Best Accounts Payable Software for Construction in 2026
Short answer: Foundation is the system to quote when the vendor bill must hold retainage and a lien waiver inside the job-cost ledger. Foundation publishes no list price, verified September 2026, so the order form is the budget.
QuickBooks Online Plus is $140 a month when a project code on the bill is enough and you are not holding cash back. Procore Pay charges 0.2% of each invoice, capped at $4,000 per commitment, when the job already lives in Procore. Knowify Advanced is $329 a month, billed annually, when the books stay in QuickBooks and you need job costing on the bill.
The right system keeps retainage and the lien waiver on the vendor bill. A cheaper inbox that drops the job code pays the sub in full.
Buy the system that can hold money back. A contractor that pays a subcontractor invoice in full, then hunts for the lien waiver in email, has already made the expensive mistake. The cash is gone, and the waiver is a favor you are asking for after the fact.
Foundation is the default when the vendor bill, the retainage, and the waiver have to live in the same job-cost books. The order form is the price, so name the accounts payable module before you compare that quote with a plan that prints a dollar.
If the company is still small enough that a project tag on the bill is the whole job cost, start with QuickBooks Online Plus. A general contractor that already runs the job in Procore should price Pay before it buys a second payables inbox, because the fee sits on the invoice and the books still close somewhere else.
The full ledger ranking, including payroll and billing, is the accounting software guide for construction. A one-approver shop with no retainage belongs in the accounts payable guide for small business.
Toolradar data: among the 275 accounting tools we track, 192 are paid-only (70%), and 27% offer a free or freemium plan.
How we chose: we set these 10 against the 275 tools in accounting and checked every price on the vendor site in September 2026. Project tools that do not pay a bill sit with construction software.
Top Picks
Picked by editorial review, informed by G2 and Capterra review volume and rating and by media mentions, the signals behind our category rankings. How we rate
| Tool | Starting price | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation | No list price | 4.2 479 reviews | Contractors whose vendor bills must carry retainage and a lien waiver. |
| Viewpoint Vista | No list price | 4.0 137 reviews | Larger contractors who code each invoice line to a phase and cost type. |
| CMiC | No list price | 4.2 285 reviews | General and specialty contractors who want the voucher and the job cost posted once. |
| Sage Intacct | No list price | 4.3 4,086 reviews | Multi-entity contractors who need committed cost and AIA billing in the cloud. |
| Procore | 0.2% invoice fee | 4.4 6,989 reviews | General contractors already in Procore who pay subs and collect waivers. |
| GCPay | No list price | 4.6 426 reviews | General contractors who rekey subcontractor pay apps into an ERP. |
| QuickBooks Online | Plus $140/mo | 4.4 405 reviews | Small contractors who job-cost vendor bills and do not hold retainage. |
| Knowify | Advanced $329/mo | 4.5 212 reviews | Trade contractors who keep QuickBooks and need job costing on bills. |
| BILL | Team $65/user/mo | 4.4 1,811 reviews | Contractors on QuickBooks or Xero who need approval before the job-coded bill is paid. |
| Buildertrend | Quote plus ACH fee | 4.0 2,727 reviews | Home builders who approve and pay vendor bills inside the project. |
Foundation
Top Pick- 4.3 on Capterra (388 reviews)
- 4.3 on SourceForge (67 reviews)
- 3.7 on G2 (24 reviews)
Contractors whose vendor bills must carry retainage and a lien waiver.
- Pro: The accounts payable module enters invoices and retainage, creates lien waivers and credit memos, and selects what to pay by discount, hold, or due date. Hold the cash until the waiver exists, and report it by job.
- Pro: Purchase orders and subcontracts can set retainage aside and post into accounts payable and job cost, so the holdback lives on the job instead of in a side spreadsheet.
- Pro: The pricing page names job costing, payroll, purchase orders and subcontracts, and accounts receivable as included, and sells mobile time tracking and equipment as add-ons. If accounts payable is missing from the order, you are pricing a different product.
