About
QuickBooks Desktop is Intuit's locally-installed accounting ledger and the job-costing system of record for many US construction contractors. Intuit stopped selling new US subscriptions to Pro Plus, Premier Plus and Mac Plus on 30 September 2024, but existing subscribers can still renew and Desktop Enterprise — including its Contractor Edition, with job costing, contractor report bundles and payroll allocated by job, class and item — is still sold and supported. Third-party construction software reaches it through the on-premise QuickBooks Desktop SDK (qbXML) and the QuickBooks Web Connector rather than a cloud REST API, which is why it is a separate sync target from QuickBooks Online.
How teams use it
By audience
- Accounting & Finance
- Holds the general ledger: AP, AR, payroll and bank reconciliation for the contracting entity run here, not in the project system.
- Job costing compares estimated against actual cost per customer:job, with payroll allocated by job, class and item so labor burden lands on the right project.
- Ships contractor-bundled reports (job profitability, estimates vs actuals, unbilled costs) that field and PM systems push cost data toward.
- Is the sync target for AP-automation, field-time and estimating tools: coded invoices, approved hours and estimates post here as the system of record.
- General Contracting
- Holds the company ledger that project management, AP-automation and payment platforms sync commitments, invoices and payments into.
- Job costing by customer:job gives real-time cost-to-date against the estimate without leaving the accounting file.
- Subcontractor bills and 1099 tracking sit on the same record as job cost, so payables and compliance stay together.
- Specialty Contracting
- Desktop Enterprise Contractor Edition sizes job costing and contractor report bundles for a single-trade subcontractor's back office.
- Field Service Management and QuickBooks Time push technician hours back into the file for job-costed payroll.
- Estimates and progress invoices are raised against the job, so a trade contractor bills from the same record that carries the cost.
By phase
- Pre-Construction
- Estimates and sales orders are raised in QuickBooks Desktop before a job starts, including advance prepayments taken against the estimate.
- Estimated cost lines set the baseline that job-costing reports later compare actuals against.
- Construction
- Job costs accumulate in real time — payroll by job/class/item, subcontractor bills, material purchases — against the original estimate.
- Progress invoicing and payment application run off the job record as work is put in place.
- Third-party field, time and AP tools sync into the file during the build so cost-to-date stays current without re-keying.
Integrations (15)
| Integrates with | Connection | Details |
|---|---|---|
| NativeAgave connection layer | ||
| NativeAgave AP Invoice Automation | ||
| NativeAgave Expense Management | ||
| NativeBigTime QuickBooks Desktop sync (Web Connector) | ||
| Nativebusybusy QuickBooks Desktop integration | ||
| NativeField Materials ERP sync | ||
| NativeQuickBooks Web Connector (HCPQBWebConnectorServicer) | ||
| NativeProcore Pay ERP Sync - QuickBooks Desktop | ||
| NativeRaken ↔ QuickBooks Desktop via QuickBooks Web Connector | ||
| PartnerSalesforce CRM connector (QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Diamond add-on) | ||
| NativeNative QuickBooks Desktop integration | ||
| NativeServiceTrade QuickBooks Desktop integration | ||
| NativeSTACK–QuickBooks Desktop estimating export |
| Integrates with | Connection | Details |
|---|---|---|
| – | ||
| –Agave ERP Sync |
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