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StashGradeA partnership for fence contractors
Recommended by Tony Thornton · Thornton Fence Consulting Group
What shape is your fence company actually in?
Get a free financial health score: one number out of 100, a letter grade, and the single move that would raise it most. Read straight from your books, graded against what a healthy fence company looks like. No spreadsheet, no homework.
The financial read a CFO would give you, on a fence company’s budget. Free to start, $199 a month for the full picture.
Free. Read-only connection to QuickBooks, or upload a CSV or QBO export. Minutes, not weeks. Disconnect anytime.
Read-only access. We can see invoices, expenses, and your P&L. We cannot edit your books or touch money. What we never do:
- Never sell your data.
- Never share it with anyone unless you opt in.
- Never use it to train public AI models.
Disconnect anytime in one click. Ask us to delete your data and it’s gone.
84/100
StashGrade
2 pts to B+⚡ Free up the cash you can’t see
+6 pts → A−About $90K is parked in invoices over 60 days old. Pull it in before chasing new work and your cash score jumps the most of any move.
Who you are dealing with
Two businesses, one offer. Here is exactly who each one is and what it does for you.
The advice
Thornton Fence Consulting Group
Tony Thornton’s consulting practice for fence contractors: one-on-one engagements, fence and gate installation training, keynotes and workshops, and the Fence Masters Group peer network. More than 50 years in this trade, and the frameworks StashGrade reasons from come out of it.
- 50+ years in fencing
- AFA Hall of Fame
- Author, The 7 Strategies
Tony ThorntonFounder · AFA Hall of Fame
The numbers, and the fix
StashGrade
Software that reads your books and tells you what shape the business is in: a health score out of 100, margin broken out by fence type even when your chart of accounts does not separate it, and the spend that is leaking. Then two done-for-you service lines, StashGrade Ops and StashGrade Launch, that go and fix what it finds. A fractional CFO on the numbers, a fractional CTO on the systems.
- Built for specialty trades
- Reads QuickBooks, CSV, or QBO
- Free to start
Mike PetroskeyCo-Founder
Justin JudyCo-Founder
Mike Petroskey and Justin Judy built StashGrade after years inside contractor software and technology work across fencing, decking, roofing, and concrete. That background is why the software does not stop at a report: the same team runs the service lines that go and correct what the report finds.
Tony’s frameworks are inside the score
Four of Tony’s Thornton Fence Consulting Group frameworks — operations workflow, budgeting and forecasting, overhead and profitability, and pricing — are loaded into the expert knowledge StashGrade reasons from. When your report tells you what to do about a thin month, it is reasoning from Tony’s teachings, not generic small-business advice.
The fencing benchmarks started from his framework
The bands your numbers get graded against were built from Tony’s framework for what healthy looks like in this trade: gross and net margin, labor and material share, overhead recovery, break-even. That is the scale behind your letter grade.
We teach it together
Tony and StashGrade ran the Busy vs Profitable mid-year check-up webinar for fence contractors, and we keep publishing on the same question: why a full schedule can still mean a thin bank account.
What a financial health score is
The same question Tony asks on a first consult — is this company healthy, and where is it weakest — answered off your own numbers instead of a conversation.
One number, and a letter you can act on
Your books come back as a score out of 100 and a letter grade, the way a report card works. High enough and you know the business is sound. Low enough and you know it is not, before the bank account tells you.
Five pillars, so you know where it hurts
The score breaks into profitability, cost discipline, cash and break-even, growth and forecast, and operations. A company can be strong on four and quietly bleeding on the fifth, and the pillar bars show which one.
Graded against your trade, not business-in-general
Every number is scored against the range a healthy fence company should sit in — margin, labor and material share, overhead recovery, break-even — rather than a generic small-business average.
Messy books do not disqualify you
Missing a number never counts against the score: it drops out and the rest re-weights. The score only looks at closed months, so a half-finished month is not held against you either.
It ends with one move, not a lecture
The report names the change that would raise the score the most and what it is worth. Most owners already suspect where the problem is. This tells you whether you are right and what it costs you.
