Best Construction Billing Software: 12 Picks for 2026

What the best construction billing software has to carry

Residential invoicing software asks one question: what do I charge for this job. Construction billing asks four, every month, on every open contract. What did we earn. How much do they hold. Then, what did we already bill, and what needs a signature before the money moves. A tool that only answers the first one will get your draw kicked back. We judged every pick here on four things.

Construction billing software starts at the schedule of values

Every construction bill is a percentage of a line on a schedule of values, not a fresh invoice typed from scratch. The software has to hold the original contract breakdown, carry it forward period after period, and calculate this month against last month automatically. If your tool makes you retype the breakdown each cycle, the arithmetic errors are already in the mail.

Retainage has to be a field, not a memory

A ten percent hold on a $48,000 contract is $4,800 you have earned and cannot spend. Good billing software tracks retainage per contract, shows the running balance, and produces a closeout bill that releases it. Shops that track the hold in a spreadsheet routinely forget to bill for it, which is the quietest way there is to lose money you already worked for.

Time and materials billing lives or dies on the ticket

Extra work outside the contract clears only on a dated ticket carrying hours, names, materials and a signature. The software has to capture that in the field on the day it happens. A T and M log rebuilt from memory at the end of the month is an argument, not a bill.

Lien waivers have to leave with the bill

On any job with a general contractor above you, the conditional waiver goes out with the pay application and the unconditional one follows the check. If your tool does not generate waivers, you will be filling in a PDF from a template folder while the payment clock runs. Missing a preliminary notice deadline is worse: it can cost you the lien right entirely.

The bill is only as good as the estimate under it. Price a job from a photo in about 6 seconds, itemized, then edit before you send. Free to try.

A worked progress billing on a remodel contract

Here is how a real draw comes together. Take a $48,000 bathroom remodel contract with ten percent retainage and one previous billing already paid. The figures below are an illustration, not market data. Every number is arithmetic you should redo with your own contract, and the shape of the calculation is the part to copy.

1. Break the contract into a schedule of values before you sign it

   Demolition $3,600. Rough plumbing $7,200. Electrical $4,800. Tile and flooring $11,400. Cabinetry and vanity $9,600. Fixtures and trim $6,000. Paint and punch list $2,400. General conditions $3,000. That is $48,000, and it is the only breakdown you will bill against for the life of the job.

2. Measure percent complete line by line, never as one number

   This period: demolition 100 percent, rough plumbing 100 percent, electrical 75 percent, tile and flooring 40 percent, general conditions 45 percent, everything else at zero. That is $3,600 plus $7,200 plus $3,600 plus $4,560 plus $1,350, which is $20,310 of work completed to date.

3. Put stored materials on their own line with the delivery ticket attached

   The cabinetry landed on site this week and is sitting wrapped in the garage. It is $5,200 delivered and not installed. Stored materials bill at cost against the matching line, backed by the supplier ticket. Completed plus stored is $25,510 earned to date.

4. Subtract retainage at the contract rate, not at the rate you remember

   Ten percent of $25,510 is $2,551. That is money you earned this period and will not see until the punch list clears. Total earned less retainage is $22,959. Track that $2,551 as a receivable on the job, because nobody else is going to remind you it exists.

5. Deduct everything you already billed

   Previous billings on this contract came to $9,400. Current payment due is $22,959 less $9,400, which is $13,559. Every construction bill is cumulative, and that is the step most invoicing tools get wrong: they bill the period in isolation and the totals stop reconciling by draw three.

6. Send the waiver that matches the payment, not a blanket one

   A conditional waiver for $13,559 goes out with this application, and it becomes effective only when the payment clears. The unconditional waiver follows afterwards for the amount actually received. Signing an unconditional waiver before the check clears is how contractors waive rights on money they never got.

The 12 best construction billing software, ranked

Ranked on how much of the billing cycle the tool carries, how cleanly it handles retainage and time and materials work, and what it costs to run. Vendor pricing comes from each company’s own page, read live on September 11, 2026, except where noted in Sources.

1. SimplyWise Cost Estimator

   Best for the contractor whose billing problem starts upstream, at the estimate. It is our pick for the best construction billing software for small shops. Photograph the room or the work in place and the app returns an itemized estimate in about 6 seconds, with material quantities. Every line carries unit, quantity and price per unit, which is exactly the structure a schedule of values needs. Invoicing and work orders come with it, and the client signs the quote to approve it.

