For a long time, construction industries have been reluctant to embrace new technology. But today, they are beginning to recognize the benefits that advanced accounting and job-costing software can bring. The right software will provide greater visibility into financials and make it easier to track jobs and cost estimates in real time. When considering an advanced accounting and job costing solution, look for one tailored to meet your business’s unique needs.

If you are looking forward to purchasing accounting and job costing software for your construction firm, this article will guide you through some of the best ones to help you make an informed decision. Read on!

Understanding Construction Accounting

This is a unique field of accounting, as it requires specialized knowledge regarding construction contracts, estimates, and costs. Construction accounting software helps companies manage their finances by providing visibility into key financials such as tracking the cost of a particular project, budgeting, cash flow management, accounts receivable/payable, invoicing, and payroll. Accounting apps and software come with all these features and a few more to match the specific needs of construction businesses.

Job Costing Software

Whereas most companies rely on tracking general expenses, construction businesses need to track per-job costs. Job costing software helps contractors identify and monitor cost overruns on a job-by-job basis. A sound job costing system will provide detailed reports of overhead expenses, labour hours, materials costs, and other relevant data for each project. With real-time tracking, you can make effective decisions quickly and easily.

Here is a list of advanced accounting and job costing software:

FreshBooks

This is a cloud-based accounting software with job costing capabilities. Freshbooks gives construction companies a comprehensive view of their finances and job performance. This platform comes with collaboration tools that enable you to share documents, assign tasks and track progress. Contractors find the client portal particularly useful as it helps them easily present estimates and invoices while receiving payments through different methods. Additionally, this construction accounting software automates time tracking, invoicing, payments, and other related activities. You can also track expenses associated with each project for better visibility into your costs.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is one of the popular accounting and job costing software that allows construction businesses to manage their finances, plan jobs, track expenses, and handle payroll. This platform also helps you do budgeting and invoicing, generate reports and monitor the progress of each project easily. This tool allows users to generate a detailed job costing reports that help them track expenses in real-time and closely monitor their budget. It also provides extra features like time tracking to ensure you optimize your resources efficiently.

Sage 300 Construction And Real Estate

With this tool, you can easily manage your project costs, labour hours, subcontractor expenses, and other related responsibilities. This comprehensive construction accounting software provides data so contractors can make decisions quickly and easily. Moreover, it is equipped with features like project budgeting, cash flow management, and job costing, which helps you manage your business smoothly without any hassles. You can also set up alerts so that you can be notified when a job has not been billed, and profits are made, or any other event that impacts your job costs.

Versapay

Versapay is the leader in Collaborative Accounts Receivable. Versapay’s cloud-based AR automation software empowers construction companies’ accounts receivable teams to collect payments faster while improving the customer experience through collaborative technology and an extensive B2B payment network. Features include automated invoicing, cash application, and collections, as well as automated late payment reminders. Versapay’s AR automation software also allows construction companies to have complete visibility of their customer’s account history, invoices, and payments.

Tradify

Tradify is an accounting and job costing software that provides businesses with the necessary tools to manage their finances and tasks. This software solution helps contractors track time, labour costs, invoices, materials expenses, the overhead cost associated with a project, and other related expenses. It also generates detailed reports so that you can easily monitor your job performance. With this tool, you can easily pay your subcontractors, track progress, and budget jobs. You don’t have to worry about any data inconsistency, as Tradify automatically synchronizes your data so that you can access it from anywhere.

Fizure

This is a very simple yet powerful solution for construction businesses that need to manage their finances and jobs. This software helps contractors with job costing, purchase order management, accounts receivable/payable, cost profitability and forecasting, and automate subcontractor progress reports. Fizure integrates with popular accounting software such as QuickBooks, Sage, and Xero to help you manage your finances efficiently.

