Finding software can be overwhelming. We've helped hundreds of construction firms choose the right accounting software so they can track job costs by job and manage payroll for workers.
Showing 1-20 of 56 products
Acumatica Construction Edition is true cloud construction and accounting software that provides office and field teams real-time data including job costing, change orders, project management, dashboards and more. With field and office... Read more

ComputerEase FrontRunners 2020
Deltek, together with ComputerEase, provides cutting edge, integrated construction accounting and project management software. This innovative, user-friendly product not only improves the way contractors run their business, but it... Read more

Spectrum FrontRunners 2020
Spectrum (formerly Dexter + Cheney) is a cloud-based construction ERP solution for small, midsize and large enterprises. Primary features include accounting, document management, job cost, project management, equipment management,... Read more

Jonas Enterprise FrontRunners 2020
Jonas EnterpriseFrontRunners 2020
Jonas Enterprise is an intuitive, integrated solution for contractors that has been present in construction and service management for over 25 years. The application offers service, accounting, and operations project management capabilities... Read more

CMiC FrontRunners 2020
For over 30 years, CMiC has delivered state-of-the-art software solutions, purpose-built for the construction industry. Since its inception, CMiC has maintained a laser focus on automating essential back-office functions – such as... Read more

FOUNDATION Construction Accounting FrontRunners 2020
FOUNDATION Construction AccountingFrontRunners 2020
FOUNDATION is a job cost accounting, project management and scheduling solution available as traditional installed software or on the cloud. Plus, fully integrated apps like FOUNDATION mobile and Service Dispatch mobile sync remotely... Read more

Premier Construction FrontRunners 2020
Premier ConstructionFrontRunners 2020
Premier Construction Software is a true cloud, all in one accounting, job cost, project, document and drawing management solution, specifically designed to meet the needs of General Contractors, Land Developers, and Homebuilders. The... Read more
Eclipse by Explorer is a cloud-based construction accounting and project management solution designed for contractor businesses. It caters to medium to large construction companies belonging to different construction businesses, such... Read more
Maestro Technologies has been delivering information management solutions to the Canadian construction industry for over 30 years. Made in Canada with over 10,000 users across the country, maestro ERP is a complete bid-to-bill solution... Read more
Budgetrac Real Estate Development Accounting
Budgetrac is a cloud-based, comprehensive construction and real estate development solution specifically for real estate developers. Budgetrac is designed for small- to large-scale development projects and portfolios. Key features... Read more
Job Accounting Plus is a single-entry construction job cost software and accounting solution which helps in job costing, billing, bookkeeping and financial reporting for home builders and contractors. It can be purchased as a stand-alone... Read more
JOBPOWER is an integrated construction accounting management system. JOBPOWER includes accounting, detailed job costing, construction oriented billing, payroll by job, and many additional features designed for contractors. JOBPOWER... Read more
COINS develops, implements and supports enterprise resource planning software for the construction industry. It offers a full suite of accounting, job cost, human capital management and service management modules in a cloud-based system.... Read more

Vertical Market Software FrontRunners 2020
Vertical Market SoftwareFrontRunners 2020
Ventus is a service and construction ERP solution that incorporates CRM, takeoff estimating, job costing, project management, service management, service dispatch, product distribution, inventory control, payroll and accounting in... Read more

Sage 100 Contractor (formerly Sage Master Builder) FrontRunners 2020
Sage 100 Contractor (formerly Sage Master Builder)FrontRunners 2020
Sage 100 Contractor, formerly known as Sage Master Builder, focuses on the needs of small to midsize construction companies, including general contractors, service or specialty contractors, and home builders. A great fit for construction... Read more
Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate (formerly Sage Timberline Office)
Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate, formerly Sage Timberline Office, provides contractors, developers, and property managers with the most complete solution for managing the entire project or property lifecycle with confidence,... Read more
eCMS offers a comprehensive suite of software applications that help commercial contractors manage all aspects of their financials and operations. eCMS is specifically built for the construction industry delivering users business... Read more

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise FrontRunners 2020
QuickBooks Desktop EnterpriseFrontRunners 2020
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is an accounting solution designed for SMBs across different industry verticals such as construction, nonprofit distribution, manufacturing, and retail. WIth QB Desktop Enterprise solution, any business... Read more

FreshBooks FrontRunners 2020
FreshBooks is a web-based accounting solution that caters to small businesses. FreshBooks serves various industries, such as marketing, legal services and business consulting, trades and home services and information technology (IT). Key... Read more

