Best software for electrical, plumbing and mechanical subcontractors: construction ledgers vs ERP, scored

For union self-perform subcontractors the payroll demo decides, and construction ledgers with in-house union payroll (FOUNDATION, Trimble Spectrum, Jonas, Deltek ComputerEase, and Sage 100 Contractor for smaller shops) often beat the horizontal ERPs; of the 16 ERPs we score, Acumatica and Sage Intacct Construction lead at 4 of 5. Open-shop subs can stay on QuickBooks (3 of 5) with Siteline or Knowify carrying pay apps, retention, and lien waivers until a union agreement, a surety's request for a WIP schedule, or a service arm above 30 percent of gross profit forces a bigger system. Trade firms earning half or more of gross profit from service belong on our field services pages instead.

Last reviewed 2026-09-24·Scoring methodology·No vendor pays for placement

What changes when construction narrows to specialty trade contracting

The construction page rates systems for contractors in general, where job cost and WIP are the hard part. A subcontractor's customer is the GC: pay applications go up the chain into the GC's portal (Oracle Textura, GCPay, Procore Pay, Trimble Pay), cash waits on the GC's own draw, retention sits in receivables until closeout, and every draw trades a lien waiver, in the state's statutory form where one exists. And a self-perform sub sells labor, so union payroll across several locals and benefit funds decides fit more often than job cost does. That moves the ratings: Acumatica drops from 5 to 4, Intuit Enterprise Suite from 4 to 3, Business Central and Priority from 3 to 2, and Odoo from 2 to 1, while construction ledgers outside our 16 lead the specialist roster. The closest sibling is the field services side of the same trades, and our editorial line between them is gross profit: a trade firm earning 50 percent or more from service belongs on the field services pages, and one at 30 to 50 percent is a both-sides buyer that needs dispatch and job cost in one database (Jonas, Spectrum, ComputerEase, FOUNDATION's dispatch module, or Acumatica's Field Service and Construction editions).

For the cross-industry view, ratings, and the broader specialist bench, see the Construction rankings.

Billing up the chain: pay apps, GC portals, retention and lien waivers

A sub does not send invoices so much as file pay applications against the GC's schedule of values, in the GC's format, and often inside the GC's payment portal. Those portals now belong to three of the largest vendors in construction technology. Oracle paid about $663 million for Textura in 2016, Procore paid about $500 million for lien-rights company Levelset in 2021 and sells Procore Pay, and Flashtract joined Trimble in 2024 as Trimble Pay. The cost to the sub varies: Trimble Pay is free to subs a GC invites, while Oracle's published Textura fee is 0.22 percent of contract value, capped at $5,000 per contract for projects created after January 19, 2023, when the sub pays its own fee. The ERP question is whether one set of billing numbers can reach three or four portals and the ledger without being keyed again.

Cash waits on the GC's draw, and state law decides how much of that risk sticks to the sub. California's Supreme Court held pay-if-paid clauses void as against public policy in 1997 (Wm. R. Clarke Corp. v. Safeco), and California's Business and Professions Code 7108.5 gives a prime contractor 7 days after it receives a progress payment to pay its subs, with a 2 percent per month penalty. Collections at a sub run by GC and by draw, so every open item needs the GC, the draw period, and an expected payment date, not just an aging bucket.

Retention is the receivable that outlives the job. On California public works, withholding cannot exceed 5 percent of any payment at any contract tier for contracts entered since January 1, 2012, unless the agency finds the project substantially complex before bid (Public Contract Code 7201); other work follows the contract and each state's rules. The systems handle it differently. Sage 100 Contractor sets retention rates and a per-job maximum and releases retention by invoice or for the whole job, Deltek ComputerEase forecasts release timing and total exposure across jobs, and FOUNDATION ages retainage by job, customer, and project manager. Intuit Enterprise Suite has no native retainage field, per Knowify's August 2026 review and IES partner RedHammer's May 2026 wish list.

Every draw also trades paper: a conditional waiver when the pay app goes in, an unconditional one when the money clears, and matching waivers collected from the sub's own suppliers and sub-subs. California voids a conditional progress waiver that is not substantially in the statutory form (Civil Code 8132), and Siteline's state guide counts twelve states with standardized forms, two of them, Wyoming and Mississippi, requiring notarization (vendor source, updated June 2026). The portals hold the paper: Procore Pay collects the sub's signed unconditional waiver and releases it only after payment completes, and Trimble Pay stores waivers in escrow. Acumatica and FOUNDATION generate waivers inside the ledger, and Siteline does it beside whichever ledger it syncs with.

Union payroll is the real selection test

Demos spend their time on job cost, but a self-perform sub sells labor, and in a union shop each local's agreement sets wage classes and contributions to several funds. The electrical trade shows the weight of it. The National Electrical Benefit Fund alone takes 3 percent of each bargaining-unit employee's gross labor payroll, reported on a Monthly Payroll Report by job classification code even in months with no covered work, and due within 15 days of becoming owed, with interest and liquidated damages on late money. Crews working under another local's hall add what payroll vendors call home and away rules. Union labor is the minority of construction labor (BLS counted 11.1 percent of construction wage and salary workers as union members in 2025), so this test binds union shops, open shops on prevailing wage jobs, and double-breasted groups that run one of each.

Here is what each system documents as of September 2026. FOUNDATION processes 'multi-state, multi-union and multi-trade timecards without reentering rates'. Jonas handles multi-union and multi-trade charges, fringes, and burden, with certified payroll rate and fringe tables by job, service, and customer. Trimble markets Spectrum payroll for 'multiple unions'. Deltek lists union and certified payroll with fringe credits for ComputerEase. Sage 100 Contractor asks union shops for a paygroup per pay scale and benefits package. Among the 16 ERPs we score, Acumatica has a Union Locals form with per-hour and percent-of-gross benefit calculations; Sage Intacct Construction Payroll, powered by STRUXI, documents certified payroll reporting in all US states and territories and payroll for union and non-union organizations; and Intuit Enterprise Suite stops at a federal WH-347 report.

