QuickBooks vs WorkHoist for construction financials
This page is written by the team behind WorkHoist, which is construction management software, and it compares WorkHoist with QuickBooks Online. It isn’t a knockout. You need both, and this page says so. What it settles is which one runs the job, and what it costs to make QuickBooks do it on its own. Every QuickBooks price and feature below was read on Intuit’s own pages, linked at the bottom.
Last updated
The short answer
QuickBooks is the books. Keep it. Your accountant works in it and your tax return comes out of it.
What QuickBooks isn’t is the job. Crew hours, committed cost, change orders, retainage and the pay application happen on site and in the office before anything reaches the ledger. QuickBooks Online has been closing that gap, most of all in the August 2026 release of Advanced, but closing it costs $340 a month plus a separate time-tracking subscription, and three things are still missing.
WorkHoist runs the job and sends it to QuickBooks: invoices, payments received, expenses with their receipts, bills and bill payments, each on the right customer, job and vendor, never twice, and to the cent. $199 a month for the office, field crew free.
Where QuickBooks stops, even on Advanced
QuickBooks Online Advanced now carries job costing, change orders, WIP and AIA-style invoicing. Six things a contractor runs every week are still outside it.
Retainage
Not on any QuickBooks Online plan page, nor on Intuit’s construction, job costing or subcontractor pages. The answer in Intuit’s community, from 2019 and still the one people find, is a service item called “Customer Retainage” entered as a negative line on the invoice. A workaround, not a feature.
Committed cost
None of Intuit’s pages says a purchase order counts against a project budget before the bill arrives.
The field
No time clock with photos, tasks and a daily log. Crew hours reach a project through QuickBooks Time, which is a timesheet, and it’s a second subscription.
The crew calendar
Who’s booked where, and who has capacity. Not a QuickBooks concern.
Subcontractor compliance
Insurance, workers’ comp and licence expiry. Not a QuickBooks concern.
The pipeline
The lead, the estimate and the won job are three records in three places unless you connect a CRM.
None of that is a criticism. Intuit built accounting software and it’s the best-known one there is. Intuit’s own construction page tells you to sync your construction accounting with apps, and names five: Knowify, JobTread, Houzz Pro, Buildertrend and Housecall Pro. That is Intuit saying the same thing.
How each one prices
QuickBooks
What QuickBooks Online does for construction, plan by plan. Regular monthly prices, not the three-month promotional ones.
| Plan | Per month | Users | What it does for construction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Start | $38 | 1 | Invoices and estimates, and progress invoicing. No projects, so no profit by job. |
| Essentials | $85 | 3 | Adds two more users and employee time on invoices. Still no projects. |
| Plus | $140 | 5 | Adds Projects, which is where job profitability lives, plus budgets, classes and locations (40), and inventory. Intuit’s job costing page says job costing is “Available in QuickBooks Online Plus and QuickBooks Online Advanced”. |
| Advanced | $340 | 25 | Since the August 2026 release: job costing, budget versus actual, change orders, WIP reporting, profitability reports, and AIA-style invoicing tied to project phases and milestones. Intuit’s subcontractor page puts it as “job costing, AIA billing, WIP reporting, and change orders built in”. |
Crew hours are a second subscription
Crew hours reach a project through QuickBooks Time, sold separately from every plan. Premium is $20 a month plus $10 per user, Elite is $40 a month plus $12 per user, and only Elite tracks projects.
Retainage is on no plan
Retainage isn’t mentioned on any Intuit product page. The community answer, from 2019, is a “Customer Retainage” service item entered as a negative line on the invoice.
WorkHoist
$199 a month for 1–5 paid seats, $399 for 6–15, $499 for 16–40 and $799 for 41–75. Custom above that. Annual billing saves 15%. Field crew are free, and every feature is on every plan.
The number is on our pricing page.
How WorkHoist and QuickBooks connect
WorkHoist sends the job’s money to QuickBooks Online. Invoices go with their schedule-of-values lines, retainage and sales tax; payments received go against the invoice they pay; expenses go with their receipts attached; bills go with retention held on your Retainage Payable account, and bill payments follow. Each lands on the right customer, job and vendor: you link WorkHoist’s clients, jobs and vendors to the ones already in QuickBooks, or create them there when you confirm.
Nothing is sent twice. Each WorkHoist record becomes one QuickBooks record, and sending it again updates that record rather than adding another. If someone deletes it in QuickBooks, WorkHoist says so instead of quietly creating it again. Every total QuickBooks stores is checked against WorkHoist’s, to the cent; one that doesn’t match is taken back out and the send fails, with the reason.
It runs one way, when someone in the office clicks Send. WorkHoist reads QuickBooks only to match customers, jobs, vendors and accounts and to check what it sent, and never changes anything in QuickBooks it didn’t create. The books, the reconciliation and the tax return stay in QuickBooks, with your accountant.
So the stack is QuickBooks for the books, WorkHoist for the jobs, connected. $38 plus $199. Less than Advanced on its own, and it knows where your crew was on Tuesday.
