin by line of business: [your target].
Install job cost variance: [your target].
Days to close the month: [your target].
Unbilled completed work: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor's degree in accounting or finance.
[7+] years of finance leadership, including time in construction, mechanical contracting or field service.
Hands-on experience with job costing, work-in-progress schedules and percentage-of-completion revenue.
Experience managing bank lines, surety relationships and insurance renewals.
Strong skills in [your accounting system] and spreadsheets.
6. Preferred Experience
CPA license.
Experience in a service business with recurring maintenance agreements.
Experience with construction or field service accounting software such as [your software].
Experience preparing a company for a sale, acquisition or outside investment.
7. Physical Requirements
Office work with long periods at a computer.
Occasional visits to branches and job sites.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Office-based at [headquarters], with [remote or hybrid options].
Longer hours at month-end, year-end and during audits.
Occasional travel to branches and to bank or surety meetings.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new chief financial officer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Chain billing systems, state construction and tax rules, and refrigerant you buy by the pound shape this finance job.
Chain invoices stall in the portal
Chains that pay through a facilities work order system may reject an invoice that lacks the work order number, check-in and check-out times, photos or a not-to-exceed approval. Build each portal's rules into how tickets close, so nobody chases paperwork weeks later. Track rejected invoices by account, since they drive days sales outstanding more than slow payers do.
Kansas caps retainage on private jobs
On private construction in Kansas, retainage can't top 5 cents on the contract dollar unless the owner or contractor decides more is needed to make sure the work gets done. It can never pass 10 cents. The owner must release undisputed retainage within 30 days after substantial completion. Put those dates into the install billing schedule and the cash forecast for every Kansas remodel. Source: Kansas Statutes 16-1804: Retainage on private construction.
Repair labor can carry sales tax
Kansas's guide for contractors says labor is generally taxed, even when the item is built into a building. Its example is fixing a restaurant's stove. Original construction, such as a new building, is one of the exceptions. The same guide lists commercial remodels as taxable. So a new store's install and a remodel or repair in an existing one can be taxed differently. Rules vary by state; set tax codes by job type with your outside accountants. Source: Kansas Department of Revenue: Pub. KS-1525, sales and use tax for contractors, subcontractors and repairmen (rev. 7-29-25).
Agreement prices need a refrigerant clause
A flat agreement price that includes refrigerant leaves you holding the cost of every pound when supply gets tight. Price refrigerant by the pound, apart from labor, and review the rate whenever your cost moves. Show chains the pounds added at each site, so they see a leaking system rather than a rising bill.
How much commercial refrigeration CFOs make
The closest BLS group for commercial refrigeration CFOs is chief executives. Chief executives who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $174,130 a year ($83.72 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $213,990 median for chief executives in all industries. About 760 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for HVAC and plumbing contractors.
Salaried, often with a bonus tied to profit, cash collected or a clean audit.
HVAC and plumbing contractors
$174,130$174,130 median Middle half $93,740–$271,790 10th–90th $70,780–$421,320
All industries
$213,990$213,990 median Middle half $129,540–$356,200 10th–90th $75,700–$507,730
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
HVAC and plumbing contractors
$70,780
$93,740
$174,130
$271,790
$421,320
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
BLS doesn’t publish pay for refrigeration contractors on their own. These figures cover plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has run a work-in-progress schedule with over and under billings for a contractor
Builds a fully loaded technician hour, with truck, tools, training and on-call pay
Has managed a bank line and a surety relationship through a growth year
Sits with a project manager over a job cost report and finds the overrun
Sets up sales and use tax by job type and by state
Teach these on the job
Each chain's billing portal and approval rules
Refrigerant purchase and usage tracking by the pound
How your field service software feeds the accounting system
How your branches quote large repairs
Union or prevailing wage payroll, where your jobs need it
Expect the CFO to work in the accounting system, the field service software where tickets close, each chain's invoicing portal, and a spreadsheet for the cash forecast. Name your accounting and field service software in the ad; experience with construction accounting software carries over faster than general ledger work alone.
Commercial refrigeration CFO interview questions
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Refrigerant shrink
Refrigerant purchased this year far exceeds what's been billed to jobs. What do you do?
A strong answer: Compares purchases to cylinder logs and tickets by truck, finds the causes (unbilled use, poor logging, covered leaks, loss), and sets controls with the Warehouse Manager.
Behavioral · Pricing from true cost
Tell me about a time you changed agreement or after-hours pricing based on what the work really cost.
A strong answer: Explains how they found the true cost, the change, how they got buy-in, and the result.
Treat the template's targets as blanks. Start from your own recent months, set each target with the CEO, and change it when the mix of service and installs shifts.
Days sales outstanding
Divide receivables by average daily sales for the month, and run it once for chain accounts that bill through portals and once for everyone else.
Gross margin by line of business
Report repair calls, agreements and installs apart each month, with technician wages, truck costs and refrigerant charged to the line that used them.
Install job cost variance
Compare each finished install's actual labor and material with its estimate, and walk through the biggest misses with the operations manager and project manager.
Days to close the month
Record how long the close takes: business days from month-end to final statements in the CEO's hands, work-in-progress schedule included.
Unbilled completed work
Total the tickets and install stages finished but not invoiced at month-end, sorted by age and by the reason each one is stuck.
Career path
Auditor or staff accountant with contractor clientsLearns percentage-of-completion revenue and work-in-progress schedules.
ControllerRuns the close, the payroll review and job cost reporting.
Chief financial officerOwns cash, pricing support, surety, tax and the audit.
Chief executive officerSome CFOs move up when the owner steps back from running the company.
Other roles in a commercial refrigeration business
What makes a grocery store service agreement lose money?
Usually the visits the price never planned for. A store with aging cases can need repeat calls between maintenance visits, overnight trips and refrigerant added after leaks, all inside a flat rate. Pull each site's labor hours, trips and pounds against the agreement price twice a year. Bring the losers to the CEO with a fix: reprice, change what's covered, or drop the site.
How much does a commercial refrigeration CFO make?
Chief executives who work for plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors earned a median of $174,130 a year ($83.72 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $93,740 and $271,790 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Should a refrigeration contractor get an audit or a review?
It depends on who reads the statements. Your surety and bank usually decide the level, and they tend to ask for more as you bid larger installs and borrow more. Ask both what they need before the year ends, so the outside accountants can plan the inventory count, refrigerant included, and test the work-in-progress schedule.
How should a CFO bill installs done for a general contractor?
Read the subcontract's pay rules first: the billing date, schedule of values, lien waivers and retainage. Tax can differ too. In Kansas, the state's contractor guide says a sub doing taxable labor on a building charges the general contractor sales tax. The general contractor can't skip it with a resale certificate. Set up each job's tax and retainage before the first bill goes out.
What should the 13-week cash forecast watch at a refrigeration contractor?
Three things move it most. Chain payments slip when invoices get stuck. Install payments wait on pay applications and retainage. Equipment deposits come due before a remodel starts. Add the months when agreement renewals bill and your busiest repair months, when overtime and parts spending climb.
