Best job costing consultants and integrators for contractors (2026)
The best job costing consultants for contractors in 2026 are Z&G Partners for automated nightly job costing on QuickBooks and your time clock, Profitability Partners for ServiceTitan contractors that want an outside finance team, and Catalyst CPA and Minding My Books for job costing kept by a bookkeeper or a job costing app. There are three routes: a firm that connects your systems so job costing updates itself, a contractor bookkeeper who tags every cost to the job each month, or job costing software set up by an implementer. Below are six firms across those routes, checked on their own sites.
Z&G Partners wrote this list and is on it. We have tried to be fair; every other firm's details come from its own website, checked November 6, 2026.
What to look for
- Labor cost from real pay rates: Labor is the biggest number and the one most often wrong. You want hours by job from the time clock times real pay rates from payroll, not an average guess.
- How current it is: Monthly beats quarterly. Nightly lets you change course on a job while the crew is still on it. Ask how many days old the numbers will be.
- Estimate against actual: Job costing only helps if you compare it to the budget. Check that the estimate comes in from your estimating tool or CRM.
- Who does the typing: If a person still keys hours and bills into a spreadsheet, the numbers lag whenever that person is busy. Ask what is automatic and what is manual.
- Fits your QuickBooks: QuickBooks Online and Desktop handle job costing differently. Make sure the firm works with your version.
The list
1. Z&G Partners
Builds and runs automated job costing for trades companies doing $3M to $15M a year. It connects QuickBooks (Online or Desktop) for revenue and bills, a time clock such as QuickBooks Time, BusyBusy or VeriClock for hours, payroll such as Paychex for real pay rates, and the estimating tool or CRM for the budget. Each job's cost sheet rebuilds every night, and anything it cannot match is flagged to a named person. Published results: 553 job cost sheets updated nightly at a painting company in Cape Cod, where job costing ran 90 days behind, and 2,030 jobs costed from Salesforce, Paychex and QuickBooks at a garage door company in Bend, Oregon, live inside 14 days. Live in 30 days or your money back (terms in writing).
Best for: Contractors whose job costing runs one to three months behind because hours, pay and bills live in different systems. Pricing: Not published. A flat fee to build each automation, then a monthly fee to run it, quoted on a free 30-minute call.
Source: zgpartners.co and zgpartners.co/job-costing-for-contractors
2. Profitability Partners
A Tampa, Florida firm that works as an outside finance team (a fractional CFO) for home services contractors: accounting and systems, planning and analysis, and exit preparation. Its site lists a monthly KPI report with ServiceTitan metrics, ServiceTitan to QuickBooks reconciliation, and ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro setup. It names HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing.
Best for: HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing companies on ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro that want a monthly close, KPI reports and finance leadership, not only job costing. Pricing: Not published. Its site offers a free consultation and a free financial diagnostic.
Source: profitabilitypartners.io
3. TradeWeave
A ServiceTitan Certified Provider and custom software team in Sarasota, Florida. It does ServiceTitan setup, pricebook and dispatch work, reporting and training, plus QuickBooks integrations and custom automations to end double entry. Its site names HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, garage door and landscaping.
Best for: ServiceTitan contractors that want reporting set up and QuickBooks integrations built so jobs are not typed twice. Pricing: Not published. Its pricing page says project work starts "from a few thousand dollars" and scales with scope; support plans are month to month.
Source: tradeweave.io/pricing
4. Catalyst CPA
A CPA firm in Moreno Valley, California, run by Adham Abadier, CPA, a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor. It keeps construction books with job costing in QuickBooks Online: each expense and payment tagged to its project, monthly job profit reports, work-in-progress (WIP) reporting, progress billing and retainage. It serves the Inland Empire in person and the rest of California remotely, and names painting, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing and landscaping, among others.
Best for: California contractors that want a bookkeeper to keep job costing current in QuickBooks Online each month, at a published flat fee. Pricing: Construction bookkeeping $500 to $1,200 a month, flat, depending on job volume and active projects. Free 30-minute file review.
5. Minding My Books
A QuickBooks consulting firm in Cheboygan, Michigan, led by Raeann Salter, a QuickBooks Advanced ProAdvisor; its site calls the firm an Intuit QuickBooks Solution Expert. It sets up Knowify, a job management and job costing app for trade contractors, and does QuickBooks setup, data migration, third-party integrations, training and support. Its Knowify page names electrical, plumbing, HVAC, painting, remodeling, and concrete and excavation.
Best for: Trade contractors ready to run jobs in Knowify, a job costing app that syncs with QuickBooks, and who want it set up by a QuickBooks expert. Pricing: Consulting fees not published. Its Knowify page lists the software's plans: Core $99 a month, Advanced $249 a month, Enterprise custom.
6. Certum Solutions
A Monroe, North Carolina accounting and software advisory firm founded by Katie Bunschoten, an Elite Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. It offers bookkeeping, fractional CFO work, payroll and software setup, and calls itself vendor-neutral. A case study on its site describes setting up job costing and employee cost tracking in QuickBooks for a Raleigh painting business.
Best for: Smaller contractors that want a ProAdvisor to set up job costing inside QuickBooks itself. Pricing: Not published.
Source: certumsolutions.com/library/case-study-wake-coatings
How to choose
Pick the route that matches how fast you need the answer. If you want to see profit on a job while the crew is still on it, pick a firm that automates the feed from your time clock, payroll and QuickBooks. If monthly job profit is enough and your books need a cleanup anyway, a contractor bookkeeper costs less and will also do your monthly close. If you are willing to change how the office runs jobs, job costing software set up by an implementer can work, but your office and crews have to learn it. Ask every firm to show a real job cost report from a company your size, and how many days old its numbers are.
Questions owners ask
What is the difference between a job costing consultant and a construction bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper records your costs and tags them to jobs, usually once a month, and also handles the close, payroll and 1099s. A job costing consultant or integrator builds the connections so hours, pay and bills land on each job on their own, often every night. Some companies use both: the bookkeeper keeps the books, and the automation keeps job costing current.
Can QuickBooks do job costing by itself?
Partly. QuickBooks can tag income and bills to a customer or project and show profit by job. It does not pull in hours from a separate time clock, real labor cost, or the estimate from your estimating tool every night. That is the gap a consultant, a bookkeeper or job costing software fills.
Should I buy job costing software instead?
Software such as Knowify, from $99 a month, tracks costs and profit on each job and syncs with QuickBooks. It works well if you run your jobs inside it. If your office already runs on other tools, an integrator connects those tools instead, so nobody switches software.
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