What you get for free
The health score is on the free plan. No card, no trial clock. Here is exactly what free includes:
- ✓QuickBooks Online connection (read-only)
- ✓Margin snapshot and AI forecast
- ✓Your StashGrade score
- ✓Savings scan: full roster, one finding unlocked
- ✓~5 AI analyses a month
- ✓Monthly summary digest
What actually changes in your operation
A score is only worth something if it moves the business. Here is what fence companies do differently once they can see their own numbers.
You bid the work that pays
Margin broken out by fence type tells you which product lines earn and which ones you have been buying. Owners stop chasing volume on the line that loses money and start pricing it properly or walking away from it.
Your quotes keep up with your costs
When materials drift from 32% of revenue to 45% and labor holds steady, that is a pricing lag, not a cost problem. Seeing it monthly means the next bid corrects it instead of the year absorbing it.
Overhead stops eating the year quietly
Healthy gross margin with thin take-home means the office grew ahead of the crews. The score separates the two, names the lines, and shows what your break-even actually is.
Finished jobs turn back into cash
Profitable on paper and tight in the bank is the most common trap in this trade. The report shows which invoices are sitting and how old, so collections get worked before the next job gets funded.
You run to a budget instead of a feeling
Tony’s teaching is a monthly and annual budget broken out by product line, with actual against plan. StashGrade keeps that comparison current from your own books rather than a spreadsheet somebody has to remember to update.
Everyone is arguing about the same numbers
Owner, bookkeeper, and consultant all reading one current picture ends the meeting that starts with reconciling three versions of the truth. That alone gives a consulting engagement its first month back.
From advice to execution to results
Most consulting helps you find the problem, builds a plan, and tells you what should happen next. Tony’s clients get something the fence industry does not otherwise have: the plan gets carried through implementation, and then the numbers show whether it worked.
- 1
Get a clear picture of the business
StashGradeEvery TFCG client is encouraged to start here. The free health score gives you and your consulting team a data-backed view of the business before anyone makes a recommendation.
- 2
Build the plan
Thornton Fence Consulting GroupTony and the TFCG team work through the business with you, identify the biggest opportunities, prioritize what actually matters, and turn it into a plan tied to your goals.
- 3
Execute the plan
StashGrade Ops & LaunchWhere the plan needs software selected and built, the workflow automated, the crew trained, the books corrected, or a real monthly close, StashGrade Ops and StashGrade Launch do the work. You are not handed a list of recommendations and left to figure out the implementation yourself.
- 4
Measure what happened
StashGradeYour score and the systems around your business show whether the changes produced the result they were supposed to, in your own numbers rather than in anyone’s opinion.
- 5
Adjust and improve
BothIf something is not working, nobody has to guess. Look at what the numbers did, change the approach, and keep going.
- Thornton Fence Consulting Group
- determines what should be done.
- StashGrade Ops and Launch
- get it done.
- StashGrade
- proves whether it worked.
A strategy only matters if somebody executes it. That is the whole reason this partnership exists, and the free health score is step one of it.
Start with step oneAnd somebody who will actually go do it
A report that names the problem is worth something. A team that fixes it is worth more. Both service lines are StashGrade’s own, quoted from your own numbers rather than an hourly guess, and neither of them sells software: nothing we recommend pays us a commission for recommending it.
StashGrade Ops
The app finds it. We fix it.
A fractional technology team for fence and specialty contractors. We evaluate what you are running, pick the software that actually fits, build and connect it, automate the work between the phone call and the paid invoice, train your people on it, and keep the numbers underneath it clean.
- ✓Assessment, vendor-neutral software selection, architecture, and implementation
- ✓Workflow automation and the training that makes it stick
- ✓Bookkeeping, monthly close, and the succession work that makes a company sellable
- ✓Or a Fractional CTO retainer: a technology leader on your side of the table every month
StashGrade Launch
The right tools, set up for you.
You already know the software your business needs. What you do not have is the six weekends it takes to set it up right. Launch installs, configures, and validates your stack using playbooks we have run before, and you sign off at every step.
- ✓Job costing set up to match how you actually bid
- ✓A chart of accounts that matches how you actually build
- ✓A defined finish line, not an open-ended engagement
Neither is required. The health score is free and useful on its own, and plenty of owners run it and fix things themselves.
Watch, read, and try
Everything Tony and StashGrade have put out together, plus where to see what a health report looks like on a real set of books.