Side by side
| Feature | QuickBooks | WorkHoist |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Accounting software: the general ledger, tax and the books | Construction management: the job, from estimate to final invoice |
| Price | $38–$340/mo by plan | $199–$799/mo by paid seat band, field crew free |
| Profit by job | Plus and Advanced (Projects) | Every plan |
| Budget against actual | Advanced | Every plan, line by line, by category or cost code |
| Change orders | Advanced, since August 2026 | Every plan; approving one updates the budget |
| Committed cost | Not on Intuit’s pages | Approved purchase orders; subcontracts typed into the budget line |
| WIP report | Advanced, since August 2026 | Every plan, exported as a CSV |
| AIA billing | AIA-style invoicing on Advanced | Schedule-of-values billing printed as an AIA G702/G703 |
| Retainage | Not on any plan; a negative line item | Held and released on the invoice, net payable worked out |
| Crew time on the job | QuickBooks Time Elite, $40/mo + $12/user | Labor cost from time cards counts in the job cost |
| Connection between the two | Intuit’s construction page names Knowify, JobTread, Houzz Pro, Buildertrend and Housecall Pro | Sends invoices, payments received, expenses with receipts, bills and bill payments to QuickBooks Online, one way, on Send |
| General ledger and tax | Yes; it is the books | No, and no payroll; the books stay in QuickBooks |
Where QuickBooks is the better choice
QuickBooks isn’t the competition here, it’s the books, and WorkHoist sends to it. These are the jobs it does that WorkHoist doesn’t.
The books.
The general ledger, tax and everything your accountant works in. WorkHoist isn’t accounting software and doesn’t try to be: no general ledger, no tax, no payroll. Keep QuickBooks.
Anything that starts in QuickBooks.
The connection runs one way, from WorkHoist to QuickBooks. An invoice or a bill entered in QuickBooks stays there; it doesn’t come back into WorkHoist’s job costs.
For most contractors the answer is both, connected: QuickBooks for the books, WorkHoist for the job.
Where WorkHoist fits
Crew hours become job cost.
The crew clock in and out on the task in the WorkHoist Field app, with photos and the daily log filed from site, and the hours land on that task on the job. Labor cost from time cards is part of each job’s cost.
Budget against actual, line by line.
Estimated, approved changes, revised budget, actual to date, committed and projected final, by category or cost code.
Approved purchase orders count as committed cost.
Before the bill arrives, not after.
Change orders priced as you type.
Cost, markup, owner price and margin as you go. Approve it and the budget updates.
Progress billing on the schedule of values.
Retainage held and released, net payable worked out, and the invoice prints as an AIA G702/G703.
Work in progress, job by job.
Contract, estimated cost, cost to date, earned revenue, billed to date and over- or under-billing. Exported as a CSV.
A P&L for the accountant.
Revenue, direct job costs by category and margin for any period, exported to a workbook with a sheet per project.
Where WorkHoist falls short.
It isn’t accounting: WorkHoist has no general ledger, no tax and no payroll, so the books stay in QuickBooks. QuickBooks sync is new. It went live in October 2026 and is in its first release: bills, payments and invoices go to QuickBooks Online when you press Send, nothing moves on its own. Xero and Sage are next. Subcontracts aren’t committed cost in WorkHoist: only approved purchase orders are, and a subcontract’s value is typed into the budget line.
Questions contractors ask
- Do I need QuickBooks if I use WorkHoist?
- Yes, and they connect. WorkHoist runs the job: budgets, change orders, purchase orders, progress billing with retainage, WIP and a P&L per job. It is not accounting software, so the general ledger, tax and payroll stay in QuickBooks, and WorkHoist sends the job’s invoices, payments, expenses, bills and bill payments to QuickBooks Online.
- What does WorkHoist send to QuickBooks Online?
- Invoices, with their schedule-of-values lines, retainage and sales tax; payments received, against the invoice they pay; expenses, with the receipt attached; bills, with retention held on your Retainage Payable account; and bill payments. Each goes to the customer, job and vendor you linked, once: sending it again updates the same QuickBooks record, and every total must match WorkHoist’s to the cent or the send is undone. It runs one way, when someone clicks Send.
- Which QuickBooks Online plan has job costing?
- Plus and Advanced. Intuit’s job costing page says job costing is “Available in QuickBooks Online Plus and QuickBooks Online Advanced”. Plus is $140 a month for 5 users and Advanced is $340 a month for 25, at regular prices. Simple Start and Essentials have no projects, so no profit by job.
- Does QuickBooks Online do retainage?
- Not as a feature. Retainage isn’t mentioned on any Intuit product page. The answer in Intuit’s community, from 2019, is a service item called “Customer Retainage” entered as a negative line on the invoice. WorkHoist holds retainage on the invoice, releases it later, and works out the net payable.
- Does QuickBooks Online Advanced do AIA billing and WIP?
- Since the August 2026 release, yes: Advanced carries job costing, budget versus actual, change orders, WIP reporting, profitability reports and AIA-style invoicing tied to project phases and milestones. Intuit’s pages don’t mention retainage on any plan.
- How much does QuickBooks cost for a construction company with a crew?
- For five in the office and ten on the tools, at regular prices: QuickBooks Online Plus with QuickBooks Time Elite is $300 a month, and Advanced with Time Elite is $500. Time Elite is $40 a month plus $12 per user, and it is the Time plan that tracks projects. WorkHoist with QuickBooks Simple Start is $237 a month.
- How much does WorkHoist cost?
- WorkHoist is priced by paid seat band: $199 a month for 1–5, $399 for 6–15, $499 for 16–40 and $799 for 41–75, with custom pricing above that. Field crew are free, annual billing saves 15%, there are no per-user fees, and every feature is on every plan. See pricing.
See it on one of your own jobs
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Guides for contractors
- What is the best job costing software for contractors?
- Free construction job costing spreadsheet template
- Free retainage tracking spreadsheet for contractors
- How to prepare a construction WIP report (free WIP report template)
- How to fill out an AIA G702 and G703 pay application
- How to build a schedule of values (free schedule of values template)
- Why construction payments are late
- How to write a contractor invoice that gets paid (free contractor invoice template)