Sage Intacct

By audience

Accounting & Finance

• Runs core accounting in the cloud — GL, AP, AR, cash management, and bank reconciliation — with construction-specific job costing tied to each project.
• Tracks committed costs, change orders, and cost-to-complete against budgets, and produces AIA-style progress billings and retainage on AR and AP.
• Automates WIP schedules and percentage-of-completion / over-under billing revenue recognition for accurate project profitability.
• Consolidates multi-entity, multi-currency books across subsidiaries, divisions, and joint ventures with automated intercompany eliminations.
• Closes the books faster with dimension-based reporting (project, cost code, location, vendor) instead of a bloated chart of accounts.

Executive Leadership

• Real-time dashboards and KPIs give leadership visibility into cash position, backlog, project margins, and WIP without waiting for month-end.
• Consolidated multi-entity financials roll up the whole company for board, lender, and surety/bonding reporting.
• Project-level profitability and cost-to-complete analytics flag underperforming jobs early so leadership can intervene.
• Audit trails, role-based controls, and SOX-friendly approval workflows support governance and clean external audits.
• Scales with growth — new entities, locations, and revenue streams onboard without re-platforming the financial system.

By phase

Concept & Planning

• Establishes the project budget, cost-code structure, and job setup that downstream cost tracking is measured against.
• Uses historical job-cost data to benchmark estimates and validate financial feasibility of new pursuits.
• Models cash-flow forecasts and funding needs for the prospective project before commitments are made.
• Tracks pursuit/bid costs against opportunities so go/no-go decisions reflect true financial exposure.

Design

• Captures design-phase consultant fees and professional-services costs against the project's job-cost ledger.
• Handles AP for architects, engineers, and design vendors with project- and phase-level coding.
• For design firms, supports project accounting and time-and-expense billing on design contracts.
• Tracks design-phase budget burn so early scope creep surfaces in financial reporting.

Pre-Construction

• Records subcontract and purchase-order commitments so committed costs hit the budget before construction starts.
• Manages vendor and subcontractor setup, including compliance docs and lien-waiver tracking ahead of payments.
• Refines the project budget and cost-code structure used for the life of the job.
• Forecasts project cash flow from the contract schedule of values to plan financing and draws.

Construction

• Processes subcontractor and supplier AP with retainage, lien waivers, and compliance holds during active construction.
• Generates AIA progress billings and owner draws from the schedule of values, tracking retainage receivable.
• Maintains real-time job costing and WIP, comparing actual vs. budget and committed costs as work proceeds.
• Recognizes revenue via percentage-of-completion and reports over/under billings each period.
• Manages change-order financials so approved changes update contract value, budget, and billing.

Closeout & Operations

• Releases and bills retainage, settles final subcontractor payments, and closes the job financially.
• Reconciles final job costs against budget to produce final project profitability and margin analysis.
• Captures completed-job cost history to inform future estimates and benchmarking.
• Handles warranty reserves and any post-completion operating or service costs tied to the asset.
• Archives the closed project's financial records with full audit trail for tax, audit, and surety needs.