A-systems

A-systems is one of the best accounting software for construction. It gives project managers peace of mind with detailed job costing reporting, time tracking, budgeting, and invoicing features. It also helps you monitor the progress of multiple jobs at once with the help of cost variability reporting. Using this tool, contractors can easily pay their subcontractors directly from the software or through A-systems’ integrated payment system. Job costing being the heart of A-systems, it tracks each job’s profitability so that you can easily manage cost overruns.

Buildsmart

This excellent accounting software helps contractors manage their finances and jobs easily. It enables you to easily track job expenses, monitor budgets, generate invoices automatically, and handle payroll processes. Buildsmart allows subcontractors to submit and pay invoices electronically through this platform. It also provides detailed job costing reports that provide accurate insights into your project’s financial health. What sets Buildsmart apart from other accounting software is its integration with various cost-estimating tools so that you can easily budget each job accurately. Its key features include; inventory tracking, job-costing, reporting, work-in-progress (WIP) ledger, bank reconciliation, scheduling, and notification/alerts.

Premier

Premier is an authentic cloud-based construction software that helps you manage your finances, cash flow, and job costing. This comprehensive tool offers many features like bill payment automation, invoicing, project tracking and reporting, budgeting and forecasting. The best part about this tool is its ability to integrate with other industry-standard accounting software such as QuickBooks Enterprise or Quicken. Premier’s accounting module allows you to generate job costing reports that provide accurate details about each phase of the project. It also helps you manage your cash flow with its ability to schedule payments and forecast spending.

Jonas Enterprise

Jonas Enterprise is an integrated solution that has been in the construction industry for a long time. It offers a fully integrated set of tools that help you track labour and material costs associated with each project phase. The software manages job costs and calculates the profitability of each job. Its powerful reporting module helps you generate detailed reports that help you monitor your project’s performance. Its executive dashboard feature provides you with a real-time view of your project’s financial trends, helping you make informed decisions. Jonas enterprise also integrates with major accounting software like Sage and Xero for better financial management.

Workflow Max

This is a widely used software platform in the construction industry. It provides an automated, cloud-based solution that helps you track job costs and manage invoices. It also records all your expenses, from material to labour costs associated with each project phase. Workflow Max simplifies the budgetary process by allowing contractors to save time and money. It automatically calculates estimated costs for each job, generates cost reports, tracks progress, and provides detailed insights into the profits or losses of the project. In addition to its job costing feature, workflow max integrates with multiple accounting software like QuickBooks, Sage, and HubSpot to help you manage your finances efficiently.

eShipper

Eshipper is a shipping and fulfilment platform that helps businesses to streamline their shipping operations. It offers a range of services, such as order fulfilment, shipping rate comparisons, automated shipping label generation, and shipment tracking. Eshipper provides businesses access to discounted shipping rates from major carriers and allows them to manage their shipping and tracking in one place. It also provides custom packaging, branding solutions, and logistics support for international shipping.

Now that you are familiar with some of the best accounting and job costing software for construction, here is a simple guide on what you should look for when purchasing these software programs;

• Tracks expenses: ensure that the software you select can track costs associated with each job.
• Cost overrun analysis: having a tool that can provide accurate insights into cost overruns can help you better manage job costs.
• Assign jobs to specific employees: for your construction firm, assigning job-specific tasks to employees can help in scheduling and tracking progress and save costs and time.
• Accurate reporting: accurate reports equals accurate insights and informed decision-making. Look for software that can provide detailed reports to understand job performance better.
• Integration with accounting software: ensure that the software you purchase can integrate with your existing accounting system so that all financial data is accurately reflected in the reports.
• Job costing: above all, you need a tool that can accurately monitor job costs. Look for software that provides features like cost-estimating, budgeting, and forecasting to help you get the most out of your accounting system.

Final Thoughts

The right accounting and job costing software can help your construction business streamline operations and save time. The above-mentioned software programs all provide excellent features to help you manage job costs, generate detailed reports, and integrate with major accounting software. However, it is important to carefully review the parts before selecting your preferred software. Keep the few tips mentioned above in mind, and you’ll be sure to find the right accounting and job-costing software for your business. Good luck!