A GENERAL LEDGER IS NOT A JOB COST SYSTEM.
QuickBooks is general ledger accounting, and it does that job well for millions of businesses including contractors. What it's not built to produce is 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 layer that sits on top.
Contractors ask this as though it were a replacement decision, and for most companies it isn't one. A general ledger has to exist, it has to reconcile to the bank, and it has to produce the numbers a return is filed from. The question is what happens above it. Construction needs costs readable by job and by phase against an estimate that used different categories, 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, and the spreadsheet is where it breaks, because it's maintained by one person 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 layers rather than two choices. Everything above the general ledger line is what most contractors are currently doing in a spreadsheet.
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 live somewhere, and for a contractor under $12M that somewhere is usually QuickBooks because the bookkeeper and the CPA both already know it.
The limit is structural rather than a shortcoming. It's general purpose software, correctly designed for businesses that don't bill on a schedule of values, hold retention, or recognise revenue on percentage of completion. Contractors get partway there with classes or projects, and the part that doesn't fit ends up in a spreadsheet.
WHEN YOU NEED JOB COSTING AND WIP.
ControlQore is the layer that answers the operating questions: what has this job cost by phase, how does that compare to what it was bid at, what's the cost to complete, and what does WIP say about over and under billing. It holds the job cost structure built from your own estimating assemblies, so budget and actual are the same line items rather than two systems somebody translates between.
It also holds the things a general ledger has no reason to model, including retention by job as a collectible asset, and on public work the wage classification 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, which means nobody at your company has to learn it.
WHERE WE COME OUT.
Keep the general ledger and add the job cost layer. For a commercial subcontractor between $1M and $12M, the practical answer is QuickBooks or an equivalent ledger underneath, ControlQore above it for job costing and WIP, and the two structured so a cost is coded once. That's how we set every client up, and ControlQore is included in the engagement rather than billed as a line item.
The real comparison for most contractors isn't ControlQore against QuickBooks. It's ControlQore against the spreadsheet that currently holds the cost to complete, which one person maintains, nobody else can read, and which stops being current the week that person is busy. That's the thing being replaced.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