- Con: Foundation publishes no subscription dollar. A quote that omits the accounts payable module, or prices it as an unnamed extra, cannot be ranked against a list-price plan such as Plus.
- Con: Included modules turn on in a few business days, while add-ons such as service dispatch run two to six weeks, and field permissions can hide cost codes from the crew. A field login does not replace the payables clerk.
Foundation Software's 'Custom' pricing, requiring direct contact, suggests an enterprise-level solution with potentially high costs.
Larger contractors who code each invoice line to a phase and cost type.
- Pro: A job line requires the job, the phase, and the cost type, and one invoice can cover more than one job. Without that coding, the cost lands in a bucket you cannot compare with the estimate.
- Pro: Retainage is a separate sequence on the line, so the amount you can pay and the amount you must hold are not one check. Paying the face of the bill overpays the sub.
- Pro: PDF invoices can become unapproved invoice entries, and someone still has to approve them before cash moves. Vista sits in Trimble Construction One with job cost and the back office in the same family.
- Con: Trimble publishes no Vista price, so modules that look unlimited on a demo are not a budget.
- Con: Posting a bill to a soft-closed or hard-closed job depends on company parameters. A late invoice can be blocked by a setting nobody priced.
General and specialty contractors who want the voucher and the job cost posted once.
- Pro: Accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, and a consolidated general ledger post to job cost on the same database, so the voucher is not retyped into the job.
- Pro: Ordinary invoices take retainage on the voucher defaults. Subcontract invoices go through a payment request, and retainage release stays on the subcontract, including schedule-of-values lines, so one habit hits the wrong screen.
- Pro: Purchase orders can be matched to supplier invoices. CMiC's integration list includes Oracle Textura when subcontractor payment is a separate portal, which means you can buy that path twice.
- Con: CMiC does not publish a list price, so the first number you can budget is the proposal, not the demo.
- Con: Subcontract retainage is not released from the generic accounts payable screen. A team trained on one button will release the wrong document.
Multi-entity contractors who need committed cost and AIA billing in the cloud.
- Pro: The construction page describes real-time actual and committed costs across projects and entities, plus change orders, so an uninvoiced subcontract still hits the job. A ledger that only sees posted invoices answers the project manager late.
- Pro: Invoicing covers fixed price, time and materials, and cost-plus, and AIA billing is on the product page, along with subcontractor and supplier payments. You are not hunting a construction billing add-on after the purchase.
- Pro: Sage Construction Essentials is Intacct Construction at a more accessible price for a smaller company. It is still a quote, and it is the package to ask for before a multi-entity scope you will not use.
- Con: Sage asks you to request pricing. There is no public seat price to set next to QuickBooks Plus, so a single-entity shop can pay for consolidation it never runs.
- Con: BILL's two-way sync to Sage Intacct starts on Enterprise, which is custom pricing. The approval inbox is a second quote if clerks should not live only in Intacct.
General contractors already in Procore who pay subs and collect waivers.
- Pro: Pay extends invoice management for general contractors in the United States, automates the lien waiver exchange, and can release the unconditional waiver only after payment. Owner-builders acting as their own general contractor qualify too.
- Pro: The fee is capped at $4,000 per commitment, so a $100,000 invoice is $200 and a commitment at $2,000,000 hits the cap. Price a real subcontract before you call the portal free.
- Pro: The contract is an annual fee on construction volume with unlimited users, unlimited storage, and support included. Field Productivity is priced on headcount, so unlimited users does not include the whole catalog.
- Con: Procore publishes no platform dollar, so the invoice fee is the published number, and the default charges the subcontractor unless you buy the higher, unpublished subscription that covers it.
- Con: Pay is a payment layer, not the general ledger. You still need Foundation, Vista, CMiC, Sage Intacct, or another system for the close. Free accounts, in a limited US and Canada release, do not remove the Pay fee.
Procore's 'Custom Quote' pricing, while offering unlimited users and data, is likely expensive given the enterprise-grade features and implementation services.
