ApprovalMax is a popular way to put purchase orders and supplier bills through proper sign-off before they reach Xero, QuickBooks Online or NetSuite. Construction companies use it for the same reason everyone else does: nobody wants an unapproved invoice paid. Where it falls short for contractors is the project side. An approved bill is still not on the job budget.
Last verified: October 2026
This article looks at what ApprovalMax does well, when a construction company should look elsewhere, and five alternatives. If you are comparing approval tools more widely, including Zahara, Lightyear and Xero’s built-in approval, see our guide to the best invoice approval software for construction companies.
ApprovalMax Alternatives Compared
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Accounting integrations | Approvals linked to job budget | Verdict |
| ApprovalMax (for reference) | Pure accounts payable approval | £35.83 per organisation per month billed yearly | Xero, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite | No | The benchmark for multi-step sign-off |
| Planyard | Approvals tied to construction budgets | £123 per project manager per month (approval workflows) | Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, MYOB | Yes | Pick it when every approval should move a job budget |
| Procore | Large contractors wanting one platform | Quote only | QuickBooks, Sage and others | Yes | Powerful, heavy and expensive for small firms |
| CMiC | Large contractors needing a full ERP | Quote only | Built-in financials | Yes | Enterprise ERP with long implementation |
| Buildertrend | US residential builders | $499 USD per month | QuickBooks, Xero | Yes | Built for US home builders |
| Dext | Invoice capture with simple approvals | £24.17 per month billed yearly | Xero, QuickBooks, Sage | No | Cheaper if capture matters more than routing |
What Is ApprovalMax?
ApprovalMax is cloud software that automates approval workflows for purchase orders, bills, credit notes, expenses and, on some plans, sales quotes and customer invoices. It connects to Xero, QuickBooks Online and Oracle NetSuite and posts approved documents back with the approval record attached.
Its main features:
- Multi-level approvals that run in sequence or in parallel, with rules based on value, supplier and department
- Several approval channels, including the iOS and Android apps
- Bill-to-PO matching, audit reports and segregation of duties
- Budget checks during approval on the Advanced and Premium plans
- ApprovalMax Capture for reading invoices, and ApprovalMax Pay for paying approved bills (UK businesses on Xero)
- Unlimited approvers on current Xero and QuickBooks Online plans
Pricing starts at £35.83 per organisation per month billed yearly for Standard Small, or £43 billed monthly, excluding VAT. The plan size follows how many documents you approve. There is a 14-day free trial.
Why Construction Companies Consider ApprovalMax Alternatives
ApprovalMax handles approval routing well. The problem for a contractor is what happens next. The approval lives in the finance system, while the budget lives in a spreadsheet, so somebody still has to update the job cost report by hand after every approved order and invoice.
A construction-specific tool closes that gap in a few ways:
- An approved purchase order shows up as a committed cost on the project straight away.
- An invoice is checked against the order or subcontract it belongs to, not just against a supplier.
- The person approving sees the cost code and what is left in that budget line, not a company-wide budget.
- Approvals, budgets and forecasts sit in one place, so the margin on each job is current.
ApprovalMax does show budget impact on its higher plans, but the budget is the one in Xero or QuickBooks. It has no idea of subcontract values, variations or cost to complete, and it does not stop an over-budget document by itself.
How We Chose
We picked tools that construction companies use to approve orders and invoices and that tie those approvals to project costs, plus one lower-cost capture tool. We checked prices on each vendor’s own site in October 2026 and wrote “Quote only” where a vendor does not publish one.
The Best ApprovalMax Alternatives for Construction
1. Planyard – Best for Approvals Tied to Construction Budgets
Planyard is construction financial management software for small and mid-sized contractors that keep Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or MYOB as their ledger. Approvals happen on the project: a purchase order goes through one or more approval stages before it is issued and becomes a committed cost on the budget; an invoice is matched to its order or subcontract, approved by the person who ordered the work and then synced to accounting.
