A GENERAL LEDGER IS NOT A JOB COST SYSTEM.
QuickBooks is general ledger accounting, and it does that job well for millions of businesses, contractors included. It isn't built to produce a WIP schedule, cost to complete by phase against an estimate, or a 13 week cash flow forecast. ControlQore is the job costing and WIP system that goes on top.
Rather talk it through first? Book a 20 minute call. Nothing gets sold on this call.
Want it set up for you? Onboarding only, from $4,500 one time. Books migrated and job costing built, then your own team keeps it up.
Contractors ask this as if it were a replacement decision. For most companies it isn't one. A general ledger has to exist. It has to reconcile to the bank and produce the numbers a return is filed from. The question is what goes above it. Construction needs costs you can read by job and by phase against an estimate that used different categories. It needs revenue on percentage of completion, retention tracked separately, and a cost to complete that somebody reviews monthly. Contractors usually try to get there with classes, projects and a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is where it breaks, because one person keeps it and nobody else can see it.
WHAT EACH ONE DOES.
| Capability | QuickBooks | ControlQore |
|---|---|---|
| General ledger and bank reconciliation | Yes, this is what it's for | No, it works with your ledger |
| Costs readable by job and by phase | Partially, through classes or projects | Yes, structured from your estimating assemblies |
| Budget versus actual on the same line items | Requires the estimate to be re-entered in its categories | Yes, one structure for both |
| WIP schedule | Not produced natively | Yes, monthly |
| Cost to complete by line item | Usually maintained in a spreadsheet | Yes, inside the system |
| Retention tracked as a collectible asset | Recorded as a receivable | Scheduled by job with the closeout documents required |
| Wage classification held against the cost code | No | Yes, so certified payroll and job cost agree |
| Who maintains it | Your bookkeeper | We set it up and manage it |
| Replaces the other | No | No |
These are two parts of one setup. You use both. Everything above the general ledger line is what most contractors do in a spreadsheet today.
WHEN YOU NEED THE GENERAL LEDGER.
General ledger accounting isn't optional, and QuickBooks is a reasonable choice for it. Transactions, bank reconciliation, accounts payable and receivable, and the record a tax return is built from all have to be kept somewhere. For a contractor under $12M that's usually QuickBooks, because the bookkeeper and the CPA both already know it.
The limit comes from how it's built. It's general purpose software, made for businesses that don't bill on a schedule of values, hold retention, or recognize revenue on percentage of completion. Contractors get partway there with classes or projects. The part that doesn't fit ends up in a spreadsheet.
WHEN YOU NEED JOB COSTING AND WIP.
ControlQore answers the operating questions. What has this job cost by phase? How does that compare to the bid? What's the cost to complete? What does WIP say about over and under billing? It holds the job cost structure built from your own estimating assemblies. Budget and actual are the same line items, so nobody translates between two systems.
It also holds things a general ledger has no reason to track. Retention by job is tracked as a collectible asset. On public work, the wage classification is kept against the cost code, so the certified report and the job cost report come from the same data. We set it up and manage it, so nobody at your company has to learn it.
WHERE WE COME OUT.
Keep the general ledger and add job costing on top. For a commercial subcontractor between $1M and $12M, the practical answer is QuickBooks or an equivalent ledger underneath and ControlQore above it for job costing and WIP. The two are set up so a cost is coded once. That's how we set up every Strategic and Platinum client. ControlQore comes with those tiers, with no separate line item.
For most contractors, ControlQore is really up against the spreadsheet that holds the cost to complete today. One person keeps it. Nobody else can read it. It stops being current the week that person is busy. That's what gets replaced.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