Watch out
Potential high minimum spend for custom quotes
General contractors who rekey subcontractor pay apps into an ERP.
- Pro: GCPay manages applications for payment between the general contractor and subcontractors, including conditional and unconditional lien waivers on progress and final payments. Buy it for the pay app, not for a general ledger.
- Pro: Electronic payments can hold the signed waiver until funds are released, and compliance documents travel with the application. A missing form blocks payment instead of showing up after the check.
- Pro: Pricing follows subcontracted volume, project count, and subcontractor count. There is no fixed contract, and it pushes and pulls contract data with the ERP, so the quote has to name the meter.
- Con: GCPay publishes no dollar, and the pricing page describes both annual subcontracted volume and a monthly count of projects and subcontractors, so a quote that hides the meter is not a budget.
- Con: It is not the ledger, so subs submit in the portal the general contractor chose, and a trade working for several general contractors can land in several portals that do not keep its books.
Small contractors who job-cost vendor bills and do not hold retainage.
- Pro: Plus includes job costing through Projects, so a bill, a check, or an expense can be tagged to the job, which is enough when you do not hold retainage. The pricing page shows 50% off for three months, and that discount ends while the jobs continue.
- Pro: Advanced is $340 a month, listed at 25 users. New and existing Advanced customers get the construction module at no extra cost for 12 months, with progress billing and job profitability. Use it to send draws, not to hold a sub's retainage.
- Pro: The subcontractor page describes AIA-style invoices, budgets against actuals, phases, cost groups, and WIP reports. Those are draws you send upstream, and they do not collect a waiver from the subs you pay.
- Con: Essentials is $85 a month and does not include job costing, and Simple Start is $38. Either file looks like accounts payable and still cannot put the job on the bill, so the first job report forces an upgrade.
- Con: The construction module is a 12-month trial at no extra cost, not a retainage and lien-waiver desk. Intuit does not publish the price in month 13, and each company file is its own subscription.
Watch out
50% introductory discount expires after 3 months, doubling your bill overnight
Trade contractors who keep QuickBooks and need job costing on bills.
- Pro: Advanced includes 10 users, job costing, project planning, and real-time WIP on the annual price, or $399 month to month. Core is $99 a month billed annually, or $149 monthly, and it does not add job costing, so the cheaper plan cannot show which job a bill belongs to.
- Pro: Purchases, vendor bills, and expenses sync both ways with QuickBooks Online, including bills logged there. Knowify says the sync carries retainage and pay-app amounts, and projects sync only on Plus or Advanced, so Essentials will not carry the job.
- Pro: Licensed AIA G702 and G703 pay apps include a schedule of values, retainage, and change orders, which is the bill you send upstream, not the vendor bill you pay. Licenses and insurance get expiration alerts, and every plan has a 14-day trial, no contract, and no implementation fee.
- Con: Each user past the included count is $29 a month, and a user is anyone who logs in, so opening a job still adds a seat.
- Con: The books still close in QuickBooks, so this is a job-cost layer on a ledger you still pay for. Enterprise, the tier for unlimited users and inventory, does not publish a price.
Knowify's pricing is on the higher side, especially for smaller contractors.
Watch out
Prevailing wage features are a separate add-on
Contractors on QuickBooks or Xero who need approval before the job-coded bill is paid.
- Pro: Team adds automatic two-way sync with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and Xero, plus approval workflows and the Invoice Coding Agent. On this plan a job-coded bill is not typed a second time.
- Pro: Enterprise, on a custom price, syncs QuickBooks Enterprise, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, and Acumatica. If the ledger is already one of those, Essentials and Team leave you on a second quote.
- Pro: ACH is $0.59, a mailed check is $1.99, and virtual card disbursement is free. Corporate at $89 per user adds custom approval policies and purchase-order matching, so the seat is not the whole monthly total.
- Con: Essentials is $49 per user per month and syncs by CSV. The published accounts payable list does not include retainage or lien waivers, so those controls stay in the construction ledger and the job code is typed again.