Script one real week and make every finalist run it: a journeyman from your home local on two jobs, one of them prevailing wage; a traveler from another local; overtime and a foreman premium; and a correction to last week's hours. Then ask for four outputs: the paychecks, the certified report, each fund's remittance report in the format that fund accepts, and burdened labor posted to each job and cost code. A vendor that needs a spreadsheet for any of the four has answered the question.

If a horizontal ERP fails that week there are two ways out: a construction ledger with native union payroll, or the horizontal ledger plus a construction payroll system that feeds it. Miter lists connectors for Acumatica, Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and QuickBooks, and Foundation's Payroll4Construction runs construction payroll as a service. Double-breasted groups add one more requirement. Guidance on keeping a union company and an open-shop company legally separate stresses separate management, labor relations, equipment, bank accounts, and financial records (ConsensusDocs, 2022), so the ledger has to keep two clean companies and still give the owners one view.

Electrical, mechanical, plumbing and finish subs: what shifts by trade

For electrical subs, material escalation is a live bid risk: switchgear and copper wire and cable were among the construction inputs up more than 10 percent year over year in August 2026 (ABC's analysis of BLS producer prices). Estimating runs in trade tools (ConEst's IntelliBid updates material prices through the TRA-SER, EPIC, and NetPricer services, and McCormick belongs to Foundation's portfolio), and buying runs through distributors such as Graybar, Wesco, Rexel, and Border States, all on Kojo's supplier list. The ledger test is committed cost by PO and cost code against a bid priced months earlier, and a clean path from escalation to a change order request. Union electrical subs also carry the NEBF reporting described above.

Mechanical subs (HVAC piping, sheet metal, and project plumbing) add two operations the other trades may not have: a fabrication shop and a service department. Prefab software such as MSUITE, part of DEWALT Construction Technology, places hangers, spools pipe from the BIM model, and tracks shop production, so shop labor and material must land on the job rather than in overhead. The service share then decides which page applies: at 30 to 50 percent of gross profit from service, shortlist systems that run dispatch and job cost in one database; at 50 percent or more, start on the field services side.

New-construction plumbing subs price fixtures and pipe from supply-house catalogs (McCormick advertises a fixture database of more than 100,000 SKUs with weekly price updates, and Kojo's supplier list includes Hajoca) and bill the same pay apps with retention as every other trade on the job. Residential plumbing service is a different buyer on the field services side. Install-only fire sprinkler subs fit this page; inspection-led fire protection firms do not.

Drywall and framing, acoustical ceilings, painting, flooring, glazing, and self-perform concrete subs are labor first: fewer SKUs, more crews, and a steady stream of T&M tickets signed in the field. Their test is burdened labor by cost code, T&M tickets priced at burdened rates and tracked to approved change orders, and retention across many small contracts. Kojo markets trade solutions for concrete, drywall, flooring, and roofing, so the procurement layer exists for them too. Equipment-heavy paving and sitework is a heavy civil question for the construction page.

The head-to-head calls buyers here actually make

These are the matchups subs actually run, and most involve construction ledgers that sit outside our 16-system scoring. Each rule assumes the finalists have already run the union week described above.

FOUNDATION vs Trimble Spectrum

Both document payroll across multiple unions, and Siteline, Kojo, and Miter connect to both, so decide on how you want payroll run and where you are headed. Choose FOUNDATION if you may hand payroll to a service later without changing ledgers (Payroll4Construction is the same company) or your estimators already use McCormick. Choose Spectrum if your GCs run Trimble Pay, you want Trimble's native web-based product, or a later move to Vista matters. A 30-50 percent service sub should run its own maintenance agreements through FOUNDATION's Service Dispatch module and Spectrum's service contract management side by side.

Sage 100 Contractor vs FOUNDATION

Choose Sage 100 Contractor for a smaller shop with one or two locals that is comfortable running Windows Server and SQL Server itself or through a host, and whose crews are not mixed union and non-union on the same prevailing wage jobs. Choose FOUNDATION once payroll spans several locals or states, certified reports go to several agencies, or you want the option to outsource payroll. Both handle AIA billing and retention, so the split is payroll depth and who runs the server.

Intuit Enterprise Suite vs Sage 100 Contractor

These buyers are usually leaving QuickBooks Desktop. Choose Intuit Enterprise Suite if you are an open shop running more than one company, want to stay on the QuickBooks data model, and accept that GC-format pay apps and retention will live in Knowify or a similar front end while the construction features stay in open beta. Choose Sage 100 Contractor if any payroll includes union benefit calculations or certified reports beyond the federal WH-347, or if retention has to live in the ledger.

Acumatica Construction vs Sage Intacct Construction

Both rate 4 here and both connect to Siteline, Kojo, and Miter. Choose Acumatica if the sub also runs a service department, a stocked warehouse or prefab shop, or dozens of field users, because Field Service Edition, inventory, and unlimited-user pricing come with the platform. Choose Sage Intacct Construction if the buyer is a finance-led group, a double-breasted pair of companies for example, that wants dimensional reporting and accepts payroll from Sage Intacct Construction Payroll, powered by STRUXI. Either way the union week decides before the finance demo does.

Trimble Vista vs Trimble Spectrum for larger subs

Trimble's own positioning puts Vista with large contractors that need deep configuration, complex multi-entity accounting, and heavy HR and payroll, and Spectrum with mid-to-large contractors that want faster onboarding. Choose Vista when several companies share union payroll and equipment costs and you can staff a full-time system administrator; choose Spectrum when one or two companies and a lean back office are the reality. Both feed Trimble Pay, Siteline, Kojo, and Miter, so the surrounding stack does not settle it.

