Choosing the Right Job Costing Software: Sage Intacct vs. QuickBooks Online for Contractors

By Tammy Hoang, QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Construction Bookkeeping Specialist | Construction Cost Accounting

(949) 889-3283  |  constructioncostaccounting.com

Direct answer: the right job costing software depends on how complex your projects are and how much cost detail you need. Sage Intacct offers a construction capability that tracks actual and committed costs, work in progress (WIP), and project profitability. QuickBooks Online supports job costing through its Projects feature on higher-tier plans, and costs are assigned to projects by selecting the project on each transaction. This guide uses each vendor's published documentation to show what each offers.

It covers what Sage Intacct documents, what QuickBooks Online documents, a worked example of what manual project assignment can miss, and the questions to ask before choosing. It builds on CCA's job costing guide and construction accounting software guide.

1. What Sage Intacct Documents for Construction?

Sage describes Sage Intacct Construction as a construction capability for its cloud financial platform. Per Sage's product page, it offers these job costing and project tracking features. Source: Sage Intacct Construction.

Actual and committed costs: Sage states it will "Track actual and committed costs across labour, materials, plant, subcontractors, and change orders"

• WIP: work in progress is handled at the job and sub-job level, including over- and under-billing and historical comparisons

• Reporting: multi-entity financials and profitability at the project level

• Live visibility: dashboards and automated alerts for project performance

• Integration: an open API that connects with construction management and operational tools, including Procore

Committed costs matter because they show obligations such as subcontracts and purchase orders before the invoices arrive, so job costing can reflect future costs as well as costs already incurred.

2. What QuickBooks Online Documents for Job Costing?

Intuit's help documentation says QuickBooks Online Plus, QuickBooks Online Advanced, and Intuit Enterprise Suite can use projects to track income and costs for specific projects. Source: Intuit, Set up and use the Projects feature. It documents these points:

• Costs are assigned by hand: when creating an estimate or invoice, "select the Project from the Customer field"; for bills, checks, and expenses, select the project in the Customer/Project field

• Existing transactions can be added to a project with the Add to project option

• The project view shows income, expenses, and profit margin, and updates as income and expenses are added

• Estimate versus actuals tracking on the project dashboard is available only on QuickBooks Online Advanced

• Enterprise Suite, or Advanced with the construction add-on, offers Basic and Detailed project costing, and Intuit states a Detailed choice cannot be switched back to Basic

Projects must also be turned on in settings. In short, QuickBooks Online job costing is available on higher plans, depends on a project being selected on each transaction, and its estimate comparison is limited to one plan. See also CCA's guide to accurate job costing.

Not sure which accounting software fits your jobs?

Construction Cost Accounting helps contractors set up job costing in the software they already use.

3. A Worked Example: What a Missed Project Assignment Costs?

Because costs in QuickBooks Online are assigned by selecting a project, a bill saved without a project does not appear on that job. Assume a $500,000 contract with $380,000 of job cost assigned to the project, and a $15,000 vendor bill for the same job saved without a project. The figures are illustrative arithmetic, not CCA client data.

	Job cost shown	Profit	Profit margin
Project view, bill missed	$380,000	$120,000	24.0%
With the $15,000 bill assigned	$395,000	$105,000	21.0%

The missed bill overstates the profit margin by 3.0 points. Whichever software a contractor uses, a construction bookkeeper should review for unassigned transactions each month, because job costing is only as complete as the costs coded to the job, with the right cost codes.

4. Questions to Ask Before Choosing

The vendors' documentation points to concrete questions. Answering them with your own project mix is a more reliable guide than a feature count:

• Do you need committed costs, such as subcontracts and purchase orders, in the job cost before invoices arrive? Sage documents this; the Intuit page cited here does not

• Do you need WIP reporting at the job level, including over- and under-billing?

• Do you need estimate versus actuals in the accounting software? In QuickBooks Online, that is documented for Advanced only

• Do you run more than one legal entity, or connect to project software such as Procore? Sage documents multi-entity reporting and an open API

• Who will assign each cost to a project, and who reviews unassigned transactions?

• Are your cost codes, cost types, and estimates set up the same way in whichever software you choose?

Sage 100 Contractor is another accounting software option that CCA's guides mention for contractors; CCA's construction accounting software guide covers the wider case for construction-specific systems.

Where Construction Cost Accounting Fits In?

Construction Cost Accounting provides construction bookkeeping services for contractors using QuickBooks and Sage 100 Contractor. Our construction bookkeeping services cover:

• Job costing set up by project, with cost codes that match your estimates

• A monthly review for transactions not assigned to a job

• WIP reports and job cost reports built from your accounting software

• A construction bookkeeper who reviews job margins with you

Learn more about our construction bookkeeping service.

Sage Intacct documents committed costs, WIP, multi-entity reporting, and an open API for construction. QuickBooks Online documents projects on higher plans, with costs assigned by selecting the project and estimate comparison on Advanced. The more complex your projects and the more detail you need, the more the documented features matter. Whichever platform a contractor picks, construction bookkeeping services that review job assignment keep job costing and construction accounting accurate.

Talk with a construction bookkeeper today

Get job costing set up and reviewed with Construction Cost Accounting.