Most contractors do not lose money on bad jobs – they lose it on jobs they thought were good until the numbers came in. Job costing is the fix: tracking labor, materials, subs, and overhead against each job while it is running, not three months later at tax time. Here is what actually does that in 2026, from a free spreadsheet to full platforms, with pricing from each vendor’s own page.
The short answer
- Already on QuickBooks, disciplined office: QuickBooks Online Plus project costing may be all you need.
- Contract/progress-billing work: Knowify – real-time WIP is the killer feature.
- Project-based GC/remodel: JobTread or Projul.
- Service shops: Jobber Grow.
- Not ready for software: start with our free job-costing template.
What job costing software must capture
Four cost buckets, or the report is fiction: field labor at fully-loaded rates (wages + payroll tax + comp, pulled from real clock-ins, not memory), materials (POs and supplier receipts tagged to the job), subcontractors (bills against sub budgets), and an overhead allocation so a “profitable” job is not just one that ignored the shop rent. The software question is really: where does each bucket get captured with the least friction for your crew?
QuickBooks Online Plus – job costing inside your accounting file
QuickBooks Online Plus ($115/month current list) adds project profitability tracking: tag invoices, expenses, payroll, and time to a project and get per-job P&L (source). Heads up on budget: Intuit has announced higher prices for Essentials, Plus, and Advanced at renewals on or after August 1, 2026 (source). QBO costing works if – and only if – every transaction actually gets tagged. No field app pushing labor in automatically means the office does it by hand. Our full contractor accounting guide covers the ecosystem.
Knowify – real-time WIP for contract work
Knowify Advanced ($399/month monthly billing, 10 users included; Knowify does not publish a per-additional-user rate) auto-assigns clock-ins, POs, and vendor bills – whether entered in Knowify or QuickBooks – to the right job, phase, and cost category, and shows live work-in-progress so you know if you are over- or under-billed mid-project (source). The Core tier ($149/month) handles bidding and AIA invoicing but not job costing – budget for Advanced if costing is why you are buying. Not an affiliate; it is here because nothing else in this price class does WIP as well.
JobTread – costing included at every tier
JobTread includes budgeting, job costing, POs and work orders, and change-order tracking in its single all-features plan: $199/month plus $20/user (source). Because estimates convert to budgets, your job costing starts from the numbers you sold – the discipline most shops are missing. (Not an affiliate.)
Jobber – job costing for service businesses
On Jobber, job costing arrives at the Grow tier ($199/month monthly list, 1 user) – real-time per-job profitability from tracked labor, materials, and expenses – and the Plus tier ($499/month, 5 users) automates it with labor capture and profit alerts (source). Right fit when your “jobs” are dozens of small tickets a week, where per-visit margin discipline compounds. Pairs with our work order software guide.
Projul – flat-rate costing for growing crews
Projul includes construction financials, job costing, and budgeting from its Core+ plan at $7,188/year flat – no per-user fees, geo-fenced time tracking feeding labor costs automatically (source). The flat rate matters here specifically: job costing only works if every field employee clocks in, and per-seat pricing quietly discourages adding seats. Annual billing only.
Buildertrend – costing inside a full platform
Buildertrend bundles job costing budgets, bills/POs, and estimates into its custom-quoted, unlimited-user platform (source). You will not buy it for costing alone – but if you are already evaluating it as your main platform (see JobTread vs. Buildertrend), costing is covered.
Free job costing template vs. software
If you are doing fewer than a couple of jobs a month, start with a spreadsheet and build the habit before you buy anything. We publish a free job costing template for contractors that covers the four cost buckets above. When you outgrow it – usually the day you cannot remember which receipts belong to which job – our Job-Costing Tracker ($29) adds per-phase tracking, overhead allocation, and margin alerts without a subscription. The honest sequence: template, then tracker, then software once labor capture from the field is the bottleneck.
Pricing at a glance
| Option | Price (monthly billing) | Job costing notes |
|---|---|---|
| AT Job-Costing Tracker | $29 one-time | Spreadsheet system, no subscription |
| QuickBooks Online Plus | $115/mo* | Project P&L in accounting; manual tagging |
| Knowify Advanced | $399/mo (10 users) | Auto cost assignment + live WIP |
| JobTread | $199/mo + $20/user | Included, estimate-to-budget flow |
| Jobber Grow | $199/mo (1 user) | Real-time per-job profitability |
| Projul Core+ | $7,188/yr flat | Included; no per-seat penalty on field staff |
Vendor pricing pages, July 2026, monthly no-commitment billing unless noted. *QBO Essentials/Plus/Advanced prices rise at renewals on or after Aug 1, 2026 per Intuit.
FAQ
What is the cheapest real job costing setup?
A disciplined spreadsheet (free template above) plus your existing QuickBooks file. First software step up: QBO Plus at $115/month if the office will tag transactions, or Jobber Grow / JobTread at $199/month if you need field labor captured automatically.
Why do my jobs look profitable but my bank account disagrees?
Usually one of three: labor not fully loaded (payroll tax and comp missing), overhead never allocated, or change orders performed but never billed. Software fixes the capture problem; the overhead rate you still have to set yourself.
Does job costing work with QuickBooks?
Knowify, JobTread, Jobber, Projul (Core+ up), and Buildertrend all sync job-cost data with QuickBooks Online per their published feature lists – see also our field service + QuickBooks guide.
Sources
- QuickBooks Online pricing / Aug 2026 changes
- Knowify pricing
- JobTread pricing
- Jobber pricing
- Projul pricing
- Buildertrend pricing
Disclosure: Augmented Trades participates in affiliate programs and may earn a commission if you sign up through some links in this article, at no extra cost to you. Full details: https://augmentedtrades.com/affiliate-disclosure/.
Remodelers tracking job costs should also read our guide to software built for remodeling contractors.
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Michael is the founder of Augmented Trades, an independent site that compares AI and software tools for trade contractors on published pricing, contracts, and real feature limits. Tools are recommended on fit for your shop — affiliate partnerships never decide coverage.