WHEN QUICKBOOKS STOPS BEING ENOUGH.
QuickBooks stops being enough once job costing needs outpace what it can structure, usually somewhere between $3M and $8M in revenue, when running multiple simultaneous jobs requires real per-project cost tracking that QuickBooks wasn't built to handle at that scale.
QuickBooks is a capable general accounting tool, and plenty of small subcontractors run it well below $3M in revenue. The software isn't failing outright. What happens is that the construction specific work, job costing by cost code, WIP schedules, and retainage tracking, starts to need workarounds, and those workarounds get more fragile as the business grows. At some point, usually when several jobs are running at once with real complexity, the workarounds cost more time and carry more risk than switching would.
WHAT IT MEANS.
The point where QuickBooks stops being enough is the point where job costing by cost code, WIP schedules, and retainage tracking all need workarounds that cost more time and carry more risk than a construction specific platform would.
HOW YOU KNOW YOU ARE PAST IT.
Sign 01, job costing requires manual workarounds
If tracking cost by job means spreadsheets outside QuickBooks, or manual class tracking that doesn't scale, the software's job costing structure has been outgrown. The number still comes out. It comes out late, it comes out manually, and it comes out differently depending on who built the sheet. That's the earliest of the three signs and the easiest one to talk yourself out of.
Sign 02, WIP schedules are built manually
QuickBooks doesn't natively support percentage of completion WIP schedules well. If your WIP schedule is a manual spreadsheet reconciled against QuickBooks data every month, that's a sign of outgrown infrastructure. The monthly reconciliation is where the errors get in, and those are the errors a surety or a banker reads first.
Sign 03, multiple jobs create reporting delay
If pulling a real job cost report takes days instead of minutes because of how the data is structured, project managers stop trusting the numbers. Once they stop trusting them, they stop using them, which defeats the purpose of tracking cost at all. Reporting speed is a job costing feature, and it decides whether a PM can act in week two.
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.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