Who this page covers

Specialty Trade Contracting still is not one market. The verdicts below are written across these sub-verticals, and where a rating splits by sub-vertical the evidence says so:

Electrical subcontractors on commercial and industrial projectsMechanical subcontractors: HVAC piping, sheet metal, and process piping on bid workNew-construction plumbing and install-only fire sprinkler subcontractorsInterior finish subs: drywall and framing, acoustical ceilings, painting, flooring, glazingSelf-perform concrete and masonry subs working for GCsUnion shops and double-breasted union and open-shop groupsTrade contractors with a 30-50% service business (the both-sides buyer)

The niche roster: 8 specialists, verified

The specialists come first on this page because in specialty trade contracting they are usually the real decision. Each is verified for ownership, pricing posture, and current availability as of September 2026, and none is scored by our ERP methodology. Read the boundary fields: every one of these tools ends somewhere, and that boundary is where the ERP question actually starts.

construction ledger with in-house multi-union payroll

FOUNDATION (Foundation Software)

FOUNDATION is contractor-only accounting whose payroll module is the reason subs shortlist it: Foundation says it processes 'multi-state, multi-union and multi-trade timecards without reentering rates' and creates certified payroll reports for state, federal, and local agencies. The same company runs Payroll4Construction, an outsourced construction payroll service with union reporting and home/away fringe logic for crews working under another union hall, and sells a Service Dispatch module and McCormick trade estimating for electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work.

Best for:: Self-perform subs whose payroll office handles several locals, several states, and prevailing wage jobs in the same week, and who want the option to hand payroll to the vendor's own service later without changing ledgers.
Not for:: Subs that insist on one browser-native product; Foundation publishes hosted and hardware requirement documents and builds on Microsoft SQL Server, so confirm what the daily client is. Groups wanting one multi-entity ledger should note that its Consolidated GL combines separate company databases for reporting (vendor description), a different design from Acumatica's or Intacct's.
Where it ends:: AR generates AIA billings and lien waivers and ages retainage by job, customer, and project manager inside FOUNDATION. Pay-app submission into GC portals and lower-tier waiver collection usually sit in a tool beside it (Siteline lists a Foundation connector), as does materials procurement (Kojo lists one).
Pricing:: Undisclosed. Foundation's pricing page shows no dollar figures (checked September 24, 2026), and Payroll4Construction returns a custom quote after a form. Third-party estimates exist but carry low confidence.
Pairs with:: Nothing. It replaces the ledger rather than pairing with one.

Ownership & sources

Ownership: Private; Thoma Bravo completed what it called a strategic growth investment in Foundation Software in August 2020.

web-based construction ERP for mid-sized union subs

Trimble Spectrum

Spectrum is Trimble's web-based construction ERP: job cost, accounting, payroll and HR, and service and maintenance contract management in one system. Trimble pitches the payroll directly at union shops ('Blitz through payroll, even with multiple unions') and positions Spectrum for mid-to-large contractors that want fast onboarding. It began as Dexter + Chaney's product, which served more than 1,100 contractors including electrical, mechanical, and specialty subs when Viewpoint bought it in July 2017; Trimble bought Viewpoint in 2018.

Best for:: Union MEP subs with a service department that want projects and service contracts in one database, and subs whose GCs already run Trimble Pay (free to invited subs) or who expect to grow into Vista.
Not for:: Small open-shop subs that want published pricing or a self-serve start; Trimble sells by quote. Large multi-company groups that need deep configuration and complex multi-entity accounting, which Trimble itself steers to Vista.
Where it ends:: Takeoff, estimating, detailing, and prefab are separate purchases, from Trimble or anyone else. Submitting pay apps to non-Trimble GC portals needs a tool such as Siteline, which lists a Spectrum connector. The product page does not describe AIA billing or retainage, so put both in the demo script.
Pricing:: Undisclosed. Quote-based through Trimble sales; no list price on the product page (checked September 24, 2026).
Pairs with:: Nothing. It replaces the ledger rather than pairing with one.

Ownership & sources

Ownership: Trimble Inc. (public, NASDAQ: TRMB), through its 2018 acquisition of Viewpoint, which had bought Dexter + Chaney in 2017.

server-installed construction accounting for smaller subs

Sage 100 Contractor

Sage's Windows-based construction accounting: job cost, progress billing on AIA certificates with retention rates and a per-job maximum, and payroll built around paygroups. Sage's help tells union shops to set up a paygroup for each combination of pay scale and benefits package, and its union reports total the payroll calculations assigned to each union. Version 2026 runs on Windows Server with Microsoft SQL Server 2019.

Best for:: Smaller subs with one or two locals, or open shops taking occasional certified jobs, that want to own the system on their own server or at a hosting provider and already have staff who know it.
Not for:: Offices on Macs (Sage's requirements page lists macOS as unsupported), subs that want a browser-native product, and crews that mix union and non-union workers on the same prevailing wage job, which a Sage community thread describes handling with duplicate paygroups (community-reported, not a Sage statement).
Where it ends:: Server administration or hosting is the buyer's job. GC portal billing (Siteline lists Sage 100 Contractor), procurement (Kojo lists 'Sage 100'), and outside construction payroll (Miter lists 'Sage 100') connect from outside; confirm those listings mean the Contractor product. Several unions across several states push toward FOUNDATION or Spectrum.
Pricing:: Undisclosed. Sold by quote through Sage partners; sage.com blocked automated fetches, and no list price appears in Sage's help or knowledge base.
Pairs with:: Nothing. It replaces the ledger rather than pairing with one.

