ADP RUN
Quote onlyEstablished payroll with deep compliance support
Best for: Contractors wanting established payroll with HR and compliance support
Software directory · 15 tools
📊 Accounting, Payroll & Job Costing
Accounting software tells you whether the business is working; job costing tells you which parts of it are. For most home-service companies the answer is a mainstream cloud ledger plus a clean sync from the field, so revenue and cost land on the right job without re-entry. Contractors doing larger construction work eventually need something built for the industry: retention, work-in-progress schedules, certified payroll, and committed-cost reporting that general-purpose tools do not handle.
Before you buy in this category
- Pick what your accountant already works in unless you have a strong reason not to. Migration costs real money.
- Job-level profit is the number to chase. Verify labour burden — not just wage — flows into job cost.
- If you run crews across jurisdictions, check multi-state payroll tax handling before you commit.
- Prevailing-wage or public work means certified payroll. Confirm it is supported natively.
- Weekly categorisation habit beats any feature. Software makes bookkeeping faster, not automatic.
Working with no budget? 2 tools here have a free or freemium tier: Melio, Wave.
9 tools for this job
Listed alphabetically. We do not rank — the right pick depends on your trade, your headcount, and what you already run.
FOUNDATION
$$$Construction accounting with strong union and certified payroll
Best for: Contractors with union agreements, prevailing wage work, or multi-state payroll
Invoice-first accounting for very small operations
Best for: Solo contractors and very small service businesses billing time and materials
Gusto
$Payroll and benefits that a small contractor can run alone
Best for: Small and mid-size contractors who want payroll handled without a specialist
Hourly
$Time tracking, payroll, and workers comp priced on real wages
Best for: Contractors with hourly field crews who want comp premiums to track reality
The default ledger for small contracting businesses
Best for: Almost any home-service business that wants its books where its accountant can work
Purpose-built construction accounting and job costing
Best for: Construction contractors who have outgrown QuickBooks and need real job cost accounting
Wave
Free / freemiumFree accounting and invoicing for the smallest businesses
Best for: Brand-new and part-time contractors with simple finances
Xero
$Cloud accounting with unlimited users
Best for: Contractors who want modern cloud accounting and multiple people in the books
Also covers this
Tools from other categories that do this job as part of a wider platform. Often the cheaper answer, because you are already paying for them.
Aspire
Quote onlyBusiness operating system for larger landscape companies
Best for: Landscape and snow companies above roughly $2M revenue with commercial contracts
Fergus
$Job management built around visible job profitability
Best for: Plumbing and electrical businesses that want live job margin, not month-end surprises
Knowify
$$Job costing and contract billing for specialty subcontractors
Best for: Specialty trade subcontractors doing contract work with progress billing
Melio
Free / freemiumFree bill payment with card-funded options
Best for: Contractors managing supplier and subcontractor payments who want cash timing flexibility
QuickBooks Payments
Pay per useCard and ACH acceptance that reconciles itself in QuickBooks
Best for: Any contractor already running QuickBooks who wants reconciliation to stop being a chore
Successware
Quote onlyService management with a full contractor accounting ledger inside
Best for: Established HVAC and plumbing companies that want operations and accounting in one ledger
What the price bands mean
Free / freemium
Free / freemium A usable free tier, or free with payment processing
$
$ — under ~$100/mo Solo operators and very small teams
$$
$$ — ~$100–400/mo Small teams, usually priced per user
$$$
$$$ — ~$400+/mo Multi-crew shops with office staff
Quote only
Quote only No public pricing — expect a sales call
Pay per use
Pay per use Per lead, per measurement, or per transaction
Bands are our judgement of what a small team actually ends up paying, not the headline price on a pricing page. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor.
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