Most accounting software is built for businesses that sell products off a shelf or bill clients by the hour. Contractors don’t work that way. You bill by the job, by progress draws, and by change order. You track labor and materials against a specific project, juggle 1099 subs, and try to figure out whether last month’s bathroom remodel actually made money once you backed out the truck, the dump runs, and the helper’s overtime.
General bookkeeping tools can leave you guessing on the one number that matters most: profit per job. That’s the gap a good contractor accounting setup closes.
This guide compares the accounting software most contractors and their accountants actually use, sorted by business size and need. Every price below was pulled from the vendor’s official pricing page and is sourced inline so you can verify it. We make money from some of the links here (we’ll flag which), but the picks are by fit, not by commission.
Already have your accounting picked and want your scheduling platform to feed it? See which field service software actually syncs with QuickBooks — Online vs. Desktop, sync direction, and plan requirements.
How we picked
We weighted four things contractors care about that a freelancer or retail shop doesn’t: job costing (tracking labor and material cost to a specific job), 1099 contractor tracking, progress and change-order invoicing, and how cleanly the field work syncs to the books. Then we matched each tool to a business size, because the right answer for a solo handyman is the wrong answer for a 15-person GC. We did not rank by who pays us. Where a free or non-affiliate tool is the honest pick, we say so.
The best accounting software for contractors in 2026
1. QuickBooks Online — best overall for most contractors
Who it’s for: Growing trade businesses with a crew, a bookkeeper or accountant, and real job-costing needs. This is the default for a reason: nearly every accountant in the U.S. knows it, and most contractor-specific tools (like Knowify below) are built to plug into it.
Key features for contractors: Double-entry accounting, 1099 contractor management, expense tracking, and invoicing on every paid tier. To get true job/project profitability tracking — labor, materials, and payroll costed to each project — you need the Plus plan or higher. That’s the tier most contractors actually want.
Pricing: Simple Start $38/mo, Essentials $75/mo, Plus $115/mo, Advanced $275/mo (source: quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing). Project profitability tracking starts at the Plus tier ($115/mo). New customers can usually choose a 30-day free trial or 50% off for the first 3 months — not both.
The catch: Job costing lives on Plus, so the “$38 QuickBooks” you see advertised won’t do what a contractor needs — budget for $115/mo. Intuit also raises prices regularly, and the up-sells (payroll, payments) add up fast.
2. Wave — best free option for solos and handymen
Who it’s for: Owner-operators, side-hustle trades, and brand-new businesses that need real double-entry books and invoicing but can’t justify a monthly bill yet.
Key features for contractors: The free Starter plan includes unlimited invoices, estimates, bills, and bookkeeping records, plus a dashboard with profit-and-loss reporting. You can accept online payments (transaction fees apply).
Pricing: Starter plan is $0. The Pro plan is $19/mo (or $190/year) and adds auto-import of bank transactions, auto-categorization, and receipt capture. Online payments run 2.9% + $0.60 per credit card transaction; payroll is a separate add-on from $25–$40/mo (source: waveapps.com/pricing).
The catch: No real job costing. Wave keeps clean books and gets you paid, but it won’t tell you the margin on a specific job. It’s a starting point, not a forever home for a growing crew.
3. FreshBooks — best for service-heavy, light-on-materials trades
Who it’s for: Solo and small operators who live in invoices and want the simplest possible “send invoice, get paid, track expenses” experience — think handyman, painter, or a service tech billing time and small materials.
Key features for contractors: Strong invoicing and estimates, expense tracking, time tracking, and a genuinely easy interface. Project-based time and expense tracking is built in.
Pricing: Lite $23/mo (5 billable clients), Plus $43/mo (50 clients), Premium $70/mo (unlimited clients); Select is custom-quoted. Additional team members are $11/mo each. 30-day free trial (source: freshbooks.com/pricing). FreshBooks frequently runs a steep introductory promo, so check the regular rate before you commit.
The catch: Billable-client caps on the lower plans are a real constraint, and FreshBooks is invoicing-first — it’s not built for deep construction job costing or heavy 1099 sub management.
4. Xero — best for unlimited users on a budget
Who it’s for: Small contractors who want full double-entry accounting and need several people in the books — an owner, a spouse, an office manager, an accountant — without paying per seat.
Key features for contractors: Every plan includes unlimited users, W-9/1099 management, bank reconciliation, and sales tax. Project tracking (time and costs by project) is available on the top Established plan.
Pricing: Early $25/mo, Growing $55/mo, Established $90/mo (source: xero.com/us/pricing-plans). Project/job tracking is on the Established plan ($90/mo). The Early plan caps you at 20 invoices and 5 bills per month.
The catch: Fewer U.S. accountants use Xero than QuickBooks, so confirm your bookkeeper supports it. And like QuickBooks, the real job-tracking features sit on the most expensive tier.
5. Knowify — best for construction-heavy contractors (works with QuickBooks)
Who it’s for: Project-based construction contractors — electrical, plumbing, HVAC, remodeling, concrete — who need real construction job costing, progress billing, AIA pay applications (G702/G703), and change-order tracking. Knowify is not a replacement for accounting software; it’s a construction layer that syncs two-way with QuickBooks Online.