Xero FrontRunners 2020
Established in 2006, Xero is a web-based accounting system designed for small and growing businesses. Xero connects small businesses with their trusted advisors and provides business owners with instant visibility of their financial... Read more
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2021 Construction Accounting Software Pricing Guide
Learn about the key aspects of accurate software pricing before you make your purchase decision.
Includes:
Pricing models & ranges
Unexpected costs
Pricing of popular systems
Construction accounting is unique. Contractors need to track detailed costs by job and manage complex payrolls, among other things. In response to these requirements, roughly 100 applications vendors exist to serve the market. These range from low-end solutions for small companies to large enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. There are also unique vendors for different trades and divisions—general contractors, heavy/civil, MEP etc. We wrote this guide to help make sense of this complicated marketplace.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What Is Construction Accounting Software?
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Benefits and Potential Issues
Market Trends to Understand
What Is Construction Accounting Software?
Construction accounting software offers sophisticated functionality for job costing, complex payroll processing, equipment management, subcontracting and other financial management processes. Systems are typically designed around a job costing module, which allows accounting staff to allocate job costs by job and CSI code. This capability is the core difference between construction accounting systems and the generic accounting systems that are more popular in other industries.
Many contractors may start their business with generic construction bookkeeping software, such as Quickbooks or Peachtree, but they will upgrade to an construction-specific system once they reach a certain level of sophistication—typically when they exceed about $3 million in revenue or more than five concurrent projects of meaningful size.
The core of any top-rated accounting system includes: job costing, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, purchase orders, payroll management and financial reporting. Other common add-on modules include:
- Fixed asset accounting
- Equipment tracking
- Inventory management
- Contract management
- Time tracking
Accounting software for a construction company will also support the industry's primary billing formats: time & materials, AIA, progress or percent completion, cost plus and retention. When accounting is implemented as part of a broader suite of applications, the system will often be integrated with service management, project management, project scheduling, document management, cost estimating, fixed asset accounting, equipment tracking, inventory management and time tracking.
What Type of Buyer Are You?
To sort through the 100 or so systems out there and start your comparison, it helps to identify yourself with one of the specific types of buyers we see in the market:
Upgrading from Quickbooks. A majority of the buyers we speak to are small contractors evaluating construction-specific systems for the first time. They are currently using Quickbooks, Peachtree or another entry-level package. However, they are growing and need more sophisticated job costing and payroll management functionality. There are excellent mid-range solutions for this type of buyer. The most important thing for these buyers is that they find an affordable construction accounting software package price.
Large construction enterprise. Large firms tend to have multiple corporate entities and need to consolidate their financials. They also tend to have different units performing different types of work (e.g. GC, MEP, Civil—all under one parent firm). Finally, they have many users and many different types of users. Generally, these firms are seeking to modernize by replacing aging legacy systems.
Service contractor. Service contractors typically seek systems that combine accounting and field service management. So, in addition to core accounting, they require service dispatch, scheduling, service contract management and spare parts inventory management. These contractors also self-perform work, so they have specific labor-related needs. A well-established set of vendors offer financial software for contractors.
Heavy/civil contractor. Heavy/civil contractors also have very unique requirements. They perform unit billing, and need a system designed to bill this way. They also have substantial requirements around equipment management, fixed asset accounting, materials management and dispatching and tracking work crews. A specialized set of vendors serve this market well.
Benefits and Potential Issues
Construction accounting systems provide great benefit, if implemented and adopted correctly. These benefits include:
Improved visibility. Modern systems will provide better insight into the profitability of individual jobs, and the company as a whole. This results from more accurate collection of data—fewer errors—as well as better reporting tools to explore the data in the system. Job costing alone will provide a tremendous improvement in reporting relative to generic accounting systems.
Better estimates. By gaining a better handle on job costs across projects, the firm will be better informed when developing estimates in the future. Job cost reports from historical jobs will help identify material and labor cost trends, unanticipated costs and areas where jobs tend to go over budget. All this leads to greater cost control. Estimators can incorporate these factors into their bids going forward.
Fewer errors and less double entry of data. When contractors have inadequate systems in place, they typically resort to creating a range of spreadsheets to track job costs and other information not handled by the accounting system. This results in double entry of data, errors in the spreadsheets and lost information. When all of this information is handled in a single accounting and job costing system, there is a substantial reduction in errors.
The primary issues that tend to surface with new construction accounting software result from poor selection and implementation processes. Many buyers see technology as a quick fix to their challenges. In reality, even the best accounting package for construction industry is not a panacea. Only a combination of the right solution, a well-executed implementation and adoption process will fix their problems.
When selecting a new system, contractors need to reconsider their business process first, and then find the application provider that will most closely map to those processes or automate a new, more effective set of processes. They also need to get a wide set of users involved in the selection process so that each user feels invested in the new program and will adopt it when it goes live. Finally, contractors need to invest in proper training so that new users get up to speed on the system quickly and realize early benefits from the new system.
Market Trends to Understand
These market trends should be considered when evaluating a new accounting and job costing system.
Technology modernization. When we talk to buyers who are upgrading from an existing system, they typically tell us that legacy technology is at the root of their challenges. Systems built on proprietary databases or outdated programming languages often fail to meet firms’ needs for data export, integration and reporting. This tends to be a bigger challenge for large contractors, but all buyers should consider the platform technology of each product.
Business intelligence. Construction accounting systems have evolved from simply recording transactions to providing key insight into the performance of the firm, project by project. Business intelligence refers to the more sophisticated analytics available in leading systems. Users should be able to run ad hoc reports and slice and dice data from the system to answer critical questions about the business.
Increasing suite breadth. The term “construction accounting software” understates the breadth of functionality offered by most systems today. Leading systems offer project management, project scheduling, estimating, bid management and service management. Vendors continue to expand the breadth of their system through development and acquisition. Buyers should weight integrated suites versus best-of-breed applications.
Note that we do not mention software as a service (SaaS) as a trend in this market. While we are proponents of the SaaS model, we have not seen credible SaaS accounting software for construction business applications yet. We believe that the SaaS model will eventually make its way into construction accounting, but for now that is not the case.
Your Guide to Top Construction Accounting Software, July 2020
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