ERP FOR SMALL CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTORS.
ERP sounds like something for large contractors with IT departments. For a commercial subcontractor at $1M to $12M, the functions that count inside an ERP are job costing, financial management, and project tracking, and you don't need a $500K implementation to get them. The right question isn't which software you want. It's which financial management functions are failing you right now.
Three functions have to work and everything else is negotiable. Job costing tied to estimate line items, so comparing actual cost against estimated cost is automatic rather than a monthly spreadsheet exercise. WIP reporting that reconciles to the balance sheet, so percentage of completion revenue recognition comes out right. And integrated AP and AR with a pay app billing workflow, so cash flow visibility is current instead of rebuilt from scratch every month. A platform that does those three well at your scale beats one that does forty things at somebody else's scale.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A construction ERP is one system carrying job costing, financial management, and project tracking together, rather than leaving those three jobs in separate tools that don't talk to each other.
The two failure modes point in opposite directions and cost about the same. Overbuying puts an enterprise platform in a $3M business, where it gets half configured and half used and nobody wants to be the one who says so. Underbuying keeps a $9M business on small business accounting software years past the point where it works, patched together with spreadsheets that only one person understands.
FIVE TOOLS, NO SINGLE PICTURE.
You're managing with disconnected systems
Estimating lives in one spreadsheet, job costing in another, invoicing in QuickBooks, AR in a third spreadsheet, and pay apps get printed off a template. None of those systems talk to each other, so the same data gets re-entered several times and the errors compound as they travel. Nobody has one accurate picture of where any job stands financially, and that's what the arrangement really costs you.
Enterprise ERP is designed for companies ten times your size
Viewpoint, CMiC, and Oracle Construction all require dedicated IT support, long implementations, and ongoing licensing fees that make sense at $50M and up. Buying enterprise ERP at $3M is like buying a highway truck to haul a pickup load: the capability is there, but the overhead of running it's out of proportion to the benefit. You end up paying for capacity you never use and staffing a system nobody asked for.
You don't know what level of system you need
Most subcontractors shopping for construction software can't say clearly what problem they're trying to solve. The result is either overbuying, meaning enterprise ERP that sits half used, or underbuying, meaning staying on QuickBooks years past the point where it stopped working. The right question isn't which software you want. It's which financial management functions are failing you today.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
That's the mismatch in one line. Enterprise platforms carry implementation costs and licensing fees that make sense above $50M in revenue and nothing like sense at $3M. A subcontractor at $3M who buys a $500K implementation has bought capability plus an overhead load out of proportion to the benefit, and the overhead load doesn't go away after year one.
THREE FUNCTIONS THAT HAVE TO WORK.
Job costing aligned to estimate line items, so comparing actual cost against estimated cost is automatic rather than a monthly spreadsheet exercise. WIP reporting that reconciles to the balance sheet, so percentage of completion revenue recognition is correct. And integrated AP and AR management with a pay app billing workflow, so cash flow visibility is current instead of rebuilt every month. ControlQore delivers all three at the $1M to $12M scale.
ControlQore is purpose-built for commercial subcontractors rather than adapted from small business accounting software. It produces a WIP schedule natively and reconciles it to the balance sheet, maps job costing to estimate line items from the first day of the job, carries percentage of completion revenue recognition, tracks pay app billing alongside AR management, and runs AI-infused reporting on top of all of it. Those capabilities need workarounds and bolt-on integrations in QuickBooks, and they're native here.
The reason most small subcontractors stay on the wrong software is the implementation burden, which costs far more than the license. SPM removes that: we configure ControlQore during the 60 day onboarding, map your job costing to your estimate structure, train your people, and maintain the system afterward. You get construction-grade financial management without running a software project on the side of your day job.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing, no payroll, and no add-ons.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the job costing.
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