   Pricing. $29.99/mo or $239.99/yr, which is about $20/mo on annual, with a 7-day free trial. One subscription opens the whole SimplyWise suite, so receipt capture, mileage tracking and the Receptionist app come with it.

2. Knowify

   Best for the trade contractor billing fixed price contracts in stages. Knowify centers the contract rather than the invoice, so the schedule of values, percent complete billing, retainage and change orders all live on one record and roll forward each period. Prevailing wage payroll reporting and the QuickBooks Online sync are the deepest on this list. Service work gets its own module. For pay application formats specifically, see our dedicated roundup linked further down.

   Pricing. Core is $99 a month on annual billing, or $149 month to month, and includes 1 user. Advanced is $329 or $399 and includes 10 users. Enterprise is quoted. Each extra user is $29 a month, and the Service Pro add on is $99 or $199.

3. Contractor Foreman

   Best when you want progress billing and job costing without a four figure commitment. You raise invoices against a budget line, change orders flow into the contract value, and time cards feed the labor side of a time and materials bill. Estimates come off a cost item database, and you can run takeoffs on uploaded plans. It is a browser product with native phone apps behind it, and the setup week is real.

   Pricing. Basic is $49 a month with 1 user, billed as $588 annually at renewal. Standard is $105 with 3 users, Plus is $166 with 8, Pro is $221 with 15, Unlimited is $332 with unlimited users. Quarterly billing runs higher, at $132, $206, $282 and $415. The trial is 30 days.

4. JobTread

   Best for the builder who wants the bill, the budget and the actual cost sitting on the same line. Estimates become budgets, budgets become draws, and purchase orders and vendor bills post against the same job so margin is visible before closeout rather than after. Customer, sub and vendor portals are free users, which is the reason the seat math works for a small office running a lot of trades.

   Pricing. $199 a month plus $20 a month for each internal user. Seat breaks run 2 to 10 users at $20 each, 11 to 20 at $15, 21 to 30 at $10, and 31 or more at $5. Annual billing drops those to $16, $12, $8 and $4. There is no setup fee and no contract.

5. Housecall Pro

   Best when the billing problem is collection speed rather than contract structure. Estimates convert to invoices, card on file autopay runs the recurring side, and service agreements bill themselves on a schedule. Consumer financing sits at the point of sale. What it does not do is progress billing against a schedule of values, so a shop doing contracted new construction will outgrow the billing model quickly.

   Pricing. Basic is $59 a month on annual billing, or $79 month to month, for 1 user. Essentials is $149 or $189 with 5 users, and extra seats cost $100 each. Max is $299 or $329 with 8 users, and extra seats cost $75 each. The trial runs 14 days.

6. Jobber

   Best for the service contractor billing many small jobs rather than a few large contracts. Quotes convert to invoices, deposits and milestone payments both work, and automated follow up chases the unpaid ones without you writing the email. The client hub lets a homeowner approve and pay without calling the office. Retainage and stored materials are not part of the model, so treat this as fast residential billing rather than contract billing.

   Pricing. Core is $29 a month on annual billing, or $49 with no commitment, for 1 user. Connect is $99 or $139. Grow is $149 or $199. Plus starts at $399 or $499. Extra users are $29 each.

7. Contractor+

   Best for the pro who wants estimating, invoicing and payments on a plan that starts at zero. Their estimator, Estimatic, prices work from a description or a photo, and the platform carries invoices, contracts, client financing and live local material costs. Payments settle at published card rates. Estimatic meters at 10 credits a month on the solo tier and goes unlimited a tier up, which is the number to check before you commit.

   Pricing. FREEDOM is free forever at $0, capped at 250 leads and clients and 5 estimates or invoices a month. PRO is $29 a month on annual billing, or $49 month to month. PRO TEAM is $58 or $98 with the first 2 users included and $20 for each extra user. MAX is $499.75.

8. Buildxact

   Best for the builder who bills progress claims off a detailed takeoff. Quantities come off the plan, the estimate becomes the job budget, and progress claims and variations bill against that budget with purchase orders and supplier catalogues behind them. Dealer integrations pull real supplier pricing into the estimate. It is an estimating product first, so the accounting side leans on the Xero or QuickBooks link rather than doing it all.

