Best Accounting Software for Builders in Australia (2026)

A building company's books are organised around jobs, not months. Each project has its own costs, subcontractors invoice you under their own ABNs, the ATO wants those payments reported once a year, and once you put a labourer or an apprentice on wages, payroll and super arrive too. Accounting software for builders has to show whether each job made money and keep those reports straight.

This guide is for building contractors who run projects with subcontractors and, often, a payroll. If you are a sole trader or a small trade business quoting and invoicing your own jobs, our guide to accounting software for tradies is the better fit.

How we chose. Merchant Compare lists 7 accounting tools sold in Australia, each costed through the same engine as the accounting software comparison. For a building business, job costing came first: we looked for the plan on which it starts, then at payroll with STP Phase 2 and super for a crew, at how many people in the office and on site can log in, and at how each product handles the BAS. The table above opens at 10 invoices a month, three users and no employees; enter your own numbers and it re-prices. Affiliate status never changes the picks or their order.

What builders need from construction accounting software

A builder needs accounting software that costs each job, pays and records subcontractors, runs payroll for anyone on wages, and prepares the BAS. General accounting software does all of that, but not always on its first plan, which is how a builder can pay for a plan and still lack the feature they bought it for.

The four needs map to four columns in our data:

• Job costing, recorded as project tracking: income and costs held against each job, so you can see the margin on a build rather than only on the year.
• Subcontractor payments: bills from contractors, paid and recorded against the job, with each contractor's details kept for the annual report described below.
• Payroll: wages, STP Phase 2 reporting and super for employees, and super for some contractors too.
• Logins: an office manager, a site supervisor and your accountant usually all need access.

Which accounting software does job costing for construction?

Job costing for a builder sits on a different plan with each provider, and it is not always the plan the table above prices. The table picks the cheapest plan covering your invoices, staff and logins; it does not know you need project tracking. Here is where each accounting provider we list starts it, with our wording intact:

The plan in brackets is where project tracking starts; it carries on to the plans above. Prices are each vendor's published monthly figure in Australian dollars; we do not add or remove GST. Plans and pricing checked October 2026.

If you need job costing, compare the price in the last column, not the opening figure in the cost table.

Payroll, STP and super for a building company with a crew

A building company that employs anyone needs payroll that reports through Single Touch Payroll and pays super on time. Since 1 July 2026, under Payday Super, an employee's super guarantee must reach their fund within 7 business days of payday, so super now runs with every pay run rather than once a quarter.

The same ATO page lists independent contractors paid mainly for their labour among the workers the super guarantee applies to. A labour-only subcontractor on an ABN can therefore be owed super, which is why payroll can matter to a builder with no one on wages.

The payroll models differ in shape. MYOB charges per employee on Business Lite and Business Pro. Xero bands payroll inside the plan, so the plan rises with your headcount. Reckon sells payroll as a separate add-on in headcount bands. QuickBooks Online adds a per-employee charge to any plan. Zoho Books has no Australian payroll. Enter your headcount in the table above and each row re-prices on the plan that covers it. For the payroll products themselves, see our guide to payroll software for small business.

TPAR: what builders paying subcontractors must report

The Taxable payments annual report, or TPAR, is the yearly report of what a building business paid its subcontractors. The ATO says a business primarily in building and construction that has an ABN and pays contractors for building and construction services must lodge one by 28 August each year, covering the financial year to 30 June.

"Primarily" means 50% or more of your business income or activity comes from building and construction services in the current year, or 50% or more of your income did in the year before. Payments to employees are not reported in a TPAR; they go through STP.

For each contractor, the ATO's lodgment guidance asks you to keep their name, address and ABN and the amount you paid, including GST. Its list of reportable payments adds three rules a builder's software has to support:

• Report what you paid by 30 June, not what you were invoiced. A bill still unpaid at 30 June waits for next year's report.
• Report the whole invoice when a contractor bills labour and materials together, unless the labour is incidental to supplying the materials, and leave out invoices for materials only.
• Leave out labour-hire workers, employees, and contractors who did not quote an ABN, where PAYG withholding rules apply instead.

In practice this means entering every subcontractor as a supplier with their ABN and address, and paying their bills inside the accounting software rather than straight from the bank, so the paid amounts and dates are already there at year end.

The ATO stopped accepting paper TPARs after 28 August 2025. You lodge from SBR-enabled business software, by uploading a TPAR data file through Online services for business, through Online services directly, or through a registered tax or BAS agent. Our data does not record which of the products here prepares or lodges a TPAR, so this guide makes no claim either way; the ATO itself says to check whether your software can do it.

Progress claims and retentions for builders

Builders on contract work often claim in stages and have part of each claim held back as a retention until practical completion. Our data does not record either feature for the providers we list. Zoho lists progress invoicing and retention payments from its $16.50/mo (Standard, annual) plan on its Australian pricing page; we have not compared how they work. If progress claims drive your billing, shortlist a construction platform first, then a ledger from the table above that it connects to.

Which accounting software suits a building business?

The right accounting software for a building business follows who is on wages, who needs a login and how you bill, so pick by how your business is set up rather than by the opening price alone:

• You keep a small crew on wages and need job costing: MYOB, which tracks jobs and runs payroll on the same subscription from Business Lite.
• You subcontract every trade and employ no one: Zoho Books on Professional, as long as none of your subcontractors is labour-only and owed super.
• Your crew is growing and you want payroll inside the plan: Xero, accepting that job costing starts on Ultimate 10.
• Several people in the office and on site need their own login: Reckon on Premium, with payroll added in headcount bands.
• You claim progressively on large contracts: a construction platform for the claims, with one of the above as the ledger underneath.

Whichever you choose, set up subcontractors as suppliers with their ABNs from the first bill, because the TPAR is built from those records at the end of June.