- Con: Every user on Essentials and Team is a full seat, including a project manager who only approves. Same-day ACH is $11.99, and paying by card is 2.9%, on top of that seat.
Home builders who approve and pay vendor bills inside the project.
- Pro: Bills move from an inbox to review, to ready for payment, and to paid. Email or mobile capture and bulk pay fit a home builder who already lives in the project file.
- Pro: Outbound ACH is $1 per transaction and a printed or mailed check is $2, paid by the builder and billed monthly even when the subscription is annual. The payments platform has no separate monthly fee, so annual prepay does not turn the meter off.
- Pro: The subscription is a custom quote with unlimited users, and annual prepay takes 10% off. A paid bill can sync to QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage Intacct, so the close still happens in that system.
- Con: Buildertrend does not publish the subscription dollar, so the ACH fee is not the cost of the software. Bills and purchase orders are marked US only, so this bill-pay flow is not the offer outside that market.
- Con: Client card and client ACH charges are inbound fees, and they do not put retainage on a subcontractor bill. Holding money back on subs still requires a ledger.
What accounts payable software does on a construction job
Accounts payable software for construction records a vendor bill against a job, holds retainage, and collects the lien waiver before cash leaves. A shared inbox of PDFs pays the sub in full while the waiver sits in email.
The job code is the first test. Viewpoint Vista can put a job, a phase, and a cost type on an invoice line, which matters when one supplier hits two cost codes. A bill posted to a single expense account cannot tell you which project ate the concrete.
Retainage is cash you are not allowed to send yet. Foundation's accounts payable module enters invoices and retainage, and CMiC releases subcontract retainage from the subcontract, not from a generic voucher screen. A tool that pays the face amount overpays, and that cash does not come back.
The lien waiver is the document that makes the payment safe. Procore Pay stages an unconditional waiver and releases it after payment. GCPay can hold a signed waiver until the payment goes out. Unsigned PDFs are not that control, because the lien is funded once the check clears.
Payment fees sit beside the subscription. BILL charges for ACH and for a mailed check. Buildertrend charges the builder per ACH and per check. A low seat with a per-payment meter still has a monthly total once the subs are paid.
A project tool is not the ledger. Procore Pay and GCPay move the subcontractor application. Sage Intacct Construction, Foundation, Vista, and CMiC are the books. Knowify sits on QuickBooks and syncs the bill. Call the portal the accounting system and the close stays in a second product.
Why retainage decides the product, not the demo
The demo usually shows a clean approval. Construction payables fail on the holdback and the waiver, which many general accounting plans never mention. Pay the face amount and you overpay the sub, and a late waiver does not return the cash.
Start with the ledger, not the portal. Foundation, Vista, CMiC, and Sage Intacct Construction can hold retainage inside job cost. Procore Pay and GCPay move the application and the waiver, then the close still happens in one of those ledgers or in QuickBooks. Call the portal your accounting system and you own two products at month-end.
A quote is not a seat price until the paper names modules. Foundation sells construction modules together and prices other tools as add-ons, so accounts payable has to be on the order or you are ranking a different product. Ask which pieces are included before you set that quote next to a plan that prints a dollar.
Vista is the call when a heavy civil bill has to carry a phase and a cost type, including an invoice that covers two jobs, and Trimble does not publish a price. Ask whether a soft-closed or hard-closed job can still take a bill, because that switch can block a late invoice the quote never mentioned.
CMiC is the call when you are tired of keying the voucher and the job cost as two steps. Subcontract retainage releases on the subcontract, not on the generic voucher screen, so one release habit hits the wrong document. If Oracle Textura already pays your subs, check CMiC's integration list before you buy that path a second time.
Sage Intacct Construction is the quote when committed cost crosses projects and entities, with change orders, subcontractor payments, and AIA billing for fixed price, time and materials, and cost-plus work. Construction Essentials is that product at a more accessible price, still without a dollar on the page. A single-entity shop can pay for consolidation it will not use, so make the form name which product you are buying.