   Pricing. Go is free at $0 on a pay as you go credit model. Foundation is $169 a month on annual billing, billed at $2,030 a year, or $199 month to month. Pro is $339 or $399. Master is $509 or $599. Annual plans run a 12 month commitment.

9. Joist

   Best for the solo contractor who wants the shortest path from estimate to paid invoice. Estimates convert to invoices in a couple of taps, deposits and online payments come standard, and homeowner financing sits inside the document. Pro is where work orders appear, and Elite is the tier that matters for billing: it adds change orders, business reports and sales reporting. There is no retainage tracking and no photo estimating, so this is straightforward document billing done well.

   Pricing. Basics is $10 a month billed monthly, or $8.34 a month on annual billing, capped at 5 documents a month. Pro is $17 or $14.17. Elite is $32 or $26.67. Run lists at $100 and is currently $70, or $58.33 on annual. Every tier opens with 14 days free.

10. FreshBooks

    Best when time and materials work is most of your billing. Billable hours attach to a client and a project, carry a markup, and roll into an invoice with no retyping. Retainers, recurring invoices and late fees are native, and expense receipts attach to the job they belong to. It is accounting software rather than construction software, so there is no schedule of values and no retainage field.

    Pricing. Lite is $23 a month for 5 billable clients, Plus is $43 for 50, and Premium is $70 for unlimited. Select is quoted. Team members are $11 each, Advanced Payments is $20 on top, and the trial runs 30 days.

11. Square Invoices

    Best for the small shop whose only real billing need is getting paid fast without a subscription. Invoices, estimates, deposits, milestone billing, recurring series and automatic reminders are all on the free tier, and the money lands next business day. Card on file, tap to pay and installment offers all ship with it. There is no job costing and no contract structure, so it sits under a construction workflow rather than running one.

    Pricing. Square Free is $0 for each location. Plus is $49 for each location and Premium is $149. Plus and Premium each open with a 30 day free trial. Manual entry and cards on file cost 3.5 percent plus 15 cents on every plan.

12. Levelset

    Best when the billing is fine and the collecting is not. This is not invoicing software. It manages the paperwork that protects the bill: preliminary notices, conditional and unconditional lien waivers, deadline tracking by state, job research on who actually owns the property, and mechanics lien filing when a bill goes unpaid. Subcontractors and suppliers on general contractor jobs get the most out of it.

    Pricing. Sending a notice is $59 for each recipient, and sending a payment demand is $59 for each recipient. Filing a lien requires a subscription whose rate is not published on the pricing page. A demo request is the route to the subscription figure.

How the best construction billing software compare

Where the estimate becomes the bill

The billing failures that cost real money almost never start in the billing software. They start at the estimate, in the gap between what you walked and what you wrote down.

A contract billed against a vague lump sum has no schedule of values to bill percentages against, so every draw becomes a negotiation. Likewise, a change order priced from memory invites a dispute. Meanwhile a time and materials ticket with no material list comes back trimmed to labor only. In each case the tool did its job and the input was thin.

That is the practical case for pricing the work in front of the work. SimplyWise Cost Estimator reads a photo and returns an itemized estimate in about 6 seconds, with material quantities, and every line carries unit, quantity and price per unit. Contractor+ runs Estimatic, which prices from a description or a photo and meters by tier. Every other tool on this list stores photos as evidence and expects you to build the lines yourself, out of a catalogue you maintain.

Line level structure is the thing that matters for billing, not the speed. A line item estimate converts into a schedule of values. A one line price does not.

Try it on the next contract you price. Price a job from a photo and see whether the lines survive as billing lines.

How we scored them

We scored every candidate on five weighted criteria. Contract billing structure, meaning a schedule of values, percent complete and stored materials, carried 30 percent. Retainage and lien waiver handling took 25 percent. Time and materials capture in the field took 20 percent. Pricing transparency took 15 percent, and payment speed the last 10 percent.

Levelset lost ground on transparency because its subscription rate is not published. Buildxact and Contractor Foreman both route larger buyers to a demo call. We scored SimplyWise Cost Estimator on the same rubric. It takes top marks on getting a priced, line level scope out of a site visit, which is the input every billing cycle depends on, and on mobile usability. However, contract billing structure goes to Knowify, Contractor Foreman and JobTread, and lien paperwork to Levelset. There is no change order feature yet, so a revision means duplicating the estimate and resending it, and the web version stays limited next to the mobile apps.