How Karma Global Solutions Makes QuickBooks Work for Job Sites

QuickBooks construction accounting software gives contractors an affordable familiar ledger but it is a general business accounting, not contractor accounting software designed around job sites, crews, and draw schedules. Karma Global Solutions works inside your QuickBooks Online, Desktop, or Enterprise setup to make sure every job cost lands where it belongs.

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software

7M+

Global QuickBooks Online Subscribers

#1

Software Used by Construction Firms

3

Job Costing Methods Supported

Why Contractors Keep Choosing QuickBooks Over Purpose-Built Construction ERPs

Dedicated construction ERPs promise more. Well! Most contractors never outgrow what QuickBooks can do if it's set up right.

A Price Point Small Contractors Can Justify

QuickBooks Online Plus runs a fraction of what dedicated construction ERPs like Sage 300 CRE or Procore cost, putting real job costing within reach of small and mid-size contractors.

The Largest Bookkeeper Talent Pool in the Industry

Because it's the most widely used accounting platform among U.S. small businesses, finding a bookkeeper or CPA who already knows QuickBooks is far easier than staffing a niche construction ERP.

Three Ways to Structure Job Costs, Not Just One

Projects, Class tracking, and Customer: Job hierarchies give contractors three different ways to slice job costs: by job, by division, or by crew. Depending on how the business actually operates.

Progress Invoicing Built Into the Core Product

Milestone and percentage-of-contract billing is native to QuickBooks, not a bolt-on, so contractors can bill progress draws without a separate invoicing app for standard jobs.
QuickBooks Tracks What You Tell It. Karma Global Solutions Makes Sure You're Telling It Right.

It is Basically for General Ledgers, Not General Contractors

QuickBooks works well once you provide clean and job-tagged data. It effectively improves open rates for construction-related emails. Clean and job-tagged data. The problem is that nothing forces that discipline, but there’s no built-in work-in-progress schedule, no native AIA-style pay application, and no automatic flag when a bill posts to the general ledger without a job attached. Committed costs on open purchase orders and true labor burdens on crew hours don’t show up automatically either. Karma Global Solutions builds the structure around QuickBooks that keeps those gaps from turning into a negative month-end surprise.

Job Cost Tagging Discipline

WIP Schedule Construction

Certified Payroll Accuracy

Where Karma Global Solutions Fixes What QuickBooks Won't Catch on Its Own

Six places where QuickBooks construction accounting needs a second set of eyes, based on how contractors actually use the software.
Catches bills, card swipes, and journal entries that never got tied to a Project, Class, or Customer: Job, the most common way real costs quietly disappear from job reports.
Builds a monthly WIP schedule outside QuickBooks comparing cost-to-date and estimated cost against contract billings, so over- and under-billing show up as two distinct numbers.
Moves retainage out of ordinary AR and AP into its own receivable and payable accounts, on both the billing and subcontractor-payment side, so near-term collectible cash isn't overstated.
Tracks open purchase order commitments that QuickBooks reserves outside the job budget, so a project appears on budget only after the job budget is complete.
Applies payroll taxes, workers comp, and benefit load onto hours pulled from QuickBooks Time, so job profitability reflects true labor costs, not just base wages.
Cross-checks payroll register data against Davis-Bacon and WH-347 requirements for prevailing-wage and government contracts that QuickBooks doesn't handle natively.

QuickBooks Is the Foundation of the Construction Accounting System

Set Up QuickBooks for Construction

Structure QuickBooks to track each project accurately, with the right job costing, accounts, and construction-specific workflows.

Keep Projects Financially on Track

Go beyond routine bookkeeping with monthly WIP, reconciliations, and project-level reporting that shows the real financial position of each job.

Developed Only for Construction Businesses

Our QuickBooks construction bookkeeping supports:

What QuickBooks Gets Right for Contractors, and Where the Spreadsheet Habit Creeps Back In

QuickBooks works well for many contractors, but its flexibility comes with a catch: accurate job costing depends heavily on how consistently the system is used.
Hundreds of integrations and a huge trained bookkeeper network make QuickBooks easy to staff and extend in ways dedicated construction platforms rarely match.
Projects, Class, and Customer: Job only works if every bill and card swipe gets tagged. It won't stop an untagged cost from vanishing into the general ledger.
Contractors need the Enterprise Contractor Edition or a construction ERP for bonding, multi-state prevailing wage, and multi-entity needs. Karma Global Solutions identifies and manages that transition.

Created for the Trades: Who Runs Their Job Costs Through QuickBooks With Us

Different contractors use QuickBooks differently. We configure the system around your trade, project structure, and job-costing requirements.

General Contractors

Coordinates job costs across many subs and pay applications inside one Customer: Job hierarchy.

Specialty & Trade Subcontractors

Tracks self-perform labor, materials, and burden per job through Projects.

Residential Remodelers

Ties progress invoicing to milestones instead of one lump-sum draw.

Commercial Build-Out Contractors

Manages retainage and change orders across long-duration tenant improvement projects.

Government & Prevailing-Wage Contractors

Runs certified payroll cross-checks for Davis-Bacon and WH-347 compliance.

Service & Repair Contractors

Uses Class tracking for high-volume, smaller jobs that don't need a full Project setup.

Land Developers Acting as Their Own GC

Job costs horizontal development phases before vertical construction begins.

Multi-State Contractors

Manages sales tax nexus at job sites and multi-entity reporting across states.

Real Estate, Accounting, and Construction Platforms

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Can QuickBooks Online create a percentage-of-completion income statement?

Not by itself. The percentage-of-completion calculation and over/under-billing comparison still need to be created outside of the ledger each month, even if QuickBooks tracks cost and revenue per class or project and provides you with the raw information.

No. Retainage withheld until the job closes out isn’t collectible in the near term, so it needs its own receivable account instead of sitting inside ordinary AR. The same separation applies on the payable side for retainage owed to subcontractors.

By default, nothing flags it. Those labor and material costs post to the job like any other cost, making the original contract look over budget until the change order is billed and approved.