Ownership & sources

Ownership: Sage Group plc, listed on the London Stock Exchange (SGE).

construction accounting, payroll, and dispatch for specialty contractors

Deltek ComputerEase

ComputerEase combines job cost, AIA and unit billing, retainage management, construction payroll, and a service management module with a custom dispatch board. Deltek's page lists union and certified payroll with prevailing wage tracking and fringe credits, retainage release forecasting with total exposure across jobs, and cloud hosting. Deltek bought the product in August 2019; its page now cites 4,000-plus contractors (vendor figure).

Best for:: Small to mid-sized specialty subs running many jobs at once, especially electrical and mechanical shops with a service department that want billing, payroll, and dispatch from one vendor.
Not for:: Large multi-company contractors; Deltek positions it for small to mid-sized and specialty contractors. Also subs planning to run a third-party construction payroll platform: Miter's integration list does not include ComputerEase (September 2026).
Where it ends:: Estimating, takeoff, and GC portal submission sit outside it; Siteline and Kojo both list ComputerEase connectors for billing and procurement.
Pricing:: Undisclosed list prices. Deltek's stated model is that a new license pays 'only for the first month', with no lump sums or separate consulting fees (vendor claim, product page, September 2026).
Pairs with:: Nothing. It replaces the ledger rather than pairing with one.

Ownership & sources

Ownership: Deltek, owned by Roper Technologies since December 2016 and still in Roper's Application Software segment in 2026; Deltek completed the ComputerEase acquisition on August 19, 2019.

construction ERP for MEP subs that also run service

Jonas Construction Software

Formerly marketed as Jonas Enterprise, it runs job cost, service management (work orders, dispatch, preventive maintenance contracts, a client portal), and payroll in one system. Jonas documents US and Canadian payroll 'whether certified, unionized, or non-unionized', multi-union and multi-trade charges with fringes and burden posted to the general ledger, and certified payroll rate and fringe tables by job, service, and customer.

Best for:: Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire sprinkler subs in the 30-50% service band, where the same technicians and union rates move between service calls and project work, and cross-border groups running Canadian payroll too.
Not for:: Pure project subs with no service department, who would pay for modules they will not use. Not to be confused with Premier Construction Software (formerly Jonas Premier), a separate Constellation brand aimed at GCs and developers and profiled on the construction page.
Where it ends:: The pricing page lists a core user license and SQL Server 2022 user CALs among the mandatory items, with Azure-hosted cloud as an option, so expect a server-era design delivered hosted. Siteline, Kojo, and Miter do not list Jonas Construction Software as a connector (Miter's listing is for Jonas Premier), so GC billing and procurement connect by export or custom work.
Pricing:: Undisclosed. The pricing page lists modules and mandatory components without dollar figures (checked September 24, 2026).
Pairs with:: Nothing. It replaces the ledger rather than pairing with one.

Ownership & sources

Ownership: Constellation Software (public, TSX: CSU); its Jonas Software group bought Gary Jonas Computing in June 2003.

pay app, retention, and lien waiver billing for subcontractors

Siteline

Siteline is accounts receivable software built only for commercial trade contractors, launched in 2019. It keeps digitized copies of each GC's exact pay app and lien waiver forms (the company says 23,000-plus forms from 17,000-plus GCs), submits pay apps by email or through GC portals, tracks retention, pending change orders, compliance documents, and lower-tier vendor waivers, and sells an add-on that tracks state lien deadlines and sends notices by certified mail.

Best for:: Commercial subs billing many GCs each month, where the pain is rejected pay apps, missing waivers, and retention nobody is chasing, while the ledger itself is fine.
Not for:: Service-led trades that invoice homeowners or bill maintenance agreements, and subs whose customers pay without pay applications. It will not fix payroll or job cost.
Where it ends:: No general ledger, payroll, or job cost; its project snapshot is described as a 'mini WIP' for risks and cash needs, not the schedule a surety reads. Its integrations page lists Sage 300 CRE, Sage 100 Contractor, Vista, Spectrum, QuickBooks Enterprise Contractor, QuickBooks Online, Foundation, CMiC, ComputerEase, Sage Intacct, Acumatica, and NetSuite, plus Oracle Textura and Procore Pay, but the page markup labels cards 'coming soon', so confirm your connector is live.
Pricing:: Undisclosed. Custom quotes based on usage, billing volume, and integrations, with unlimited users and no per-seat or location fees (vendor pricing page, September 2026).
Pairs with:: QuickBooks Sage Intacct Acumatica NetSuiteFOUNDATIONTrimble SpectrumSage 100 ContractorDeltek ComputerEaseViewpoint Vista

Ownership & sources

Ownership: Private and venture-backed; announced $18 million in combined seed and Series A funding in February 2022, with Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital, and Brick & Mortar Ventures among the investors.

materials procurement and inventory for trade contractors

Kojo

Kojo runs the material side of a trade contractor: field requisitions, purchasing against distributor catalogs, prefab orders, warehouse and tool tracking, and invoice matching into the accounting system. Formerly Agora Systems and electrical-first, it now markets solutions for concrete, drywall, electrical, flooring, mechanical, and roofing trades, with supplier connections to Wesco, Mayer, Rexel, Hajoca, Graybar, and Border States.