Questions
Who is StashGrade?
StashGrade is financial software built for specialty trade contractors, by Mike Petroskey and Justin Judy. It connects to your books and reports what shape the business is in: a health score out of 100, margin by job type, the spend that is leaking, and a forecast. It also has two service arms, StashGrade Ops and StashGrade Launch, that fix what the software finds. The founders built it after years inside contractor technology, because owners who knew their numbers cold sold their companies for far more than owners with the same trucks who did not.
What are StashGrade Ops and StashGrade Launch?
They are StashGrade’s two done-for-you service lines. StashGrade Ops is a fractional technology team for fence and specialty contractors: assessment, vendor-neutral software selection, systems architecture, implementation, workflow automation, training, and the bookkeeping, monthly close, and succession work underneath it. There is also a Fractional CTO retainer if you would rather have that leadership every month than buy projects one at a time. StashGrade Launch is the setup itself: installing, configuring, and validating your stack on your real jobs, with a defined finish line. Both are quoted from your own numbers rather than an hourly guess, and neither is required to use the free health score.
Is StashGrade a fractional CFO?
It does the part of a CFO’s job that is reading the numbers: what the books say, which lines make and lose money, where the business sits against healthy ranges for the trade, and what to do first. Hiring even a part-time CFO means a retainer most fence companies cannot justify. StashGrade is free to start and $199 a month for the full picture. Where you want human judgment on top, that is Tony; where you want the work done for you, that is StashGrade Ops and Launch.
What is a financial health score?
It is your books turned into one number out of 100 and a letter grade, built from five pillars: profitability, cost discipline, cash and break-even, growth and forecast, and operations. Each underlying number is scored against the range a healthy fence company should sit in, so the grade says how your business compares to a well-run one in your own trade.
Is the health score really free?
Yes. The score, a margin snapshot, an AI forecast, and one unlocked savings finding are on the free plan, with no card required. Paid plans add continuous monitoring, full margin history, benchmark bands on the score, and the full action list.
What do I have to connect, and how long does it take?
Connect QuickBooks Online read-only, or upload a CSV or a QBO export if you would rather not connect anything. The first insight comes back in minutes, and you can disconnect at any time. StashGrade never moves money and never writes to your books.
My books are a mess. Will this even work?
That is the normal case. StashGrade reads what is there and extrapolates the parts your chart of accounts does not separate, which is how it can show margin by fence type when everything lands in one revenue account. A number that is genuinely missing drops out of the score rather than counting against you.
What happens after I get my score?
That is your call. The score is useful on its own and nothing follows automatically. If you want help acting on it, Thornton Fence Consulting Group builds the plan, StashGrade Ops and StashGrade Launch do the work the plan calls for, and the score measures whether it worked. Most consulting stops at the plan. This partnership exists so it does not have to.
Who is Tony Thornton?
Tony Thornton is a fence industry consultant with more than 50 years in the trade. He is a member of the American Fence Association Hall of Fame, the author of The 7 Strategies for the Professional Fence Contractor, and the founder of Thornton Fence Consulting Group, which consults with fence companies on operations, sales, pricing, and profitability.
How are Tony Thornton and StashGrade connected?
Thornton Fence Consulting Group and StashGrade are business partners who sell an end-to-end offering together: TFCG determines what should be done, StashGrade Ops and Launch do the work, and the score shows whether it worked. Four of Tony’s frameworks are loaded into the expert knowledge behind the report, the fencing benchmark bands the score grades against were built from his framework, and we publish and present together.
Does StashGrade give financial advice?
No. StashGrade describes what your books show and what the numbers imply. It does not give financial, tax, or legal advice. For hands-on help acting on what the report finds, that is what Tony and the StashGrade Ops and Launch teams are for.
Thornton Fence Consulting Group and StashGrade are partners. We built this offering together and we are accountable for it together: the advice, the work that follows it, and the numbers that show whether it worked.
+StashGradeFind out where you stand
Connect QuickBooks, upload a CSV, or drop in a QBO export. Your score, your five pillars, and the one move that raises it most come back in minutes. Free, read-only, disconnect anytime.
Thornton Fence Consulting Group · StashGrade