Key features for contractors: Job costing by phase and cost category, progress and AIA billing, change orders, subcontractor management, and time tracking that flows to the right job. It’s the contractor-specific muscle QuickBooks lacks on its own.
Pricing: Core $149/mo, Advanced $399/mo (monthly billing), with an Enterprise tier quoted by sales; job costing is on Advanced and up. Additional users are $29/mo each (source: knowify.com/pricing).
The catch: This is on top of your QuickBooks subscription, not instead of it — budget for both. Overkill for a handyman, right-sized for a contractor running formal bids and draws.
6. Sage 50 — best for established shops that want inventory and job costing in one tool
Who it’s for: More established contractors who want deep accounting with serialized inventory, advanced job costing, and construction-specific functionality, and who don’t mind a heavier, less modern tool.
Key features for contractors: Job management and job costing on every plan, with advanced job costing (by phase and cost level) and construction-specific functionality on Premium and up. Now offered as a cloud-connected subscription.
Pricing (monthly): Pro Accounting $128.67/mo (1 user), Premium $182.50/mo (1–5 users), Quantum $271.17/mo (source: sage.com/en-us/products/sage-50/pricing). A minimum one-year commitment is required.
The catch: Pricier than QuickBooks, a steeper learning curve, and a one-year lock-in. Fewer outside accountants know it well. For larger construction firms, Sage also sells construction-specific ERP systems (Sage Intacct Construction, Sage 300 CRE) that require a sales quote.
Which one should you pick?
- Solo / handyman, watching every dollar: Start free with Wave. Move up when you have a crew.
- Service-heavy, invoicing-first (painter, handyman, small service tech): FreshBooks or Wave.
- Growing crew that needs job costing and an accountant-friendly tool: QuickBooks Online Plus ($115/mo). This is the right answer for most readers.
- Need several users without per-seat fees: Xero.
- Construction-heavy with bids, draws, and AIA billing: QuickBooks + Knowify, or Sage 50 if you want it in one system.
Not ready for full accounting software? Start here (free / low-cost)
If you’re a one-person shop and a monthly subscription feels like overkill, you don’t have to fly blind. Two of our own tools cover the basics:
- Our free Contractor Invoice Template — look professional and get paid without paying for software. (Full walkthrough and Excel/Google Sheets versions in our free contractor invoice template guide.)
- Our Job-Costing & Profit Tracker — the single most useful habit for a contractor: knowing the margin on each job before you bid the next one.
When you outgrow spreadsheets, move to QuickBooks. But there’s no shame in starting with a template that actually gets used over software that sits ignored. Not sure where to start? Our free Tool Finder matches your shop to the right stack in about two minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Do contractors need special accounting software?
Not necessarily special software — but you do need job costing. General tools like Wave or FreshBooks handle income, expenses, and invoices fine. What they don’t do is tell you the profit on a specific job. For that you either step up to a plan with project tracking (QuickBooks Online Plus, Xero Established) or add a construction layer like Knowify on top of QuickBooks.
Is QuickBooks good for contractors?
Yes — it’s the default for most contractors, mainly because nearly every accountant supports it and most contractor tools integrate with it. The key detail: you need the Plus plan ($115/mo) or higher for project profitability tracking. The cheaper Simple Start tier won’t do real job costing.
What’s the cheapest option for a contractor?
Free. Wave’s Starter plan is $0 and includes unlimited invoicing and double-entry bookkeeping. You’ll pay transaction fees if you accept card payments, and you won’t get job costing, but for a solo operator it’s a legitimate free start.
What’s the difference between accounting software and invoicing software?
Invoicing software gets you paid — it creates and sends invoices and tracks who owes you. Accounting software does that and keeps your full books: expenses, profit-and-loss, tax-ready reports, 1099 tracking, and reconciliation. Tools like Jobber and Housecall Pro handle field invoicing well but aren’t full accounting systems — most contractors run one of those alongside QuickBooks rather than instead of it. (See our invoicing software guide for a closer look.)
The bottom line
For most contractors with a crew, QuickBooks Online Plus is the safe, accountant-friendly pick that actually tracks job profit. Solo? Start free with Wave. Running formal bids, draws, and AIA billing? Pair QuickBooks with Knowify or step up to Sage 50. Whatever you choose, the goal is the same: stop guessing which jobs make money.
Related: our guides to business management (ERP) software for contractors and job-costing software for contractors.
Augmented Trades is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you buy through some links on this page, at no extra cost to you — see our affiliate disclosure. We recommend by fit, not by commission. Pricing was verified against official vendor pages in June 2026; always confirm current pricing on the vendor’s site before you buy.
Related: Accounting is one layer of the stack — our guide to the best tools for contractors in 2026 covers all six categories.
Related guides: Best Time-Tracking Software for Contractors · Best CRM Software for Contractors
Related: Running a 1-10 person shop? Our small-contractor software guide covers the field-side stack that feeds these books.
Related: Clean books start with clean quotes — see our guide to the contractor proposal software.
Michael is the founder of Augmented Trades, an independent site that tests and reviews AI tools for trade contractors. Tools are recommended on fit for your shop — affiliate partnerships never decide coverage.