A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing the Right Construction Accounting Software

Construction, News, Switching & Comparisons

SUMMARY

Construction accounting software needs to show project costs, retentions, work in progress, and group results clearly. CIS support is essential, but its scope varies between systems. Your best choice depends on the complexity of your contracts and entities, the reporting you need, and which operational systems you want to keep.

Three live contracts, retention held on each, a CIS-registered supply chain, and a board meeting on Thursday that needs margin by project and division on one page. Your ledger produces the P&L. The rest sits in a work-in-progress workbook that one person on the team fully understands.

That workbook holds much of the detail you need to manage the business. Choosing construction accounting software means deciding where that detail should live and how finance will keep it accurate as contracts, costs, and forecasts change.

CIS filing is one requirement. For a growing contractor group, the bigger test is whether project reporting and consolidation still depend on finance rebuilding the numbers each month.

What Does Your Construction Accounting Software Need to Do?

Construction accounting software should connect project costs, contract billing, and financial reporting. Your requirements should cover these five areas:

Project costing: record relevant costs against the right project, phase, and cost type, including commitments before invoices arrive.
Retentions: show amounts held from customers and subcontractors, the contract terms, expected release dates, and outstanding balances.
Work in progress: reconcile WIP to the general ledger and show the inputs behind each calculation. Cost value reconciliation (CVR) should bring costs, valuations, and forecasts together.
UK compliance: trace CIS verification, deductions, payments, and returns, and handle the VAT domestic reverse charge where it applies.
Group reporting: consolidate your trading company, subsidiaries, and special purpose vehicles (SPVs), with a clear process for intercompany eliminations.

What Changed for CIS and Retentions in 2026?

Your shortlist needs to cover current duties and accommodate changes to contract terms. The requirements below affect different parts of the finance process.

CIS returns and Gross Payment Status

HMRC’s CIS 340 guide states that monthly returns are due by the 19th. From 6 April 2026, mainstream contractors must file a nil return or notify HMRC of inactivity when they make no subcontractor payments. That makes responsibility for each registered entity’s return part of your system and close planning.

HMRC’s policy paper on tackling CIS fraud also sets out changes effective from 6 April 2026. HMRC can immediately cancel Gross Payment Status where a business knew, or should have known, that a transaction was connected with fraudulent tax evasion. The reapplication restriction following immediate cancellation extends to five years. Software supports records and controls; your team still needs to assess suppliers and investigate concerns.

Proposed changes to construction retentions

The Commercial Payments Bill proposes a ban on retention clauses in construction contracts. Parliament’s bill page shows that it hasn’t completed its passage as at 1 October 2026. The Department for Business and Trade says implementation will include a lead-in time and transition period.

You still need to track retentions under current contracts. Ask vendors how their system records different terms and manages releases, including approval and payment. A change in legislation won’t make every existing retention immediately payable or cause the software to update every contract automatically.

Which Construction Accounting Systems Should You Compare?

A useful shortlist includes general accounting systems and construction-focused platforms. Xero, QuickBooks Online, and Sage 50 Accounts offer accounting and project features for less complex requirements. Access Coins Evo and Eque2 EVision combine finance with wider construction processes. Sage Intacct with Construction focuses on construction financial management and can connect to operational tools. The right scope depends on whether you’re replacing finance alone or changing how the wider business works.

Construction Accounting Software Compared

The table summarises the six systems using published information from Xero, Intuit, Sage, The Access Group, and Eque2. Features depend on editions, subscriptions, modules, and configuration; use the final column to shape your demonstration:

System	Main Scope	Published Strengths	What to Check for Your Business
Xero	General cloud accounting	CIS calculations; contractor add-on for verification and filing; tracking categories	Project reporting beyond two active tracking categories; contract retention records; group reporting through additional tools
QuickBooks Online UK	General cloud accounting	CIS calculations and filing; project income and cost tracking in Plus and Advanced	Contract-level retention workflows, WIP/CVR, and consolidated reporting beyond individual company accounts
Sage 50 Accounts	General accounting with optional modules	CIS module; project costing in Professional; consolidation of nominal balances	Retention and WIP workflows; consolidation restrictions and lack of transaction drill-down in the consolidated company
Access Coins Evo	Modular construction ERP	Job costing, CVR, applications for payment, retention, CIS, and multi-entity consolidation	Which finance, commercial, procurement, and operational modules you need; interfaces with systems you’re keeping
Eque2 EVision	Construction ERP on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central	Contract management, CVR, applications, valuations, variations, CIS, and group consolidation	Retention releases, elimination handling, and reporting using your actual entity and project structure
Sage Intacct with Construction	Construction financial management	Project, task, and cost-type reporting; contract billing; retention; WIP; consolidation options	Required subscriptions, the CIS solution, UK billing workflows, and operational integrations

Can Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage 50 Handle Construction Accounting?

These systems can cover accounting needs for smaller contractors. The question is how much additional work your contract and group reporting requires.

