Best Accounting Software for Construction (2023)

Best Overall - A-Systems JobView ★★★★★

A-Systems is the most experienced in the industry—by far. They've been serving contractors longer than anyone else, because they were founded clear back in 1978. They've had a singular focus that entire time: accounting software for contractors. Naturally, they're really good at it.

A-Systems JobView is a fully-integrated accounting package that specializes in job costing. It doesn't try to be a little bit of everything. There's no estimating, project management, or service dispatch. Instead, it focuses whole-heartedly on accounting. If you need to keep better track of your jobs, this is how you get it done.

Usability

A-Systems has a very usable product. Because they've been around for so long, they've had a lot of time to gather feedback from users. Over their many years, they've implemented new features and upgrades based on their users' wants and requests. This has led to a streamlined and highly functional software package.

New updates are released quarterly, so you're always up and running with the best features available.

User Feedback

• 👍🏼 Easy to Learn
• 👍🏼 Great Tech Support
• 👍🏼 Wonderful Job Cost Reports
• 👍🏼 Good Price
• 👎🏼 Doesn't have estimating

Job Costing

Job costing is what sets construction software apart from regular accounting, and A-Systems excels at job costing. You can get all the data you need about a job. You can see an estimate of the cost to complete the job, see where you're over/under budget, and check on your profitability. You can see an individual job, or combine them to see how you're doing overall. It gives you excellent insights into the health of your business.

Deployment Options

You can get A-Systems JobView as a desktop software, or you can run it from the cloud. They even let you buy it as a desktop package, and then move it to the cloud later if you change your mind.

Implementation

Getting set up with A-Systems is a snap—especially if you're moving from QuickBooks. They are willing to walk you through the process and make it as stress-free as possible. Some companies take weeks for setup, but A-Systems can get you up and running in a matter of days. If you need some help, you can have them import the data for you.

One major highlight of A-Systems is the training. The average training time is quite short, meaning it's easy to understand and learn. Likewise, the cost is much less here than with the competitors.

Support

Tech support at A-Systems is top notch. They understand exactly what you need, and they're right here in the US.

If you ever need help using some of the advanced features, or you want a quick training course for a new employee, training videos are available for free on their website. You can check them out here: A-Systems Training Vids.

The Bottom Line

A-Systems JobView focuses on accounting and job costing, and does an excellent job of it. It is purpose built to help you track your profitability in detail. We recommend you give it a look.

Best Project Management - Acumatica

If you run a larger company and you're looking for more than just accounting, Acumatica offers project management that's integrated with accounting.

Acumatica is a great tool for management. It goes beyond just reporting on financials and helps you manage potential clients, current projects, contracts, budgeting, scheduling, change orders, and more.

The software is cloud-based, making it easy to access from anywhere. This is invaluable for getting up-to-date information as it becomes available, because it can be uploaded or updated from the field.

All Your Info, Integrated

Acumatica links information together, making it easy to get what you need when you need it. For example, when looking at your contracts, you can also view all the change orders associated with that job.

Field Reports

Because you have access to the program from the field, project managers can upload daily updates. These reports include issues/changes, visitors to the job site, and weather updates. This allows teams to collaborate more frequently, and with more accuracy.

Project Overview

There are various dashboards available throughout the software, based on your role at the company. The project overview screen allows you to see all the key information you need to quickly assess your progress. It shows basic financials, like profit, percentage remaining on each job (estimated), and charts of expenses. One handy feature is the ability to embed a webpage right in the dashboard. This allows you to plug in a live camera stream of the job site, so you can keep an eye on progress. For managers, you can view a change order log, as well as contract revisions.

For specific information about a particular job, you can click on the job and see a treasure-trove of useful info. You can see items awaiting approval, project issues, and field reports.

For the financial roles, like a controller, they have their own dashboard. It lists cash data, overdue balances, payment holds, and credit holds.

The Bottom Line

Acumatica strives to be an all-in-one project management program. It encompasses field reports, change orders, RFIs, job costing, financials, and more. It is a cloud-based program, making it easier to sync data from multiple locations. That being said, the bigger and more involved a program is, the more opportunities for bugs to creep up. The large system size also makes navigation and learning curve an obstacle for some users. For pricing, a large system usually means a large price. Acumatica prices can be steep if you need a lot of features. However, if you only need parts of the system, you only pay for what you use.