- Approval workflows for purchase orders and invoices, and for bids on the Ultimate plan
- Purchase orders issued from your company email address
- Invoice management with OCR, inbox import and Outlook and Gmail add-ins
- Subcontract management and subcontractor payment applications
- Budgets and forecasts that update as approvals go through
"We had to get our accountant on board and interface it with Xero, so invoices hit the right job number. Now an invoice gets uploaded in Planyard, I sign it off, and it drops into my Xero payment schedule in three or four weeks – it’s perfect."
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Best for: contractors who want every approved order and invoice to show up on the job budget, without changing accounting software.
Watch out for: approval workflows start on the Professional plan. It is built around projects, so if you also need sign-off on overheads that sit outside any job, check how that fits before you switch.
Pricing: Essential £82 per project manager per month (invoice import and accounting sync); Professional £123 adds OCR and purchase order and invoice approval workflows; Ultimate £164 adds subcontract orders, subcontractor payment applications and RFQs with bid approvals. Supporting staff £33. 14-day free trial. See the ApprovalMax vs Planyard comparison.
Approve it once and see it on the budget
Planyard puts purchase order and invoice approvals on the project, then syncs approved invoices to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or MYOB. 14-day free trial.
2. Procore – Best for Large Contractors Wanting One Platform
Procore is a construction management platform covering project management, quality and safety, and financials. Its financial tools manage budgets, commitments, change orders and subcontractor invoices, with approval steps built into those workflows, and it connects to accounting systems including QuickBooks and Sage. See the Procore vs Planyard comparison and our Procore alternatives page.
Best for: larger contractors who want site, document and financial processes in one system.
Watch out for: a long implementation and a price that small firms rarely justify for approvals alone.
Pricing: Quote only. Procore prices on your products and annual construction volume, with unlimited users.
3. CMiC – Best for Large Contractors Needing a Full ERP
CMiC is a construction ERP with its own financials, project controls and enterprise planning. Because the general ledger, job costing and approvals sit in one database, approvals feed project costs directly. It suits large general contractors and owners rather than small firms moving off Xero or QuickBooks.
Best for: large contractors replacing their accounting system and project controls at the same time.
Watch out for: it replaces your accounting software, and implementation is a project in itself.
Pricing: Quote only. CMiC does not publish prices.
4. Buildertrend – Best for US Residential Builders
Buildertrend is US construction management software for home builders and remodelers. It covers estimates, budgets, purchase orders and bills, client invoicing, scheduling and a client portal, and integrates with QuickBooks and Xero. It now includes CoConstruct, which it bought in 2021. See the Buildertrend vs Planyard comparison.
Best for: US residential builders who want job financials and client communication in one place.
Watch out for: it is built and priced for the US market, and its approval steps are simpler than a dedicated approval tool, so check they match your sign-off rules.
Pricing: starting at $499 USD per month, with 10% off when you pay annually upfront.
5. Dext – Best for Invoice Capture With Simple Approvals
Dext, formerly Receipt Bank, reads receipts and supplier invoices and publishes them to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage. It has simple approval stages, so it can replace ApprovalMax for firms whose bigger problem is getting documents in rather than routing them through complex rules. Our Dext alternatives article covers it in more detail.
Best for: small firms that want capture and a basic sign-off step in one cheaper tool.
Watch out for: it has no project budgets, so an approved invoice does not update job costs.
Pricing: from £24.17 per month excluding VAT, billed annually at £290, for 5 users and 250 documents a month. Free trial.
When ApprovalMax Is Still the Right Choice
If your finance team approves spend across several Xero or QuickBooks organisations, has detailed rules by value and department, and does not need approvals to land on a job budget, ApprovalMax is a strong tool at a fair price. It also covers non-project spend, journals and sales invoices, which construction platforms usually do not.
If the reason you need approvals is project cost control, so that site managers sign off what they ordered and the budget stays current, a construction tool like Planyard does the approval and the cost tracking in one step.
"Whenever an invoice comes to me through Planyard, I don’t need to waste time going back to the project manager to check if it's okay. I know it is, because they have already added it to the system and approved it before sending it through to finance."
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Put approvals where the project budget is
See committed costs, approved invoices and the forecast for every job, synced with your accounting software. Try Planyard free for 14 days.