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Uncovering Hidden Profits

Accounting expert Chloe Brown shares how her team uncovers thousands (or millions) in missed job costs, and how builders can stop margin erosion before it scales.

Construction accounting isn’t for the faint of heart. But Chloe Brown of Wildest Dreams has made it her mission to bring clarity to the chaos. Working with builders across the country, Chloe and her team have uncovered thousands (sometimes millions) in missed job costs. And more importantly, they’re helping builders change the way they operate before that profit loss scales.

“Typically, what we find is anywhere from thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single job that was spent but never recouped.”

What sets Chloe apart isn’t just her background in startup tech or her knack for process. It’s her commitment to doing things well before trying to do them fast. From job-level cost coding to financial operations, her forensic-level analysis of construction businesses shines a spotlight on the real reason so many builders are missing the mark: they’re not tracking every dollar.

Why Most Builders Are Losing Money... Without Realizing It

It’s not uncommon for builders to run their business by checking the bank account. If there’s cash in the account, they assume the business is healthy. But Chloe challenges that mindset:

“That number might include sales tax, customer deposits, or unpaid invoices. It doesn’t tell you whether your jobs are actually profitable, and that’s a dangerous assumption.”

Through her detailed audits and ongoing accounting services, Chloe helps builders uncover exactly where money is falling through the cracks, often because of loose cost coding, inconsistent processes, or delayed invoicing cycles.

Cost Codes, Contingencies, and the Danger of “Good Enough”

One of the most overlooked drivers of margin erosion? Poor cost code structures. Chloe sees this again and again: builders using borrowed templates or adding new codes on the fly with no clear framework for tracking costs.

“Every time you add a cost code, you’re starting from scratch. There’s no historical data, no benchmark. It’s chaos disguised as customization.”

Even fixed-price builders aren’t immune. Chloe explains that while the revenue might be locked in, understanding cost performance by job (and by line item) is essential to setting profitable bids in the future.

From Firefighting to Forecasting

Wildest Dreams doesn’t just parachute in, do an audit, and walk away. Chloe’s team helps builders move from reactive to proactive: tightening up AR cycles, building better vendor compliance systems, and giving teams the tools (and training) to track costs accurately from day one.

The result? Builders who not only make more money, but actually know where it’s coming from.

What Builders Can Do Now

Whether you’re cost-plus or fixed-price, whether your books are a mess or just a little fuzzy, Chloe’s advice is simple: don’t wait until you’re scaling to fix your systems. Every $200 oversight today could be a $200,000 miss three years from now.

“If you’re a builder doing $1M now and plan to grow to $5M, those cracks grow with you. Get your house in order before you build the next floor.”

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