A company that only needs a project on the vendor bill should skip that quote. QuickBooks can tag the bill on Plus and on Advanced. Essentials cannot, so the cheaper plan leaves the job report empty. The construction module on Advanced is progress billing you send upstream, for a limited window at no extra cost, and it is not a waiver desk for the subs you pay.
If the job already lives in Procore, price Pay before a second inbox. The platform is an annual fee on construction volume, with unlimited users, for general contractors and owner-builders acting as their own general contractor in the United States. The default collects the invoice fee from the subcontractor, and covering them means a higher subscription Procore does not publish. Field Productivity is priced on headcount, so unlimited users does not include every Procore product.
Key Features to Look For
A job code on the vendor bill (Essential)
Vista posts an invoice line to a job, a phase, and a cost type. QuickBooks Plus tags a bill to a project. A bill with no job cannot be compared with the estimate, so the overrun shows up only at the close.
Retainage that is not the same check (Essential)
Foundation enters retainage on the invoice and can pay the holdback later. CMiC releases subcontract retainage from the subcontract. A plan that pays the face amount overpays the sub, and that cash does not come back.
A lien waiver tied to the payment (Essential)
Procore Pay releases the unconditional waiver after payment. GCPay can hold the signed waiver until the funds move. A waiver collected the following week is a lien you already funded.
The ledger you will actually close (Essential)
Foundation, Vista, CMiC, and Sage Intacct Construction are the books. Procore and GCPay push applications into an ERP. Knowify and BILL write back to QuickBooks, and BILL Team is the tier with two-way sync, so a lower plan retypes the job.
A payment fee next to the quote (Important)
BILL charges for ACH and for a mailed check. Buildertrend charges the builder per ACH and per check. Procore's invoice fee can land on the subcontractor. A low seat with a per-payment meter still has a monthly total once subs are paid.
Subcontractor compliance on the bill (Important)
Knowify tracks subcontractor licenses and insurance and alerts on expiration. GCPay collects compliance documents with the pay application. A bill approved while the certificate is lapsed is a coverage gap you already paid.
Pay apps before the voucher (Important)
GCPay runs the application for payment, including conditional and unconditional waivers on progress and final payments. Knowify generates licensed AIA G702 and G703 forms on the billing side, which is a different document from the bill you pay.
More than one company (Nice to have)
Sage Intacct Construction consolidates entities and still tracks committed cost by project. QuickBooks bills a subscription per company file. A second EIN is a second invoice, not a setting.
What to decide before the demo
Name the ledger before the portal. Foundation, Vista, CMiC, and Sage Intacct Construction are the books, and Procore Pay and GCPay sit in front of those books. A second bill tool on a ledger that already holds retainage is an extra seat you still close.
Decide who eats the payment fee. Procore's default charges the subcontractor, with a cap per commitment, while BILL and Buildertrend charge the contractor per payment. A quote that hides that choice cannot be compared with a seat price.
Count approvers on seat-priced tools. BILL Essentials and Team bill every user as a full seat, so an approver costs the same as a clerk. Procore's volume contract includes unlimited users, with Field Productivity priced apart. Knowify Advanced includes 10 users, then a per-user charge for every login.
Separate progress billing you send from bills you pay. QuickBooks Advanced's construction module and Knowify's licensed pay apps are upstream invoices. Retainage on a subcontractor bill is a different screen.
Leave quote-only suites off a seat ranking until the paper names modules, entities, and implementation. Foundation, Vista, CMiC, Sage Intacct, the Procore subscription, GCPay, and the Buildertrend subscription do not publish a list price.
Evaluation Checklist
On Foundation, enter one subcontractor invoice with retainage and a lien waiver, and confirm both are in the accounts payable module on the quote, not in an unpriced add-on.
On Vista, code one invoice to two jobs with a phase and a cost type, and split retainage onto its own sequence before you accept a quote that only shows a scanned PDF.