Best for:: Electrical, mechanical, and plumbing subs buying across many jobs from several distributors, where copper and switchgear price moves and unmatched invoices erode fixed-price margins.
Not for:: Subs whose materials are mostly GC- or owner-furnished, and small shops without anyone whose job is purchasing.
Where it ends:: No ledger, payroll, or billing. POs, receipts, and matched invoices post to the ERP; Kojo lists Acumatica, CMiC, Access Coins Evo, Deltek ComputerEase, eCMS, FOUNDATION, Procore, QuickBooks Desktop and Online, Sage 100, Sage 300 CRE, Sage Intacct, Spectrum, and Vista.
Pricing:: Undisclosed. Custom quotes by module (procurement, tool tracking, service, prefab, warehouse, materials AP), per the vendor's pricing page (September 2026).
Pairs with:: QuickBooks Sage Intacct AcumaticaFOUNDATIONTrimble SpectrumDeltek ComputerEaseViewpoint VistaSage 100

Ownership & sources

Ownership: Kojo Technologies, Inc., private and venture-backed: a $33 million Series B led by Tiger Global (August 2021) and a $39 million Series C led by Battery Ventures (September 2022).

construction payroll and workforce system that feeds the ledger

Miter

Miter is payroll, HR, time tracking, and expense software built for contractors, with certified payroll, union fringes, and multi-state rules handled in its payroll engine. It pushes time, payroll, and burdened job costs back to the accounting system; its integrations page lists Sage Intacct, NetSuite, Acumatica, QuickBooks Online and Desktop, Xero, Foundation, Sage 100, Sage 300 CRE, Spectrum, Vista, CMiC, Jonas Premier, Procore, ServiceTitan, and BuildOps.

Best for:: Union or prevailing wage subs that want to keep a horizontal ledger (Acumatica, Intacct, QuickBooks) and move payroll to a construction-specific system instead of changing ERPs. Miter publishes a case study of a mechanical contractor with a multi-union workforce (vendor case study).
Not for:: Subs already running union payroll well inside FOUNDATION, Spectrum, Jonas, or ComputerEase, and shops on Intuit Enterprise Suite or Business Central, neither of which appears on Miter's integration list (September 2026).
Where it ends:: Not a ledger: job cost, billing, retention, and financial statements stay in the ERP. Confirm each union fund's remittance format with Miter before signing, because those formats vary by fund.
Pricing:: Undisclosed. Demo-led quotes; no public price list was found, and the /pricing path returned not found on September 24, 2026.
Pairs with:: Sage Intacct Acumatica QuickBooks NetSuiteFOUNDATIONTrimble SpectrumViewpoint Vista

Ownership & sources

Ownership: Private and venture-backed; a $23 million round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Coatue in May 2025 brought total funding to $38 million (Built In SF).

All 16 systems, re-rated for specialty trade contracting

Ratings are 1-5 for this sub-industry specifically. Where a rating deviates from the Construction page, the evidence names the niche reason. Expand any row for the evidence and caveats.