Xero

Xero’s UK documentation lists CIS calculations on Ignite and above, with an additional subscription for contractor verification and filing. Its developer documentation limits each organisation to two active tracking categories. Using both for project and cost type leaves no further category for division. Xero’s official product response confirms that native consolidated reporting isn’t currently planned. Connected tools can provide additional reporting, but test how they reconcile to each company’s accounts.

QuickBooks Online

Intuit’s UK CIS page describes automatic deductions and direct filing to HMRC. Its project documentation supports income and cost tracking in Plus and Advanced. Those features help with individual jobs. Your demonstration should also cover retention balances, contract billing, WIP, and group reporting: the UK plan comparison doesn’t establish a complete construction contract or multi-entity consolidation workflow.

Sage 50 Accounts

Sage’s documentation describes project costing in Professional and CIS processing through its CIS module. Its consolidation option combines nominal balances in a separate company. Sage’s knowledgebase states that this produces totals rather than transactional or drillable management reports. It also excludes companies with different base currencies. That matters when the board needs to investigate a consolidated figure back to its source transaction.

How Do Access Coins Evo and Eque2 EVision Compare With Sage Intacct?

Both construction ERPs offer substantial finance and commercial functionality. Compare their wider scope with the systems your site and commercial teams already use.

Access Coins Evo

The Access Group lists live job costing, CVR, applications for payment, retentions, CIS, and multi-entity consolidation. Its procurement documentation describes a modular ERP: you choose the modules your business needs. That makes it relevant when you want finance, procurement, payroll, and project control on a common platform. Assess the modules and integrations in your proposed implementation, including who will maintain project structures and approve commercial data.

Eque2 EVision

Eque2 builds EVision on Business Central and lists construction contract management, CVR, valuations, variations, CIS, and group reporting. Microsoft Learn confirms that Business Central supports as many dimensions as required, with two global and up to eight shortcut dimensions. Those field limits aren’t a ceiling on total reporting dimensions. Ask Eque2 to demonstrate reporting and eliminations in EVision itself; the base platform’s documentation doesn’t establish how every EVision workflow operates.

When Is Sage Intacct a Strong Fit for Construction Finance?

Sage Intacct is a strong option when you need detailed project financials and group reporting while retaining suitable operational systems. Sage’s UK construction page describes actual and committed cost tracking, WIP, and multi-entity financial management. Our Sage Intacct Construction guide covers the product in more detail.

Project costing, billing, and retention

Sage Intacct’s construction help describes a project hierarchy using project, task, and cost-type dimensions. The Construction subscription supports billing against contract terms and retention management. Sage’s retention documentation covers customer and supplier balances, separate ledger accounts, and releases, with additional construction-specific options. Configure these around your contracts and reporting needs. WIP reports still depend on accurate costs, billing, and the agreed accounting method; commercial teams must keep forecasts current.

Consolidation across contractor entities

Sage’s consolidation documentation describes automatic elimination of configured inter-entity transactions and drill-down into consolidation journals. Global Consolidation adds currency translation for groups with different base currencies. That reduces manual consolidation work while preserving a route back to the supporting entries. Select the consolidation subscription for your ownership structure, currencies, and reporting requirements.

CIS and operational integrations

Sage’s UK page describes support for CIS compliance. For a specific implementation, confirm how verification, deductions, and HMRC submissions will work. Sage Intacct Marketplace lists an integrated CIS module from Solutions Cloud UK with those functions and per-entity settings. Its availability doesn’t mean every Construction subscription includes it. Sage also describes an open API and connections such as Procore; agree the data flows, approval steps, and UK functionality before implementation.

Your demonstration should follow a live contract from the first cost through billing, retention, and group reporting.

What Does Moving to Sage Intacct Involve for a Contractor?

Plan the move around your live contracts, reporting calendar, and CIS duties. Agree which open contracts, retention balances, billing history, and commitments need to transfer, then reconcile the opening position. Confirm how you’ll preserve verification records and complete the first CIS return. Set go-live around testing, training, and business readiness. A phased entity rollout is one option, but its suitability depends on intercompany activity and reporting dependencies. Test the first close and retention release before sign-off, and agree who will support your team afterwards.

What Should You Test in a Construction Accounting Software Demo?

Give each vendor the same anonymised contract and entity structure. Ask them to demonstrate these six tasks and identify any module, integration, or manual step:

Show cost to date, revenue to date, committed costs, and forecast to complete for one project.
Trace a customer retention and a subcontractor retention through withholding, expected release, approval, and payment.
Reconcile WIP to the general ledger and explain how it relates to CVR.
Trace a CIS deduction from the return back to the subcontractor’s verification and payment records.
Consolidate two entities, show intercompany eliminations, and investigate a group figure back to its source.
Show how your team manages a registered entity’s CIS nil return or inactivity notification, including responsibility and evidence of completion.

Bring Your Contracts and Group Structure to a Discovery Session with Us

Your contract list, entity chart, and latest WIP workbook give us a practical starting point. We can use them to assess how Sage Intacct would support your finance team and which modules or integrations you’d need. If you’re reviewing construction accounting software, a discovery session is a useful next step.