A small general contractor planning to hire subcontractors should pick accounting software for job costing and clean data export first, and for features second. That was the consensus in a recent Reddit thread where a son, helping his father scale a small construction business, asked which software would be easy to leave later if the company grows.
The family currently does the work themselves. The plan is to bring on subs so the owner can focus on quality control. The poster had heard QuickBooks is solid but painful to move data out of, and wanted a recommendation that avoids that trap. About two dozen replies came in over a few weeks, and they split into practical setup advice, platform opinions, and a few warnings. This article organizes what they said.
Job costing and clean exports matter more than a long feature list
The top-voted advice told the poster to put job costing and clean data export ahead of the biggest feature list. For a GC about to bring on subs, the features that matter early are:
- Job costing, meaning costs tracked by job: labor, materials, subs and change orders.
- Tracking each sub’s W-9 and payments so year-end 1099s are easy.
- Solid bank feeds.
Fancy progress billing, one commenter noted, can wait until the company actually needs it.
Several replies made the same deeper point: a software switch does not fix messy history. Use a consistent chart of accounts and simple, consistent job names from day one, and any future migration becomes far easier. One commenter added that QuickBooks can do a lot, but only if someone on the team knows how to use it effectively.
QuickBooks is the safe default, but Online and Desktop split opinion
QuickBooks was the most-mentioned option, and most commenters called it a reasonable starting point for a small GC. One reply argued that QuickBooks Online exports cleanly to Excel or CSV, so lock-in is smaller than people claim. Another pointed out that bookkeepers and accountants often ask clients to use QuickBooks Online so they can log in with their own accounts to reconcile and file.
The Online-versus-Desktop debate was the liveliest part of the thread:
| Position | What commenters said |
|---|---|
| For Desktop | One user called Desktop the better version and Online the worse one. Another bought Desktop years ago and says it works well and is paid for. |
| Against Desktop | Intuit no longer sells new Desktop subscriptions so only renewals remain. A commenter who tracks this expects updates to stop within a year or three. |
| Against QuickBooks overall | One user cancelled after doing taxes, citing a steady stream of added fees, and went back to spreadsheets. |
One reply suggested hunting for a used Desktop copy if the owner wants to do the books and job costing in-house, but another asked how anyone could still register such a copy. That question went unanswered in the thread, so a used copy looks risky for a company that wants to scale.
Alternatives commenters named, and one to avoid
Beyond QuickBooks, commenters named several other routes. None came with hard numbers, so treat these as leads to test rather than verdicts.
| Option | What the commenter said |
|---|---|
| Zoho One (includes Zoho Books) | A switcher from QuickBooks called it a much better chunk of software, with a learning curve. They found uses for Projects, Sign and Sites. |
| TimeSuite | Recommended for bigger contractors. The original poster said they would look into it. |
| TradeBuilderHQ | A user is happy with it for the price. It covers the QuickBooks and Jobber software costs and replaced the need for an office manager or separate accountant. Another commenter reacted to a price of almost $1,000 a month. The user estimated it saves them $2,000 to $2,500 a month. |
| Spreadsheet plus accountant | One user keeps an Excel spreadsheet and lets their accountant handle the rest. Another dropped QuickBooks for spreadsheets over fees. |
| DoorLoop | A warning: one commenter said to stay far away, claiming it used to be good but is now bad at reports. |
The TradeBuilderHQ figures are one user’s own estimate, and the original poster’s father would need to price it for his own volume before comparing it with a software subscription.
Set up for subcontractors before the first sub is paid
Because the plan is to hire subs, two commenters stressed habits that pay off in January. Turn on QuickBooks projects so every bill, sub invoice and change order is tagged to a job. And collect a W-9 from every sub before writing the first check, so 1099s at year end are painless.
One commenter also recommended having a bookkeeper or CPA who works with contractors review the setup once. In their view, a couple of hours of review up front saves a messy cleanup later. A related tip: before choosing a tool, run one real project end to end and confirm the accountant can work with the reports it produces.
Test the export before you commit
The thread’s answer to the poster’s migration worry was to decide on exit pain, not startup ease. Before committing to any package, do a test export and check that each of these comes out to CSV or Excel:
- Chart of accounts
- Customers
- Vendors
- Invoices and bills
- Full transaction history, including job-cost detail
If the answer is fuzzy for any item, that is your lock-in. If the file keeps the real job-cost history clean, moving later is annoying, not fatal.
Bottom line
For a small GC about to add subs, QuickBooks Online is a defensible default if the books are set up well, and the thread suggests the real risk is sloppy setup rather than the software. QuickBooks Desktop is no longer sold to new customers, and Zoho One, TimeSuite and an outsourced bookkeeping service were offered as alternatives worth a look. Whatever the choice, tag every cost to a job, collect W-9s early, test the export, and have a contractor-savvy accountant review the setup once.
Sources: a single Reddit thread (about two dozen comments, posted several weeks before this article) and the Intuit notice linked within it. The comments are anecdotal opinions, not tested comparisons.