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Accounting

QuickBooks for Contractors

Industry-standard small business accounting with contractor-specific features for job costing and payroll.

major★★★★½4.5(5,000)G2★★★★½4.5(5,000)CapterraPlumbingElectricalHVACRoofingTradeAtlas verified· Jul 2026

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Use Cases Pricing Capability Matrix Strengths Best Fit Training & Certification Alternatives to Consider

Product Tour

Use Cases

Contractor bookkeeping
Job costing
Payroll processing

Pricing

Starting at

$38/mo

Transparency

Pricing published

Contract

Month-to-month

QuickBooks Online

Cloud accounting platform

Capability Matrix

Feature	Status	Depth
Invoicing	Yes	Advanced
Payment Processing	Yes	Advanced
Job Costing	Yes	Standard
Payroll	Yes	Advanced
Reporting Dashboard	Yes	Standard
Time Tracking	Yes	Basic
API Access	Yes	Advanced
QuickBooks Sync	Yes	Advanced
Estimating	Partial	Basic
CRM / Customer Management	Partial	Basic

Strengths

Ubiquitous integration point
Easy to learn
Large accountant ecosystem

Best Fit

Any contractor needing reliable accounting with wide integration support

Typical clientssolo operators up to mid-size shops (21–100)

Platform weightHeavyweight — deep feature set, industry-standard footprint

Cost signalFrom $38/mo published

Sized and priced for small operations — large shops may outgrow it.

SoloSmall teamsMid-sizeBuilt for the trades

Training & Certification

QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisorFree

Free certification through ProAdvisor Academy with annual recertification. The most mature team-training tooling of any platform reviewed: firm owners assign coursework, send reminders, and track per-employee progress and expirations in the Training Manager dashboard.

Expires: annual recertification requiredGo to program ↗

QuickBooks Mastery Path

Learn to manage the financial operations of a trade contracting business in QuickBooks Online, from chart of accounts setup through job costing, payroll, and tax-ready reporting. Covers the workflows that matter most for contractors: WIP, change orders, and subcontractor payments.

trade contractor owner or office admin · 8–12 hours · TradeAtlas learning path →

See all platforms: Software certifications for the trades

Alternatives to Consider

Sage 100 Contractor

Sage 100 Contractor is a construction-specific accounting and project management platform built for small to mid-size specialty contractors and general contractors. Originally developed as Master Builder Software (founded ~1980 by Dan Smith), acquired by Intuit in 2001, then by Sage Software in 2006, and rebranded Sage 100 Contractor. The platform integrates job cost accounting, construction payroll (including union and certified payroll), estimating, project management, service dispatch, scheduling, and document control in a single system. It supports both on-premise and cloud-hosted deployment and is used by approximately 18,000+ contractor businesses across the US.

★★★½☆3.8G2★★★★☆4.0Capterra

Per UserQuote only

Small–LargeiOS