On CMiC, release retainage on a subcontract payment request and on an ordinary voucher, because those are different screens.
On Sage Intacct, ask for committed cost, AIA billing, and the entity count on the same page as the construction price, because Essentials is still a quote.
On Procore, price one real commitment at the published invoice percent and at the published cap, and write down whether the subcontractor or the general contractor pays.
On QuickBooks, tag a vendor bill to a project on Plus. If you need AIA-style draws, budgets against actuals, or WIP, price Advanced and the construction module before the free window ends.
On Knowify, confirm job costing is on Advanced, not Core, and that projects sync only if the QuickBooks file is Plus or Advanced.
On BILL, code one job-costed bill on Team against QuickBooks or Xero, and on Enterprise if the books are Sage Intacct. Essentials will not keep that ledger in sync.
On Buildertrend, pay one approved bill by ACH and confirm the per-payment fee and the accounting sync (QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage Intacct) on a US account.
On GCPay, send one pay app through to the ERP with a waiver held until payment, and get the price in dollars for your project count and subcontracted volume.
Pricing Overview
Published small-contractor plans
Per company or per user, with a promo on some
A payment fee, subscription separate
Procore Pay, BILL disbursements, and Buildertrend bill pay, where the subscription is a quote or a seat and the payment is a second meter.
Per invoice, per ACH, or per check
Quote-only construction ledgers
Foundation, Viewpoint Vista, CMiC, Sage Intacct Construction, the Procore platform, GCPay, and the Buildertrend subscription.
Custom quote
Pricing Comparison
| Tool | Published price | What that price buys | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|
Foundation | No list price | AP enters invoices, retainage, and lien waivers. Job cost, payroll, POs, and AR are named as included. | Custom quote |
No list price | Job, phase, and cost type on the AP line, with retainage as its own sequence. PDFs can become unapproved invoices. | Quote | |
No list price | AP, AR, billing, and the GL share one database with job cost. Subcontract retainage releases on the subcontract. | Custom quote | |
No list price | Committed cost, AIA billing, and subcontractor payments across entities. Construction Essentials is a smaller quote. | Request pricing | |
Procore Pay | 0.2% of the invoice, cap $4,000 | Per commitment. The platform is an annual fee on construction volume, with unlimited users and no list price. | Volume quote plus fee |
No list price | Priced on subcontracted volume, projects, and subcontractor count. A signed waiver can be held until payment. | Usage or volume quote | |
Plus $140; Advanced $340 | Plus job-costs bills to projects. Advanced lists 25 users. The construction module is free for 12 months. | Per month, per company | |
Knowify | Core $99; Advanced $329 annual | Monthly is $149 and $399. Advanced includes 10 users and job costing. Each extra user is $29. | Annual, or monthly |
Essentials $49; Team $65; Corporate $89 | Team adds two-way QuickBooks and Xero sync. ACH is $0.59. A mailed check is $1.99. | Per user, per month | |
Buildertrend | ACH $1; check $2 | Subscription is a quote, 10% off if paid annually, unlimited users. Bill pay fees bill monthly. | Quote plus per payment |
Prices come from vendor sites on September 23, 2026. QuickBooks shows 50% off for three months on the pricing page, which is $70 on Plus and $170 on Advanced. Simple Start is $38 and Essentials is $85, and neither includes job costing, so the lower file cannot put the job on the vendor bill.
If the leak is employee cards rather than subcontractor bills, see expense management. The ledger choice between the two small-company files is QuickBooks vs Xero.
Mistakes to Avoid
- ×
Signing QuickBooks Essentials because it is cheaper than Plus. Job costing starts on Plus, so the vendor bill never receives a project and the job report stays empty.
- ×
Treating Procore's unlimited users as a free payables system. The platform price is a construction-volume quote, and Pay adds an invoice fee unless a higher unpublished subscription covers the subs.