1Acumatica
●●●●●
The strongest of the 16 for subcontractors, and the only horizontal ERP here that documents union locals, certified-project fringes, retainage, joint checks, and lien waivers in its own product. It sits one point below the construction page because union self-perform subs have construction ledgers with longer payroll track records to test it against.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Rated 4 here versus 5 on the construction page. Acumatica's help documents a Union Locals form (PR209700) with earning rates by labor item and union deductions and benefits calculated per hour or as a percent of gross, plus a fringe benefits tab on certified projects; its QuickBooks-to-Acumatica construction comparison page lists support for 'Multiple Unions, Locales, Classes, Benefit Packages' and 'Joint Check Management, Retainage', and it runs a specialty contractors industry page. The deep profile still rates projectsServices 4 and names certified and union payroll as the module's recurring edge-case complaint, and our search of its public help did not surface a union fund remittance report. For a sub whose product is labor, that gap in evidence is the point between 5 and 4. Siteline, Kojo, and Miter all list Acumatica integrations.
Caveats
Run a full union week before signing: two jobs, one prevailing wage, a traveler from another local, overtime, and each fund's report. A multi-union contractor posting in Acumatica's community in 2025 described the payroll setup as complex but coming together. For 30-50% service firms, price Field Service Edition with Construction Edition; unlimited-user licensing suits subs with many field timecard users.
2Sage Intacct
●●●●●
Level with Acumatica for subcontractors, bought as Sage Intacct Construction with Sage Intacct Construction Payroll. The payroll engine is built by a partner, so the union test applies to that engine as much as to Intacct.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. We tested the research hypothesis that Intacct should drop to 3 for self-perform subs because it has no native US payroll, and rejected it: Sage's help now documents Sage Intacct Construction Payroll, 'powered by Struxi', for self-performed trade payrolls, certified payroll reporting 'in all US states and territories', and state payroll needs of union and non-union organizations, and it requires the Construction subscription. STRUXI, which its site places in JDM Technology Group, says pay rules can be defined by company, job, union, and trade. The deep profile's projectsServices 4 and the Construction 2025 R2 lien waiver automation carry over, and Siteline, Kojo, and Miter all list Intacct connectors.
Caveats
The deep profile line that Intacct has no native US payroll predates this construction payroll option; confirm it is in the quote and which union fund reports it produces, since the pages we checked did not publish remittance formats. Dispatch and field tooling stay thin, so a 30-50% service sub would pair a service platform in front.
3Intuit Enterprise Suite
●●●●●
A credible step up for an open-shop sub that wants to stay on the QuickBooks data model and run several companies, but not a union sub's system. Its construction features are open beta, retention is not a native field, and payroll reporting stops at the federal WH-347.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Rated 3 here versus 4 on the construction page. Intuit launched the construction edition on February 11, 2026, and its construction page still labels the capabilities open beta, free to eligible IES customers now with future pricing possible, with detailed costing and line-item recommendations in early access. The Spring 2026 release documents real-time WIP and a federal Form WH-347 report. IES partner RedHammer's May 2026 review lists prevailing wage rate libraries, fringe accrual by job and worker class, union reporting templates, and retention in AR and AP among the features it wants Intuit to add next, and Knowify's August 2026 review (Knowify sells an IES integration) reports no native retainage field. Retention and union reporting are a sub's core documents, which is the whole deviation. Deep profile projectsServices remains 4.
Caveats
IES does not appear on the integration lists of Siteline, Kojo, or Miter as of September 2026; the deep profile notes that apps built on QuickBooks Online APIs run on IES, so ask each vendor to confirm the IES path in writing. Intuit pitches its payroll at employers of up to roughly 200 people. Multi-entity is its real strength for a group of small companies.
4QuickBooks
●●●●●
Still the right ledger for most small open-shop subs, provided a pay-app tool carries the GC paperwork. It stops being the right answer the week a collective bargaining agreement is signed.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. We tested the research hypothesis of a 2 and kept 3: BLS counted 11.1% of construction wage and salary workers as union members in 2025, so union payroll is the exception across construction labor rather than the rule, and the sub-side tools we verified connect to QuickBooks (Siteline lists QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Enterprise Contractor; Kojo and Miter list QuickBooks Desktop and Online). Deep profile projectsServices 2, because QuickBooks Projects stops at job profitability with nothing for committed cost or over and under billings, which is why the rating depends on the front end.
Caveats
New US subscriptions of Desktop Premier Plus, the edition that switches into Contractor, ended September 30, 2024; Enterprise is still sold. Intuit's Enterprise Contractor page does not mention retainage, certified or union payroll, lien waivers, or WIP. Retention by contract, union fund reports, and a WIP schedule a surety will accept all live outside QuickBooks.
5Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
●●●●●
Rated below the construction page because a sub would need two add-on layers, a construction ISV for pay apps and retainage plus a separate payroll system, and the sub-side tools we checked do not connect to it.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Construction page rates 3. The deep profile rates projectsServices 3, says AIA-style billing and retainage require ISVs, and says payroll is not native in the US. None of the integration pages for Siteline, Kojo, or Miter list Business Central as of September 2026 (Siteline's quote form offers a generic Microsoft Dynamics 365 choice, not a listed connector). For a self-perform sub that leaves union payroll, portal billing, and procurement all as integration projects.
Caveats
A Microsoft-standardized parent company is the realistic reason to accept it. Validate the construction ISV and the payroll provider together, with a union week demo, before judging BC itself.
6Priority ERP
●●●●●
Rated below the construction page: the payroll gap the parent treats as a caveat is the core requirement for a self-perform sub.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Construction page rates 3 on WBS budgeting, progress billing, and the October 2025 Expondo acquisition. The deep profile says US payroll is not a native strength (the native module is oriented to Israeli requirements) and tells US construction buyers to test job costing and AIA-format pay applications themselves. None of the sub-side specialists we checked list a Priority integration.
Caveats
Plausible only for a sub inside a group already running Priority elsewhere, with US payroll and pay apps handled by outside systems.
7NetSuite
●●●●●
A parent-company ledger, not a subcontractor's operating system. It shows up in sub stacks as the consolidation layer over a construction ledger or behind a pay-app tool and a payroll system.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. Deep profile projectsServices 3 measures services project billing, not pay applications, retention, or union payroll, none of which NetSuite has natively. Siteline and Miter list NetSuite integrations and Kojo does not, so a NetSuite sub assembles its GC billing and payroll from specialists.
Caveats
Price the specialists into any NetSuite comparison: a sub would need pay-app software and a construction payroll system on top of the license.
8Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
●●●●●
Built for enterprise project accounting, not for billing a GC or paying a union crew. Even a sub with the budget for F&O would still need partner work for pay applications, retention release, and union payroll.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. The deep profile (projectsServices 3) credits F&O with native work breakdown structures, WIP, and percent-complete accounting, but pay applications, retention release, and union payroll all need partner work, and none of the sub-side specialists we checked list an F&O connector.
Caveats
Only relevant to a trade contractor owned by a diversified, Microsoft-standardized enterprise.
9Epicor
●●●●●
Relevant to a sub in one place: a fabrication or prefab plant run like a factory. As the job-cost and payroll ledger for a trade contractor it is the wrong product.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. Deep profile projectsServices 3 is aimed at engineer-to-order manufacturers, and Prophet 21's job constructs serve contractor-supply distributors, which is the other side of a sub's purchase order, not a fit signal.
Caveats
A large mechanical or sheet metal sub with a standalone fab plant could run Kinetic for the shop and a construction ledger for jobs and payroll. That is two systems by design.
10Infor CloudSuite
●●●●●
Infor's project strength is aircraft and heavy-equipment manufacturing. Nothing we found in its portfolio handles a sub's pay applications up the chain or its union payroll.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. Deep profile projectsServices 3 rests on LN project manufacturing for aerospace and heavy equipment, and none of the sub-side specialists we checked list an Infor integration.
Caveats
No contractor module or sub-side connector exists to test.
11Odoo
●●●●●
Rated below the construction page. The one construction buyer the parent carves out for Odoo, a tiny remodeler sending simple invoices, has no subcontractor equivalent, because subs bill GCs through pay applications with retention from their first commercial job.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Construction page rates 2 while its own verdict rules Odoo out for anyone who has to submit pay apps, and every commercial subcontractor submits them. The deep profile adds that construction WIP and percent-complete revenue would be customization work and that US payroll runs through an ADP connector rather than a native US engine, so the labor a sub sells has no native home either.
Caveats
Not worth a demo slot for a subcontractor.
12SAP Business One
●●●●●
No subcontractor story: no pay applications, retention workflow, or US construction payroll.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. Deep profile projectsServices 2 describes a lightweight module for internal projects, and none of the sub-side specialists we checked list a Business One integration.
Caveats
None.
13Rillet
●●●●●
A SaaS revenue ledger. Nothing in it maps to pay applications, retention, or union payroll.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. Deep profile rates projectsServices 2 and finds no project costing at all; payroll comes from Rippling rather than a construction payroll engine.
Caveats
Category mismatch; none of Siteline, Kojo, or Miter list a Rillet connector.
14Campfire
●●●●●
A ledger built for software companies, with no project costing, so a trade contractor's burdened labor has nowhere to land.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. The deep profile (projectsServices 2) finds neither project costing nor any published sign that percent-complete accounting works.
Caveats
Category mismatch; none of Siteline, Kojo, or Miter list a Campfire connector.
15DualEntry
●●●●●
A double-breasted group might be drawn to its multi-entity handling, but there is no job cost, pay app, or construction payroll behind it.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. Deep profile projectsServices 2: dimensions and allocations only, with payroll and HR through integrations such as Deel.
Caveats
Category mismatch; its payroll path is an HR integration, not a construction payroll engine.
16Light
●●●●●
With no project costing, there is nowhere to post a crew's week against a job, which ends it for a trade sub.
Evidence & caveats
What supports this rating
Matches the construction page rating. Deep profile projectsServices 1.
Caveats
Category mismatch; none of the sub-side tools we checked integrate with it.

