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Why Xero users start looking for construction cost control software
The issue is not that Xero is bad at accounting. The issue is that project teams need more detailed, live commercial visibility than accounting software is designed to provide. Once budgets, cost tracking, and invoice checks start spilling into spreadsheets, it becomes much harder to stay in control.
Xero handles bookkeeping, not live project budget control
Built for accounting, not job costing
Project teams still need detailed cost visibility during the job
Not just at month-end
Spreadsheets often end up filling the gap
Manual, fragile, hard to keep current
It becomes harder to trust the live financial picture
Numbers drift between files and exports
"We use Xero to manage the company’s bookkeeping and finances, but it doesn't provide the detailed project information we need to manage our projects effectively."
Sharon Brown
Financial Controller
· Empower Renewables
· Dublin, Ireland
Add the construction costing layer Xero is missing
Planyard gives project teams one place to manage costs instead of juggling spreadsheets and accounting exports. It is built for how construction teams actually handle budgets, commitments, orders, and invoices.
Manage project budgets and live costs in one place
One live view of the job
Track committed costs before invoices arrive
Know your position early
Review and approve costs before they reach Xero
Control at the project level
Keep project controls aligned with accounting
Approved costs flow through cleanly
"When I have been working on cloud accounting like Xero and Quickbooks they don’t have a specific construction-based costing tool. You have project management costing tools but they are not aimed at the level of what construction companies need so I came across Planyard and I was like finally there is something that solves the problem."
Paul Howarth
Experienced FD/Consultant
· Live Management Accounts
Move from Xero plus spreadsheets to one connected workflow
For many contractors, the real pain is not Xero itself. It is the manual process built around Xero.
Xero + spreadsheets
Planyard + Xero
Estimates, budgets, and actuals managed across separate files
Budgets, costs, and approvals connected in one workflow
Data pulled from Xero and matched manually in Excel
Project costs reviewed live before they land in accounting
Hard to see how the budget is tracking clearly
Clear view of budget versus actual expenditure
Financial clarity depends on manual reconciliation
Financial clarity comes from one connected process
"It was a combination of manual steps that slowed us down. We were doing estimates in one spreadsheet, creating another to manage the budget, and then trying to extract data from Xero to bring back into Excel. From there, we had to somehow match everything up just to understand how the budget was tracking against our actual expenditure. It was a disjointed process that made financial clarity difficult to achieve."
Jason Escobar
Project Management / Systems & Process Dev
· The Keane Group
· Queensland, Australia
Let project teams manage costs while Xero handles payments
Contractors do not need one system to do everything. They need the right split between project cost control and accounting. Planyard lets project teams handle approvals, budget control, and margin visibility before costs hit the accounting system. Then Xero stays focused on what it does best, while management still gets a clearer view of project performance.
"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."
Lee Covington
Owner
· E&N Group Ltd
· London, United Kingdom
Works on top of the accounting tools you already use
Planyard is the live project cost-control layer on top of your accounting system. Approved invoices flow through to Xero, QuickBooks, and more.
Empower Renewables kept Xero for finance and added Planyard for live project cost control.
Empower Renewables ran their bookkeeping in Xero but it could not give them project-level cost detail. With Planyard on top, they track budgets and committed costs live and approved invoices flow straight through to Xero, so finance and project teams finally work from the same numbers.
We've got your questions covered. If you can't find the answer below, then feel free to contact us via the chat.
It is software that adds project budget control, committed-cost tracking, invoice approval, and margin visibility on top of Xero.
Because Xero is strong on bookkeeping and accounting, but project teams usually need more detailed project-level cost control during delivery.
No. Xero stays as the accounting system, while Planyard becomes the project cost-control layer.
Yes. It replaces much of the manual spreadsheet work that contractors often build around Xero to manage budgets and track costs.
Yes. Costs can be approved in Planyard and then sent into Xero with the right accounting context.
No. It is especially helpful for growing contractors who want better control without moving into heavy enterprise software.
Yes. One of the main advantages is seeing committed costs before invoices arrive.
It gives project teams a live construction cost-control workflow instead of forcing them to manage budgets and cost tracking through spreadsheets and accounting reports.