- ×
Buying Knowify Core at the annual rate and expecting job costing. That feature is the Advanced upgrade, and the included user count jumps from one user to ten.
- ×
Putting project managers on BILL Essentials so the seat looks cheap. Sync is CSV, and Essentials and Team both charge a full seat for an approver, so you retype the job and still pay a clerk's price.
- ×
Calling GCPay or Buildertrend the accounting system. Both can route or pay a bill, and the retainage that matters still has to post in the ERP they sync to.
- ×
Accepting a Foundation, Vista, CMiC, or Sage Intacct quote that names a platform fee and not the modules. A missing accounts payable line changes the year-one cost more than a per-payment ACH fee.
- ×
Using the QuickBooks construction module as the lien-waiver file. It is a no-extra-cost add-on for progress billing and job profitability, and Intuit does not publish the price after that window.
Expert Tips
- →
Put retainage on the subcontractor bill before anyone approves payment. Foundation and Vista can split the holdback from the payable amount. A waiver after the full check has cleared does not get the cash back.
- →
On Procore, run the fee both ways on a real commitment: the subcontractor pays the invoice percent up to the cap, or you pay the higher subscription and cover them. Get that second number in dollars before you tell subs the portal is free.
- →
If the books stay in QuickBooks, buy Plus before you buy a portal. Knowify syncs projects on Plus or Advanced, and BILL Team syncs those books both ways. Essentials plus a portal still cannot see the job.
- →
Ask CMiC whether subcontractor payment stays in CMiC or moves to Textura. The integration is on CMiC's own list, and paying for both is a duplicate accounts payable stack.
- →
For a residential builder, separate Buildertrend's quote from the ACH fee and the check fee. Those fees bill monthly even if you took the 10% annual prepay.
- →
Read Sage's request-pricing form as two products: Construction Essentials for a smaller company, and the full suite when entities and committed cost are why you called. Make the quote name which one.
Red Flags to Watch For
-
A Foundation quote that will not say whether accounts payable, retainage, and lien waivers are in the included modules. Job costing and purchase orders on the pricing page are not the payables module.
-
A QuickBooks Essentials subscription sold as job cost. Projects and job costing start on Plus, so the cheaper plan cannot put the job on the vendor bill.
-
A Procore order that quotes the annual platform fee and never mentions the Pay invoice fee, or that assumes the general contractor pays it when the default charges the subcontractor.
-
A Knowify Core subscription sold as job costing. That upgrade is Advanced, and Core's single included user is a different bill from a ten-person office.
-
A BILL Essentials seat for a contractor whose books are QuickBooks or Xero. Sync on that plan is CSV, so the job code is typed again.
-
A GCPay or Buildertrend subscription treated as the general ledger. Both can pay or route a bill, and the close still belongs in the accounting system they sync to.
-
A CMiC proposal that ignores Textura or another pay portal already on the integration list. You can buy subcontractor payment twice.
The Bottom Line
Foundation is the construction default when the vendor bill has to hold retainage and produce a lien waiver inside the job-cost books. Get the accounts payable module named on the quote before you compare that paper with a seat price.
Viewpoint Vista is the larger ledger when every line needs a phase and a cost type. CMiC fits when the voucher and the job cost must post once. Sage Intacct Construction is the multi-entity cloud quote, with AIA billing and committed cost, still without a list price.
Procore Pay belongs when the job is already in Procore and the open question is the waiver and who pays the invoice fee. GCPay belongs when the pain is rekeying pay apps into an ERP you intend to keep.
QuickBooks Online Plus is the small-contractor list price for a project on the bill. Move to Advanced for the construction module's progress billing. Knowify Advanced is the job-cost layer if those books stay put.
BILL Team is the approval and ACH layer on QuickBooks or Xero, not a retainage system. Buildertrend is the residential bill-pay inbox, with a quoted subscription and a fee per payment.
Cite this: Toolradar, "Best accounts payable software for construction 2026", September 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best accounts payable software for construction in 2026?