What actually matters in this niche

Capability priorities for specialty trade contracting buyers, from our fit model. Vendors demo everything; these are the areas where depth decides outcomes.

Critical

Project / job accounting: A sub's job cost is labor first: wages, union fringes, payroll taxes, and workers comp posted by job and cost code every week, T&M tickets signed in the field priced at burdened rates and carried through to approved change orders, retention receivable by contract, and pay applications built against each GC's schedule of values. A surety reading the sub's WIP schedule wants over and under billings job by job, and those only exist if all of it lands in one ledger.

Important

Complex revenue recognition: Bonded subs report over and under billings per job, and the percent-complete numbers have to tie to the pay apps each GC actually approved, not to what the project manager hoped to bill. Open-shop subs doing small private work on simpler books can defer it.
Multi-entity & consolidation: Some union subs run double-breasted: a union company and an open-shop company under common owners. Labor-law guidance for those groups stresses separate management, labor relations, equipment, bank accounts, and financial records (ConsensusDocs, 2022), so the ledger has to keep two companies cleanly apart while still giving the owners a combined view.
Field service: When an MEP sub carries a service arm, the split decides the system. Our editorial line: at 30-50% of gross profit from service, dispatch and job cost belong in one database; at 50% or more, the firm fits the field services pages better. Pure project trades (drywall, concrete, glazing) can treat it as rarely needed.
Inventory management: Electrical and plumbing subs stock wire, conduit, fittings, and fixtures in a shop or yard and issue them to jobs, and prefab shops add assemblies. They need material charged to the job at the right cost, returns credited back, and committed cost by PO, not distribution-grade demand planning.

Rarely decisive here: Intercompany transactions, Warehouse management (bins/lots/serials), Manufacturing & production, Subscription / recurring billing, High transaction volumes, EDI with trading partners, Ecommerce integrations, Multi-currency. Do not pay for depth in these unless your sub-vertical is the exception the page notes.

What sends specialty trade contracting companies shopping

1
A GC moves its subcontractors onto a payment portal. The AR team now builds each pay application and lien waiver inside the GC's system (Oracle Textura, Procore Pay, GCPay, or Trimble Pay) and again in the ledger, and where the sub is responsible for Textura's fee, it pays 0.22% of contract value, up to $5,000 per contract, when it accepts the contract (Oracle's published fee for projects created after January 19, 2023).
2
Retention outgrows the spreadsheet. Dozens of open contracts each hold money until closeout, and the controller needs retention receivable by contract, GC, state, and release condition. On California public works the withholding cannot exceed 5% of any payment at any contract tier (Public Contract Code 7201); other work follows the contract and the state's own rules.
3
The shop signs its first collective bargaining agreement, or starts working under a second local. Each local brings its own wage classes and fund contributions; an electrical contractor paying into the National Electrical Benefit Fund owes 3% of each bargaining-unit employee's gross labor payroll and files a Monthly Payroll Report even in months with no covered work. From here, a payroll demo should decide the system, not a job-cost demo.
4
The first prevailing wage job arrives. Davis-Bacon covers federally funded or assisted construction contracts over $2,000, subcontractors included, so weekly certified payroll becomes the sub's deliverable, not just the GC's.
5
QuickBooks Desktop runs out of road for new buyers. Intuit stopped selling Desktop Premier Plus, the edition that switches into the Contractor version, to new US subscribers after September 30, 2024, and ended support for the 2023 versions after May 31, 2026. Renewals and QuickBooks Enterprise continue, so the real decision is whether to renew, move to QuickBooks Online, or move to a construction ledger.
6
Material prices move faster than bids. ABC's analysis of BLS producer prices put construction inputs 8.9% above a year earlier in August 2026, with switchgear and copper wire and cable up more than 10%. A fixed-price electrical or mechanical sub needs committed cost by PO and cost code and a documented path from escalation to a change request, which pulls a procurement tool such as Kojo into scope.
7
A service division reaches 30% to 50% of gross profit. Maintenance agreements, dispatch, and project job cost can no longer run in separate systems without double entry of the same technicians and union rates, and the shortlist narrows to products that do both in one database.

Numbers worth citing

Key takeaway · as of 2026-09-24
Specialty trade contractors (NAICS 238) employed about 5.28 million people in August 2026, roughly 63 percent of the 8.36 million employed across US construction (BLS Current Employment Statistics, seasonally adjusted, preliminary).

Key takeaway · as of 2026-09-24
Union members made up 11.1 percent of US construction wage and salary workers in 2025, 995,000 of 9.0 million, up from 10.3 percent in 2024 (BLS Union Members release, February 18, 2026).

Key takeaway · as of 2026-09-24
Oracle Textura charges subcontractors a usage fee of 0.22 percent of contract value, capped at $5,000 per contract for projects created after January 19, 2023, plus a flat $100 for sub-tier contracts, paid when the subcontractor accepts the contract (Oracle Textura Payment Management help, checked September 2026).

