The best construction software for contractors with an existing accounting system

Procore builds its own connectors to QuickBooks Online, Sage 300 CRE, Vista, Spectrum and CMiC, and publishes a data map for each one that shows which records export to the ledger and which import from it. That is why we name Procore the best construction software for a contractor with an existing accounting system: you can check the connection against the map for your own ledger before you buy. On Vista, commitments, change orders and subcontractor invoices export from Procore and job costs and the prime contract import, and on QuickBooks Online, Procore's Things to Know page says commitments, budgets and prime contracts do not sync.

Autodesk Forma is the better pick for a contractor already running Forma Build on Sage 300 CRE, where Agave's sync publishes a record list and sets a direction for each record type. Trimble is the better pick when the accounting system you are keeping is Vista or Spectrum, because Trimble Pay documents how an approved pay application becomes an AP invoice in Vista and in Spectrum, and Trimble documents an ADP route for each ERP: SmartCompliance files for Vista and a tax-reporting export for Spectrum.

What should a contractor keeping an accounting system weigh?

Chuck Schwartz and Dawn Meeker of Marcum, writing in Construction Executive, tell contractors to list the systems they already use for accounting, payroll, estimating, time collection and project management before they compare software. For a contractor keeping the ledger, that list is the test for the first factor: whether the vendor names a connector for your accounting product, and whether the vendor or a partner built it.

A corporate controller at CK Control Temp asked CFMA's member community how field-service data could feed the "financial system of record for job costing and general accounting." One reply, from the head of growth at Anterra Technology, said "each ERP integration has different levels of integration." Ask each vendor for the map of your proposed connection and walk one commitment and one subcontractor invoice through it. Confirm with the vendor which system each record originates in and which of your staff enters it.

Connecting Sage 300 CRE to Trimble's App Xchange takes a Sage administrator, an App Xchange user with support access, a Sage ODBC service user and a locally installed App Xchange Agent, according to Trimble's setup guide. Ask each vendor to list any other product its connector requires, and to name the builder, the installer and the support owner separately in the proposed scope.

The same Marcum guidance separates payroll run inside the accounting system from payroll run through a payroll service. Whichever you run, trace your own path for time, pay data, tax files and job costs, and ask each vendor which connector carries each one and who builds it. If you plan to keep ADP or Gusto, ask the same about that connection.

Procore's marketplace feed holds 446 live app entries, and Trimble's Marketplace catalog returns 211 results across all Trimble products. Autodesk's integrations page gives two labels, "over 200 direct integrations" for Forma and 300+ applications reachable through Connect. Each total is defined differently and none is limited to accounting, so a larger number does not mean more accounting records move. Use the totals to screen, then read the listing for your ledger.

Procore, Autodesk Forma and Trimble on accounting connections

Procore: a published map for each accounting connector it builds

Procore's marketplace lists the connectors for QuickBooks Online, Sage 300 CRE, Vista, Spectrum and CMiC as built by Procore Technologies, and each has its own manual on Procore's support site. The Sage 300 CRE manual covers versions 25.x and 26.x, and the Vista, Spectrum and CMiC manuals name their own supported releases. Procore's CMiC overview adds that connector availability depends on your country or region. On QuickBooks Online, confirm your edition with Procore; the connector's Things to Know page lists Plus and Advanced.

The Sage 300 CRE map exports commitments, commitment change orders, subcontractor invoices and owner invoices from Procore to Sage, and imports job costs and the prime contract. Budgets and vendors move in both directions. On CMiC, commitments export as subcontracts and subcontractor invoices export as requests for payment.

On QuickBooks Online, the map exports subcontractor invoices as bills and imports direct costs from bills and expenses, and a project has to be created in QuickBooks Online and then imported into Procore. Procore also states that "QuickBooks Online Time and Payroll syncing is not currently supported." For Spectrum, Procore's Things to Know page lists commitment invoices and payments, and prime contract invoices and payments, among the records that do not sync.

Exports on the Sage 300 CRE, Spectrum and CMiC connectors need approval from an accounting approver, and Sage 300 CRE offers a Direct Export option that skips the step. Vista syncs automatically every hour, on a schedule that cannot be changed, and QuickBooks Online imports job costs once a day. For jobs already under way, the Sage 300 CRE and Vista pages say projects in progress need Procore's Professional Services for "an additional fee."

For payroll, Procore's marketplace lists an ADP Payroll Integration by Flexspring. The listing says Flexspring designs, builds, manages and supports it, and that it sends Procore Timesheets data to ADP as paydata batches and brings ADP paydata back into Procore for job costing.

A Procore blog post from May 2020 on the Sage 300 CRE connector names Cumby Group, on the subcontractor invoice sync, and McCownGordon Construction, on its Sage accounting.

Autodesk Forma: partner connectors, and the Agave sync for Sage 300 CRE

Autodesk's construction integrations page says that for accounting it works "with our integration partners and platforms." It sends Sage 300 CRE to hh2 Cloud Services or Morpheus Technology Group, and Vista and Spectrum to Morpheus. CMiC goes to Boomi. QuickBooks Online is configured through Connect, which the same page describes as an integration platform "Powered by Workato."

