Quoting With Confidence: How Harrow Metal Works Turned Accurate Job Costing Into Growth

Company

Harrow Metal Works

Location

Gulf Coast Louisiana

Shop

ASME-coded fabrication shop

Engagement

Fractional CFO

Focus

Costing, pricing, cash flow, concentration risk

The Question Every Fabrication Shop Asks

"Which jobs are actually making us money — and is the rate we quote really covering our cost?"

For coded fabrication shops, this is one of the hardest questions to answer with confidence. Materials are easy to trace to a job. Labor, overhead, equipment and the ongoing cost of certifications are not — and they are where most of a shop's cost lives. When volume is high, the busy schedule makes the business feel healthy. When the market shifts, a shop needs numbers that show exactly which work to pursue and at what price.

About Harrow Metal Works

Harrow Metal Works is an ASME-coded custom fabrication shop on the Gulf Coast. It builds pressure vessels, modular skid packages and structural steel, and it is exactly the kind of operation where accurate costing pays off: capital-intensive, code-driven and highly certified, with heavy welding, lifting and pipe-handling capacity and the quality program that larger industrial work demands.

The shop had grown on oil and gas work. When that market slowed after COVID, leadership saw the moment for what it was: the right time to sharpen its costing, strengthen its cash position and build a broader base of customers.

What the Numbers Revealed

Material costs were clean. Harrow Metal Works buys steel against specific projects, so those costs were accurate and traceable.

The real opportunity was in the labor rate. Equipment, inspections, procedure qualification, traceability documentation and certification upkeep aren't project-specific — all of it has to be recovered through the rate. As the shop had invested in capability, its true cost per shop hour had risen. When we rebuilt the rate, it came in meaningfully higher than the rate being quoted.

The capability had grown. Now the pricing could grow with it.

Cash timing could be designed, not just managed. Larger skid and turnkey packages bill on milestones, so the shop bought steel and invested hours for weeks before cash arrived, often carrying the gap on its line of credit. With the right milestone structure, projects can fund themselves.

What We Built Together

1. A true shop rate, built on history and future growth

We reconstructed the cost picture from historical financials, then layered in where the business was heading — because a rate is only as good as the hours you expect to sell, and Harrow Metal Works intended to grow.

Then we made sure leadership owned it. A rate you understand, you can rebuild as costs change and defend with confidence in any negotiation.

2. A bidding process with margin built in

An ASME vessel doesn't carry the same labor and inspection content as a structural package or a skid build. With accurate rates by type of work, every bid became a calculation with known margin — and work that doesn't fit is identified before the quote goes out.

3. A rolling 13-week cash flow forecast

Built around Harrow Metal Works's real payment rhythm — milestone dates, material lead times, payroll cycles and line-of-credit activity — the forecast gives leadership weeks of visibility to plan ahead.

4. Milestones designed during the bid

We trained leadership to map each project's cash curve while bidding, so milestones keep the job cash-flow positive from start to finish.

5. A plan to diversify into new markets

We advised deliberate diversification beyond oil and gas, so no single industry would set the company's pace. The accurate rate made that possible: with a clear cost per shop hour, Harrow Metal Works could price confidently in markets where it had no history.

Pricing With Confidence

Knowing the right price and charging it take different kinds of confidence. Raising prices in a softer market is one of the most common concerns in manufacturing.

With real numbers behind every quote, Harrow Metal Works moved forward — and the business grew. Customers who chose Harrow Metal Works on capability, code compliance and reliability stayed and expanded. The mix shifted toward long-term partners who valued quality over the lowest quote, and away from work that only made sense at a price below cost.

Accurate pricing didn't shrink the business. It focused it — and it grew.

The Results

• Bids built on a rate the company can stand behind, with margin engineered into every quote.
• Job-level profitability that's visible, so leadership knows which work to pursue.
• Projects that fund themselves, through milestones designed during the bid rather than draws on the line of credit.
• A broader customer base. Harrow Metal Works now serves water treatment, maritime, utilities, renewable energy, food and beverage and agriculture alongside oil and gas, so a slowdown in any one market is a soft quarter rather than a turning point.
• Capability that stays in-house. Leadership understands the labor rate, the overhead and the cash position, and can work all three on its own.

What This Means for Your Business

If your materials tie neatly to projects but your margins are hard to explain, the answer is usually in labor and overhead — and in the rate you quote, rather than on the shop floor.

Every new piece of equipment or certification changes your true cost per hour. Rebuilding your rate when your capability grows keeps your pricing aligned with the value you deliver.

And if you suspect your prices are below what your work is worth, it's worth testing with real numbers. The customers who value your capability are usually the ones who stay.

Some client names and identifying details have been changed at the client’s request. Results are unchanged.