Key takeaway · as of 2026-09-24
California caps retention on public works at 5 percent of each payment for contracts entered on or after January 1, 2012, and the same cap flows down to every subcontract tier unless the agency finds the project substantially complex before bid (California Public Contract Code 7201).

Key takeaway · as of 2026-09-24
US construction input prices were 8.9 percent higher in August 2026 than a year earlier, with switchgear and copper wire and cable among the categories up more than 10 percent (Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of BLS Producer Price Index data, September 10, 2026).

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Specialty Trade Contracting: common questions

What is the best software for specialty trade contractors?

It depends on payroll more than on job cost. Union self-perform subs should start with construction ledgers that run union payroll in-house: FOUNDATION, Trimble Spectrum, Jonas, Deltek ComputerEase, and Sage 100 Contractor for smaller shops. Among the 16 ERPs we score, Acumatica and Sage Intacct Construction lead at 4 of 5 for subcontractors, with Intuit Enterprise Suite and QuickBooks at 3. Open-shop subs can stay on QuickBooks with a pay-app tool such as Siteline until a union agreement, bonding, or a service arm forces a bigger system.

What is the best software for electrical and plumbing contractors?

First decide which side of the business you are on. Project-side electrical and plumbing subs, who bill GCs through pay applications with retention, belong on this page: the construction ledgers above, plus Kojo for distributor purchasing and Siteline for GC billing. Firms earning half or more of gross profit from service calls and agreements belong on our field services pages, where dispatch platforms lead. For union electrical subs, NEBF's 3 percent of gross labor payroll and its monthly report make payroll depth the first test, and switchgear and copper price swings make PO-level committed cost the second.

Which specialist systems should subcontractors evaluate?

Eight made our verified roster as of September 2026, in three layers. Ledgers with construction payroll: FOUNDATION, Trimble Spectrum, Sage 100 Contractor, Deltek ComputerEase, and Jonas Construction Software. Beside the ledger: Siteline for pay apps, retention, and lien waivers, and Kojo for materials procurement. Payroll only: Miter, for subs that keep a horizontal ERP and move union and certified payroll to a construction payroll system. Each profile on this page states where the product ends.

How do subcontractors submit pay apps through Textura, GCPay or Procore Pay?

Through the GC's portal and in the GC's format, usually with a conditional lien waiver attached and an unconditional one released once payment clears. Costs differ by portal: Trimble Pay is free to subs a GC invites, while Oracle's published Textura fee is 0.22 percent of contract value, up to $5,000 per contract for projects created after January 19, 2023, when the sub pays its own fee. Siteline lists Textura and Procore Pay among its connections. Ask whether your ledger or pay-app tool can submit directly, because keying the same numbers into each portal is where rejected pay apps start.

Does Intuit Enterprise Suite handle union payroll and retention for subcontractors?

Not natively as of September 2026. Intuit's construction edition, launched February 11, 2026 and still labeled open beta, documents real-time WIP, AIA-style invoices, and certified payroll on the federal Form WH-347. IES partner RedHammer's May 2026 review lists union reporting templates, fringe accrual by job and worker class, and retention handling among the features it wants added, and Knowify's August 2026 review reports no native retainage field. That is why IES rates 3 here against 4 on our construction page.

Should a Viewpoint Vista subcontractor migrate to Intuit Enterprise Suite?

Rarely, if the company is a union self-perform sub. Trimble positions Vista for heavy HR and payroll and complex multi-entity accounting; moving to IES would push union payroll, fund remittances, and retention out of the ledger into separate tools while the IES construction features are still in open beta. The move makes sense mainly for a company that has become a single-entity open shop and wants lower cost and QuickBooks-trained staff, and even then, price that replacement stack against Trimble Spectrum first.

What should a contractor use instead of QuickBooks Desktop?

Start with why you are leaving. Intuit stopped selling Desktop Premier Plus, the edition that switches into the Contractor version, to new US subscribers after September 30, 2024, and ended support for the 2023 versions after May 31, 2026, but renewals and QuickBooks Enterprise continue. An open-shop sub whose pain is pay apps can move to QuickBooks Online or stay on Enterprise and add Siteline or Knowify; QuickBooks Online lacks the estimates-versus-actuals job reporting Desktop offered. A union or prevailing wage sub should move to a construction ledger with native payroll (FOUNDATION, Spectrum, ComputerEase, or Sage 100 Contractor). A multi-company open shop that wants to stay with Intuit can test Intuit Enterprise Suite, knowing retention is not native.

Best software for electrical, plumbing and mechanical subcontractors: construction ledgers vs ERP, scored

What changes when construction narrows to specialty trade contracting

Billing up the chain: pay apps, GC portals, retention and lien waivers

Union payroll is the real selection test

Electrical, mechanical, plumbing and finish subs: what shifts by trade

The head-to-head calls buyers here actually make

FOUNDATION vs Trimble Spectrum

Sage 100 Contractor vs FOUNDATION

Intuit Enterprise Suite vs Sage 100 Contractor

Acumatica Construction vs Sage Intacct Construction

Trimble Vista vs Trimble Spectrum for larger subs

Who this page covers

The niche roster: 8 specialists, verified

All 16 systems, re-rated for specialty trade contracting

What actually matters in this niche

What sends specialty trade contracting companies shopping

Numbers worth citing

Where does your company land?

Specialty Trade Contracting: common questions

What is the best software for specialty trade contractors?

What is the best software for electrical and plumbing contractors?

Which specialist systems should subcontractors evaluate?

How do subcontractors submit pay apps through Textura, GCPay or Procore Pay?

Does Intuit Enterprise Suite handle union payroll and retention for subcontractors?

Should a Viewpoint Vista subcontractor migrate to Intuit Enterprise Suite?

What should a contractor use instead of QuickBooks Desktop?

Further reading from our research