Best for Cloud - Buildertrend

Buildertrend is built in the cloud, making it easy to access from the device of your choice. It has everything from financial tools to project management.

Bidding

You can create and manage bids right in the software. This is handy, because it gives you a central location for storage, ensuring everyone is looking at the most recent information. You can compare old bids to make sure you're on track, as well as email bids out to your subcontractors.

When a bid has been accepted, you can move that information over into a contract. This speeds up the whole bidding process from beginning to end.

Built-In Estimating

Now you can build an estimate from within the software suite. Store your database of costs with detailed information, and quickly put together an estimate. Emailing the estimate and gathering digital signatures is a snap. Having this data stored online makes it quicker to put together a professional, detailed estimate, and then send it off to the client.

Once a contract is agreed upon, you can use line items from your estimate to create invoices for the client. Not only can you send out an invoice to the client, but you can accept payments from the app as well. It can handle credit cards and even checks. It's a holistic solution to construction management.

Keep an Eye On Your Budget

Because costs can be tracked in real-time, it's easier to keep an eye on your budget. See a comparison of your estimated costs vs actual costs. Get a progress report to assess your profit margins.

Purchase Orders

Communication between parties is hugely important in construction. Subcontractors are invaluable, and the better you can streamline your conversations with them, the smoother the project will go. Buildertrend gives you a really easy to use PO interface. Your subcontractors can approve payment terms and expected work. They can keep track of PO status online.

Bottom Line

Buildertrend has many features integrated into it, like budgeting, estimating, project reporting, and more. Being on the cloud makes the software that much more convenient. The major drawback is that it might not be considered a true accounting software. It handles finances in many convenient ways, but in order to get a lot of that data, you must integrate with a traditional accounting software that handles the day to day expenses/income.

Best for Service - ServiceTitan

ServiceTitan is built for service technicians of all types. It manages operations and helps gather accounting data. It works alongside QuickBooks by gathering transaction data.

Booking

Input information while talking to new customers, and then easily schedule service calls. The simple interface allows customer service reps to gather the important details so technicians will be prepped with all the right info. If anything important was missed during the call, you can playback a recording, which is saved with the customer data.

Now you can automatically track sales analytics like booking rate, revenue, and trends.

Campaign Tracking

ServiceTitan also helps your marketing efforts. You can input advertising campaigns, and then track the results as calls roll in. This helps you calculate your ROI and make sure you're spending your advertising dollars efficiently. See which locations are best responding to your marketing efforts and track incoming calls with custom phone numbers.

Dispatching

Assign technicians to a job and stay in communication throughout the job. Messages can be sent from the software and received by employees. This is especially helpful for schedule changes or specific instructions about a property.

Schedules can be automatically confirmed through text message. This helps you avoid canceled appointments and gives the customer a reminder to be available.

See everything there is to see for a job, including who is on which job.

Accounting

ServiceTitan isn't strictly an accounting software in and of itself. However, it gathers important data about your daily transactions. That data can be exported to QuickBooks.

Transaction data is organized by each project, allowing you to see job costing data and measure profitability.

Bottom Line

ServiceTitan is everything a service company needs. It's got A through Z, from call booking to profitability reporting. They also have a few add-on features that are optional. If you're in need of a service solution, give ServiceTitan a look.

Best for Landscaping - Yardbook

Yardbook is well-suited for the lawn care & landscaping business. It's best for small businesses, which includes most landscapers. Not only does it cover invoicing and payments, it covers a number of other management tools.

Yardbook is cloud based. It also accepts credit card payments, making this a great solution for the field.

It can handle day to day employee management quite comfortably. It tracks timesheets and job scheduling, which can be access by each employee. It includes routing and GPS tracking. It even helps you track equipment, which is a crucial part of a yard care business.

It strives to be an all-in-one business management tool. One way it does this is by tracking sales. You can keep a detailed record of leads and clients, as well as generate estimates. These estimates can be used later on for invoicing purposes. This is a breeze because you can text message and email your clients right from the software.

All in all, Yardbook is a well-rounded program that would be a helpful companion for a small landscaping company. Many users have commented on the ease of use, as well as its comprehensive set of features. Users have also reported a good experience with tech support, which is invaluable in a software company.