Job Ledger
Cutwater Marine Works · Fort Lauderdale, FL · 18 staff · 4 bays Synced 06:12 · 14 open jobsWork that is finished or in progress and hasn't turned into an invoice. Not a forecast — it's on the yard's own job records this morning.
Needs you today · 3
4 boats are splashed and uninvoiced, the oldest sitting 23 days. Three more are held on parts with an average of 9 days gone.
$47,200 finished but never invoiced, plus $18,400 of change orders performed on a verbal OK. Another $126,500 of estimates is going cold.
- 214 historical estimates imported
- 61 change orders read
- 13 days of live operation observed
The Leak tells you what is going wrong. This works out why — and it is what decides whether you need any of the modules below. If the answer is none, that's the answer.
A written change order gets invoiced 96% of the time. A verbal one, 38%. Every unpapered one on the board right now was a verbal yes.
Both at-risk customers are on jobs carrying unpapered change orders. The tone problem and the money problem are the same problem.
Bay throughput is steady and $31,900 of change orders cleared this month. Two service writers close their invoices inside 4 days.
Every job from estimate to cash, with the hand-offs timestamped. Anything sitting longer than it should turns red on its own — nobody has to notice.
| Vessel / Job | Stage | Days in stage | Owner | Value | Flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Second Wind Generator swap + panel | Splashed | 23 | R. Alvarez | $18,400 | Not invoiced |
| Marlin Sky Bottom paint + running gear | Splashed | 16 | R. Alvarez | $11,750 | Not invoiced |
| Persistence Engine repower — twin | In Work | 31 | D. Whitfield | $96,200 | 2 change orders unpapered |
| Salt Habit Hull blister repair | Awaiting parts | 14 | M. Okafor | $27,900 | Customer not updated 11d |
| Blue Ledger Electronics refit | In Work | 6 | D. Whitfield | $41,300 | |
| Lady Ann Teak deck replacement | Splashed | 9 | M. Okafor | $12,600 | Not invoiced |
| Cormorant Shaft alignment + cutlass | In Work | 3 | R. Alvarez | $8,450 | |
| Tidewater AC raw water system | Splashed | 12 | D. Whitfield | $4,450 | Not invoiced |
| Nightwatch Bow thruster install | Awaiting parts | 5 | M. Okafor | $22,100 | |
| Halyard Haul, survey, bottom job | Hauled | 2 | R. Alvarez | $9,800 | |
| Gulf Runner Fuel tank replacement | In Work | 19 | D. Whitfield | $34,700 | 1 change order unpapered |
| Osprey Canvas + isinglass | Estimated | 4 | K. Brand | $6,200 | |
| Sea Bishop Generator service | Awaiting parts | 8 | M. Okafor | $5,900 | |
| Ranger IV Prop tunnel fairing | In Work | 7 | R. Alvarez | $16,400 |
Where jobs pile up
Average days a job spends in each stage. Splashed should be a day or two — the boat is gone and the invoice is the only thing left.
The same jobs, in dollars. This is the view the owner reads — and the one that decides what we fix next.
Work that is finished or in progress and has not turned into an invoice. Not forecast, not projected — it is on the yard's own job records today.
Splashed, not invoiced
Boats back in the water, customers gone, invoices never cut. Every day this sits, the odds of a clean collection drop.
Change orders unpapered
Extra work performed on a verbal OK and never written up. If the customer disputes it, there is nothing to point at.
Estimates going cold
Not lost yet. But no one has touched them since they went out, and yards that follow up inside a week close materially more of them.
Customers going quiet
Both flagged by tone in the email thread before anyone complained out loud. Details in Email Triage.
Money sitting still, last six months
Uninvoiced completed work plus unpapered change orders, measured at month end. The number is not a one-off — it has roughly doubled since March.
If this month is a normal month
The Leak shows what is going wrong. This shows why — the pattern in the yard's own history that produced it, and what closing it is worth. Three of these the ledger worked out on its own. One of them it can only point at.
Estimates die of silence, not of price
Close rate by how fast the first follow-up went out
Every estimate Cutwater sent in the last 18 months, grouped by days between sending and the first follow-up. 214 estimates.
Nobody owns the estimate after it leaves. There is no list of what's outstanding and no clock on any of it, so follow-up happens when someone remembers. The yard's average first-touch is 19 days — which lands every open estimate in the worst bucket on the chart.
Every estimate gets an owner and a countdown. Three days, then a nudge — to the person, not the void.
recoverable per quarter at the yard's own close rates
Salt Habit was leaving for four months
Relationship tone — Salt Habit, March to August
Scored from the tone of every message in the thread. Higher is warmer. The slide starts in May; the first time anyone at the yard noticed was last week.
