Carl Edlund

If you track costs per project, manage subcontractor payments, or handle CIS deductions, yes. General tools like Xero and QuickBooks handle invoicing, bank feeds and CIS returns well, but they cannot allocate costs to individual jobs with proper cost codes or track subcontractor applications and retention. A construction layer on top fills that gap without replacing your accountant’s preferred platform.

Xero alone does not support per-project job costing at the level builders need. You can use tracking categories for basic allocation, but it breaks down with multiple cost codes, subcontractor packages, and retention. Pairing Xero with a construction-specific tool like Planyard gives you proper job costing while keeping Xero as your accounting ledger.

QuickBooks calculates CIS and files contractor returns on every plan from Simple Start (£16 a month). Xero calculates subcontractor CIS on all plans and charges £5 a month to file contractor returns. FreeAgent covers both sides, Sage Accounting includes CIS from its £43 Standard plan, and Sage 50 sells it as an £11 module. All of them deduct from the labour part of the bill, so the labour and materials split has to be right before the bill arrives. Planyard sets that split on the subcontract order and passes it to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage.

For a small contractor, usually yes. QuickBooks Online includes CIS calculation and contractor returns from Simple Start at £16 a month, which makes it the cheapest mainstream option with CIS filing built in, and its Projects feature gives basic job tracking. It runs out of depth once you manage several subcontract packages with applications, variations and retention. At that point most firms keep QuickBooks as the ledger and add a construction tool such as Planyard on top.

HMRC does not recommend any software. It publishes a list of products compatible with Making Tax Digital and a list of commercial CIS software suppliers, and it offers a free online service for filing CIS returns. Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent and Zoho Books are all MTD compatible for VAT. Pick from those based on CIS support, your accountant and how much project tracking you need.

General tools start at £16 to £20 a month (QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Accounting), and Zoho Books has a free plan. Planyard costs £82 to £164 per project manager per month, or £40 for Estimating only. Enterprise systems like Procore or The Access Group often cost £1,000 per month and above, with implementation fees on top.

General accounting tools manage company-wide profit and loss, bank feeds, and VAT returns. Construction accounting software adds per-project job costing, subcontractor payment applications, retention tracking, and cost-to-complete forecasting. The distinction matters because a profitable company can still have loss-making projects hidden inside the overall figures.

Construction-specific tools like Planyard, Sage 50, and The Access Group all track costs per project with multiple cost codes. General tools like Xero require workarounds using tracking categories, which become unmanageable beyond 3-5 active projects. If per-project visibility is a priority, choose a tool built for it.

It depends on the tier. Enterprise platforms like Procore or The Access Group take weeks or months, with a 3-6 month rollout typical for a full construction ERP. Tools built for smaller contractors, like Planyard, usually have a team working within hours: you import your existing budget structure and start tracking against it the same day.