Foundation is the best fit when the vendor bill must carry retainage and a lien waiver inside the job-cost ledger, and you should expect a quote rather than a public price. Viewpoint Vista fits a larger contractor who codes each line to a job, phase, and cost type. CMiC fits a company that wants accounts payable and job cost posted once. QuickBooks Online Plus fits a small contractor that only needs a project on the bill and is not holding retainage. Procore Pay fits a general contractor already in Procore who needs the waiver exchange. Prices and product pages were checked in September 2026.
How much does accounts payable software for a contractor cost?
Published list prices in September 2026 put QuickBooks Online Plus at $140 a month, or $70 during the three-month half-off offer, and Advanced at $340 a month. Knowify Advanced is $329 a month billed annually, or $399 month to month, with extra users at $29, so a month-to-month office pays more for the same job costing. BILL Team is $65 per user per month, and ACH is $0.59, which means the seat and the payment are two meters. Foundation, Viewpoint Vista, CMiC, Sage Intacct Construction, the Procore platform, GCPay, and the Buildertrend subscription are custom quotes. Procore Pay adds a percent of each invoice, with a cap per commitment, on top of that platform quote.
Is there a free accounts payable tool for construction?
None of the construction ledgers on this list publish a free plan. Knowify includes a 14-day trial and says there is no implementation fee. BILL says a free trial is available in most cases. QuickBooks shows 50% off for three months, which is a discount, not a free file, and Simple Start at $38 a month does not include job costing. Procore has a limited release of free accounts in English in the United States and Canada, and those accounts do not remove the Pay fee. Buildertrend's payments platform has no monthly fee of its own, and the subscription is still a quote.
Foundation or QuickBooks for construction payables?
Choose Foundation when you must enter retainage, create lien waivers, and report the bill by job inside a construction accounting system. You will take a quote, and the order has to name the accounts payable module. Choose QuickBooks Online Plus when a project tag on the vendor bill is enough and you are not holding retainage. Advanced adds a construction module at no extra cost for 12 months for progress billing and job profitability, and that module bills upstream rather than collecting a waiver from a sub. Essentials does not include job costing.
Does Procore replace an accounts payable system?
No. Procore Pay, in the United States, handles subcontractor invoices, payment requirements, and lien waivers on top of invoice management, and it does not close the books. The published fee is 0.2% of each invoice, capped at $4,000 per commitment, and the default charges that fee to the subcontractor. The platform subscription is an annual fee on construction volume, with unlimited users and no published dollar. The general ledger is still Foundation, Vista, CMiC, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, or another accounting system.
What software collects lien waivers before you pay a subcontractor?
Procore Pay stores the unconditional waiver and can release it after payment, so the document and the cash move together. GCPay supports conditional and unconditional waivers on progress and final payments and can hold the signed waiver until the electronic payment goes out. Foundation's accounts payable module creates lien waivers as part of invoice entry. GCPay and the Procore subscription are quotes. Procore's published charge is the platform access fee on the invoice, not a seat. A shared drive of PDF waivers fails once the check has cleared.
Can BILL handle construction retainage?
BILL's published accounts payable plans do not list retainage or lien waivers, so those controls stay in the construction ledger. Team, at $65 per user per month, is the first plan with automatic two-way sync to QuickBooks Online and Xero. Enterprise is the custom tier that syncs Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and Acumatica. ACH is $0.59 and a mailed check is $1.99, so checks cost more per bill than ACH on the same seats. Use BILL as the approval and payment layer, and keep retainage in the construction ledger.
Cite this page: Toolradar, "Best Accounts Payable Software for Construction in 2026", updated September 2026, https://toolradar.com/guides/best-accounts-payable-software-for-construction
Sources
Prices and plan details on this page come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker:
- Foundation pricing, checked
- Viewpoint Vista pricing, checked
- CMiC pricing, checked
- Procore pricing, checked
- GCPay pricing
- QuickBooks Online pricing, checked
- Knowify pricing, checked
- BILL pricing, checked
Related Guides
Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.