The job went on parts hold in May and nobody told the customer. Three timeline questions went unanswered. None of that was hidden — it was in the inbox the whole time, and nobody reads an inbox for trend.
This is the module that caught it. On a hold, it now pings the service writer at day 3 of customer silence.
the job still on the hard — plus whatever this owner tells the dock
A verbal yes is worth about a third of a written one
Share of change orders that reached an invoice
All 61 change orders raised in the last 12 months, split by how the approval was captured.
Change orders get agreed at the dock, mid-job, with dirty hands. There is no way to capture one there — so it waits for the office, and by then the detail is gone. Every unpapered change order on the board right now was approved verbally.
Photo, scope, price, thumbprint — from the phone, at the boat, before the wrench turns.
annualized, at the current rate of verbal approvals
Invoice lag is not a yard problem. It's a desk problem.
Days from splash to invoice, by service writer
Same yard, same process, same software. 47 completed jobs since March.
That the spread is real, that it is not random, and that it is worth roughly $18,000 a month in float. Two people close in under a week. One takes nineteen days.
Why. Is it workload, a missing hand-off, a step only two of them know about, or something nobody wants to say out loud? No dashboard answers that. Somebody has to sit with the four of them for a day.
Estimates out, and every change to the scope after. The change order is where a refit yard's margin quietly disappears — work gets done on a nod at the dock and never makes it onto paper.
Open estimates
| Vessel | Scope | Sent | Value | Last touch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wavelength | Twin repower — survey complete | 31d ago | $48,000 | Never followed up |
| Ana Sofia | Full electronics package | 17d ago | $28,700 | Never followed up |
| Bright Angle | Gen set replacement | 26d ago | $9,900 | Never followed up |
| Kingfisher | Bottom job + running gear | 22d ago | $14,300 | Never followed up |
| Dutchman | Teak cockpit sole | 12d ago | $19,400 | Reminder sent day 7 |
| Osprey | Canvas + isinglass | 4d ago | $6,200 | — |
Change orders
| Vessel | Change | Raised by | Day | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persistence | Replace both motor mounts — corrosion found on teardown | D. Whitfield | Day 12 | $9,800 | Verbal only |
| Persistence | Additional 14 hrs wiring loom — original harness unusable | D. Whitfield | Day 21 | $3,300 | Verbal only |
| Gulf Runner | Tank baffle fabrication not in original scope | T. Nakamura | Day 9 | $5,300 | Verbal only |
| Blue Ledger | Upgrade to larger chartplotter at owner request | K. Brand | Day 4 | $4,900 | Sent, unsigned |
| Nightwatch | Reinforce mounting bulkhead | M. Okafor | Day 3 | $2,400 | Sent, unsigned |
| Lady Ann | Additional caulking — 40 linear ft | M. Okafor | Day 6 | $3,100 | Approved |
| Marlin Sky | Cutlass bearing replacement | R. Alvarez | Day 2 | $1,850 | Approved |
Customer email threads, read for tone and attached to the job. The point is to catch the owner who has gone quiet and cold — before the invoice conversation, not after it.
"Third time asking about the timeline. I've had the boat out of service since April and I still don't have a date."
"Every time we talk the number goes up. Can someone send me what this is actually going to cost when it's done?"
"Understood. Let me know when you have something firm."
"Looks great, appreciate the photos. Go ahead on the bigger plotter."
This is a refit yard. Yours will look different.
Everything above is sample data. What matters is the shape: one record per job, every hand-off timestamped, and a dollar figure attached to whatever is sitting still.
Configured for your operation, we would change:
- Your stage names — a yard runs estimate → haul → work → splash → invoice. A shop runs quote → production → QC → ship. Same ledger, your words.
- Your leak points — change orders here; unbilled accessorials in a warehouse; quote turnaround in a machine shop. We find yours first, then build to it.
- Your data — it reads from what you already run. We are not asking you to replace anything or re-key anything.
How this works: one price, agreed before we start. It covers setup, connecting your systems, and ninety days with us. At day 30 The Cause opens and we go through what your own numbers say. If something in it justifies a module, we'll show you the arithmetic. If nothing does, you'll hear that instead.
At day 90 we're done. You own the ledger, your team runs it, and there is no subscription waiting for you. If you want us back for the next problem, that's a separate conversation you get to start.
The first conversation is thirty minutes and it is not a demo. Tell us what you always hear about too late, and we will tell you what we would put on the screen first — whether or not you ever hire us.
Book a 30-minute call