Enter your business details to see what each option would cost you. Prices are live from our database and shown in Australian dollars.
Tradies and contractors run their books differently from a typical small business: job costing (what did this job actually cost, and did it make money), progress claims paid in stages, retentions held back until practical completion, and subcontractors paid under their own ABN rather than on payroll. Most accounting software was not built with any of that in mind. Below are our ranked picks for the platforms that handle it best, then a live calculator so you can cost each one at your own numbers.
How we chose
We ranked on whether, and at what price, each platform actually delivers job costing, since that is the feature that separates a generic small-business ledger from one that fits a trade or construction business. We also weighed Australian compliance depth (TPAR for subcontractors, direct BAS and GST lodgement to the ATO) and whether the platform's cheapest plan is genuinely useful for a trade business or just an invoicing app in disguise. Pricing is live from our database in Australian dollars.
Job costing is the feature that actually differs
Every platform on this page can send an invoice and lodge a BAS; where they genuinely diverge is job costing, tracking a job's income and expenses against its budget so you know whether it actually made money. That feature is not always on the plan you would assume:
| Provider | Entry plan /mo | Job costing needs |
|---|
| Zoho Books | $16.50/mo (Standard) | Professional ($33/mo (Professional)), not the entry Standard plan |
| MYOB | $11/mo (Solo) | Business Lite ($35/mo (Lite)), not the cheaper Solo app |
| Reckon | $24/mo (Plus) | Accounting Premium ($46/mo (Premium)) |
| Xero | $37/mo (Ignite) | Ultimate 10 ($143/mo (Ultimate 10)) |
Run these against your own numbers in our accounting software comparison, which keeps the figures live.
If you don't need job costing yet
A solo subbie who just invoices and gets paid does not need any of the above. MYOB Solo, at $11/mo (Solo) a month, is the cheapest option here, and it builds Tap to Pay into the app, so you can take a card payment on site with no separate reader.
There is one cheaper option, with a catch worth understanding. Zoho Books has a genuinely free plan (Yes (under $50K revenue)), capped at 1,000 invoices a year and one user. The catch is the revenue threshold: a full-time subbie billing day rates will usually clear $50K well before year end, at which point the free plan stops being an option and Standard at $16.50/mo (Standard) is the real number. Worth taking if you are part-time or just starting out, not something to plan a growing trade business around.
Neither carries job costing, so once you start pricing and tracking individual jobs rather than just invoicing for your time, move up to one of the picks above.
Progress claims, retentions and TPAR are not the same thing
Job costing tells you what a job cost. It does not automatically give you progress claims (invoicing a percentage of a contract as stages are signed off) or retentions (money a client holds back until practical completion), and those are priced separately from job costing.
Zoho Books is the standout here: its Standard plan at $16.50/mo (Standard) lists progress invoicing and retention payments natively, a tier BELOW the Professional plan that carries job costing. If claiming in stages is your main pain point rather than job profitability, that is the cheapest route to it on this page. On other ledgers, progress claims and retentions are commonly handled with a construction-specific add-on such as Buildxact, Tradify or NextMinute, so check your chosen platform's own plan list before assuming either way.
Paying a subcontractor who invoices under their own ABN is a third, separate thing again: it is accounts payable plus TPAR reporting at year end, not payroll, and every platform here handles that as standard. For the fuller picture across accounting, payroll and taking card on site, split by solo subbie versus a builder running a crew, see our guide to the best software for Australian builders and tradies.
The verdict
Start with what you actually need. If you just invoice and take payment, MYOB Solo at $11/mo (Solo) a month is the cheapest option here and the Tap to Pay in the app is genuinely useful on site. If you claim in stages, Zoho Books Standard at $16.50/mo (Standard) is the cheapest route to native progress invoicing and retention payments. If you need full job costing, Zoho Professional ($33/mo (Professional)) and MYOB Business Lite ($35/mo (Lite)) are line-ball on price, and MYOB is the stronger all-round fit if Australian trade compliance matters as much as the costing itself, TPAR, BAS and GST lodgement plus an established local bookkeeper network. Reckon is the cheapest Australian-built ledger that includes job costing. Xero has the widest construction add-on ecosystem and bundles payroll into every plan, but only unlocks its own job-costing feature on the Ultimate plan, by far the most expensive gate of the four. Use the calculator above to cost each at your own numbers.