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Accounting & bookkeeping software for the trades

Contractors doing job costing across multiple crews should pick QuickBooks Online, since it has the deepest trades integrations and near-universal bookkeeper familiarity. A trades business with several people needing login access at once often does better on Xero, which includes unlimited users on every plan. BILL and Dext bolt on top of either.

By Amine from KitFinch Prices verified Sep 26, 2026How we pick

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Our pick for each trade

All 5 tools for accounting & bookkeeping

Popular comparisons

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The full guide

Our picks by business type

Profile Pick Why Watch out for
Contractor tracking job costs across crews or trucks QuickBooks Online Deepest bench of trades-software integrations, plus class and project tracking for per-job profit Job costing detail and extra users require a higher-tier plan
Growing shop where several people need simultaneous access Xero Unlimited users included on every plan, so adding office staff or a bookkeeper does not raise the seat count cost Fewer ready-made integrations with trades-specific field service apps
Owner drowning in paper receipts and supplier invoices Dext Captures receipts and bills from a phone and pushes the data into QuickBooks Online or Xero automatically It is an add-on for document capture, not a full accounting platform on its own
Business paying many suppliers or subcontractors each month BILL Routes bills through an approval workflow and pays them without paper checks, syncing two-way with QuickBooks or Xero Its free tier only covers the Spend & Expense card product, not full accounts payable automation

What to look for

  • Sync with your field service app. Housecall Pro, Jobber, and ServiceTitan all push invoices and payments into accounting software; confirm the connection exists before committing to a platform.

  • Job costing by crew, truck, or job. You want to see which jobs were profitable, not just the business total, so look for class, location, or project tracking.

  • Bank feeds that reconcile automatically. A direct bank connection with matching suggestions keeps the books current without manual entry.

  • User access that fits your team. Count how many people need a login at once: owner, office manager, bookkeeper, outside accountant.

  • A path off paper receipts. If a crew collects paper receipts in the truck, a capture tool that feeds your accounting platform saves hours a month.

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online connects with hundreds of third-party tools "including popular options like PayPal, Square, ServiceM8, and Dext" to automate workflows around invoicing, expenses, and cash flow.

It includes a free mobile app on its Simple Start plan and higher, so an owner can check numbers from a phone or tablet between jobs.

Because so many field service and payroll platforms build a QuickBooks Online connection first, it tends to require the least manual re-entry for a multi-app trades stack. Its trade-off is that job costing and higher user counts are gated behind more expensive tiers, and any introductory discount reverts to the regular price shown in the pricing table on this page.

Xero

Xero can connect most banks "automatically via a secure direct feed for daily updates," and its reconciliation screen suggests matches for imported transactions to speed up bank reconciliation.

Its Established plan can "track time and costs for projects," which gives a services business a lighter version of job costing without a dedicated trades app.

Accountants and bookkeepers can be invited into a Xero organization at no extra cost, and the platform lists over a thousand connected apps in its app store, including payroll and payment tools.

Xero's advantage over QuickBooks Online is unlimited users on every plan; its gap is fewer built-in integrations aimed specifically at trades and field service.

BILL

BILL can "auto-route bills for approval based on your company's policies," which replaces a manual sign-off process for supplier invoices with a workflow that tracks who approved what.

It supports payment methods including ACH, checks, cards, and international transfers, and syncs two-way with QuickBooks so paid bills post back to the books automatically.

BILL also offers a separate Spend & Expense product with physical and virtual company cards, budget controls, and a mobile app for on-the-go expense tracking, and this product has a free plan.

Its full accounts payable and receivable automation, with custom approval policies and user roles, sits on paid tiers above that free card product.

Dext

Dext lets a crew capture receipts and supplier invoices by taking a photo in its mobile app, or by forwarding documents to a dedicated email inbox, uploading a PDF, or dragging files into the browser.

Its optical character recognition automatically classifies, tags, and extracts data from each document for search and export, and it connects directly to QuickBooks and Xero along with several other accounting platforms.

For a contractor who collects paper receipts in the truck all week, this removes the Sunday-night data entry session entirely, though Dext replaces only the document-capture step, not the general ledger.

Free options

BILL's Spend & Expense product, which issues company cards and tracks employee spending, has a free plan; its accounts payable and receivable automation with approval workflows is a separate, paid product.

QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Dext are all paid subscriptions with no free ongoing plan; current pricing for each appears in the table on this page.

Related reading

Frequently asked questions

What accounting software do most contractors use?
QuickBooks Online is the most widely used platform among small contractors and trades businesses, mainly because field service apps like Housecall Pro, Jobber, and ServiceTitan sync directly with it. Bookkeepers and tax preparers are also more likely to already know it, which speeds up the handoff at tax time.
QuickBooks Online or Xero for a trades business?
Pick QuickBooks Online if you need job costing tied to a specific crew or truck and want the widest field-service integration support. Pick Xero if several office staff or a bookkeeping firm need simultaneous logins, since Xero includes unlimited users on every plan while QuickBooks Online caps users by tier.
What is job costing in accounting software?
Job costing assigns labor hours, materials, subcontractor bills, and overhead to one specific job so an owner can see which jobs were actually profitable, not just whether the business overall made money. QuickBooks Online supports this through classes and projects, with more detail unlocked on higher-tier plans.
Do I still need accounting software if my field service app does invoicing?
Yes. A field service app like Housecall Pro or Jobber creates invoices and takes payments, but bank reconciliation, supplier bills, payroll journal entries, and tax-ready financial statements belong in dedicated accounting software. The two should sync automatically so a paid invoice posts to the books without retyping it.
How can a contractor stop entering receipts by hand?
Add a receipt-capture tool like Dext, which lets a crew photograph a receipt or supplier invoice from a phone, extracts the vendor, amount, and line items, and pushes that data into QuickBooks Online or Xero. It replaces manual data entry, not the accounting platform itself.
What does BILL add on top of QuickBooks or Xero?
BILL automates accounts payable with routing and approval workflows, so supplier bills get reviewed and paid without paper checks, plus it offers a separate Spend & Expense product for company cards and reimbursements. It syncs two-way with QuickBooks and Xero rather than replacing either one.
Is there free accounting software for a trades business?
Full double-entry accounting platforms like QuickBooks Online and Xero are paid subscriptions; current plan pricing is in the table on this page. BILL's Spend & Expense product does have a free plan for card and expense tracking, though it does not replace the general ledger and reporting that QuickBooks Online or Xero provide.
What is cloud-based accounting software?
Cloud-based accounting software runs in a browser or mobile app rather than on one office computer, so an owner, office manager, bookkeeper, and outside accountant can all reach the same live numbers from different locations. Bank feeds, invoices, and job costs update automatically as transactions come in.

Sources we checked

Every feature and policy on this page comes from these vendor or government pages, last checked Sep 26, 2026. See how we review.

  1. quickbooks.intuit.com — quickbooks.intuit.com/features/
  2. xero.com — xero.com/us/features-and-tools/accounting-software/
  3. bill.com — bill.com/
  4. bill.com — bill.com/pricing
  5. dext.com — dext.com/

Cite this page

Amine from KitFinch. “Accounting Software for Contractors and Trades.” Kitfinch, updated Sep 26, 2026. https://kitfinch.com/tasks/accounting-bookkeeping

Plain-text version for AI assistants: /tasks/accounting-bookkeeping.md

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