Agave, a separate company, sells ERP Sync for Autodesk (Forma) Build across what it calls "11 Construction ERPs," with QuickBooks Online, Sage 300 CRE, Vista, Spectrum and CMiC among them. Agave says it is an official Autodesk Forma partner listed in the Autodesk Marketplace. It prices the sync as a custom proposal built on four factors: the systems synced and how they are deployed, the number of companies, the modules and the customizations. Agave's Sage 300 CRE sync page says support after onboarding is included at no extra cost and comes from a U.S.-based team.

For Sage 300 CRE, Agave's record index exports Forma Build purchase orders and subcontracts to Sage as commitments and cost payment applications as AP invoices. Sage job cost transactions come the other way into Forma Build as expenses, and Sage contracts arrive as main contracts. Agave's FAQ for the pairing says "Each record type can have its own sync direction" and treats Sage as the system of record by default. Flipping a direction later "often" needs a professional services fee, the FAQ says.

Agave's job cost page says expense approval workflows in Autodesk Cost Management have to be switched off, because only approved expenses from the ERP sync. The FAQ adds that vendor and customer contacts do not sync.

In Agave's Vista sync, payroll job costs can be grouped by employee, cost code, cost type and date, an option Agave says is meant to keep a contractor under the 10K expense record limit in Forma Build. Its Spectrum documentation pushes hours worked from Spectrum into Autodesk's performance tracking.

Cleveland Construction, a general contractor in the eastern United States, runs Forma Build with Sage 300 CRE through Agave, according to Agave's case study. The company moved to Agave from an earlier integration provider on the recommendation of IMAGINiT, its implementation partner.

Trimble: Vista and Spectrum, with Trimble Pay and ADP routes

Vista and Spectrum are Trimble's own construction ERPs: Trimble's product pages describe Vista as ERP software for job costing and financial management and Spectrum as connecting field and project teams to accounting, payroll and HR. Trimble's App Xchange info sheet says Trimble builds, tests and supports native integrations with its own products on that platform, and that integrating Vista through App Xchange does not require buying the Vista API.

Trimble Pay's Vista guide imports open jobs, open subcontracts, interfaced change orders and their vendors, and pulls updates every 30 minutes. An approved pay application exports to Vista as an AP invoice with its attachments. If Trimble Pay issues the ACH, it creates the AP payment in Vista; if Vista pays, the payment information flows back to Trimble Pay.

The Spectrum guide imports active jobs, active subcontracts, executed change orders and their vendors, and exports approved pay applications as AP invoices that appear in Spectrum in about 5 to 10 minutes. The guide marks subcontracts that use bill-item numbers in AP Subcontract Phase Detail as unsupported. For CMiC, a Trimble Pay release note describes invoice data and backup documents passing to CMiC Image Manager.

For QuickBooks Online and Sage 300 CRE, Trimble's connector guides sit on App Xchange. The QuickBooks Online connector page names customers, items, purchase orders and vendors as its data objects and says coverage "may be extended later." The Vista connector page describes its endpoint list as "used internally by the platform and not directly by end users," and support cases for the connectors go through Trimble's Support Center. Trimble fits less well for a contractor on QuickBooks Online or Sage 300 CRE, whose connection is a platform connector to scope with Trimble.

Spectrum's ADP Tax Export is, in Trimble's words, "for tax reporting only," and the help page says it is not the tool for sending data to ADP to print the payroll check. On Vista, ADP SmartCompliance is a Trimble-developed add-on that generates files you upload to ADP for weekly payroll processing. The ADP Workforce Now listing is a different product: Pipeline Data Services built it on App Xchange with the Vista API, and the listing carries a Trimble Certified badge. It brings employees onboarded in ADP into Vista and sends Vista time punches to ADP, and the payroll general-ledger and job-cost entries are recorded in Vista.

Trimble's 2024 case study on kVP Energy Services, a U.S. electrical infrastructure contractor, describes Traqspera Field handling timesheet entry and approval with Spectrum, and says kVP needed fewer payroll hours for manual timesheet entry.

Which construction software should a contractor with an existing accounting system choose?

Procore is our pick for a contractor with an existing accounting system. It builds the connector for each ledger compared here and publishes, system by system, which records move in each direction and which are left out. A controller can read the map for the ledger the company already runs and find the gaps before signing.

Procore does not own every piece of those connections. The Sage 300 CRE connector runs through hh2's sync client, and the Spectrum connector needs the Data Exchange app bought from Trimble. Trimble develops ADP products for its own ERPs itself, and the ADP integration on Procore's marketplace comes from Flexspring. We weigh the accounting maps more for this buyer because they let a contractor inspect, before buying, how the connector for its own ledger treats commitments, subcontractor invoices, budgets and job costs.

Autodesk Forma is the better pick when your project teams already work in Forma Build and your ledger is Sage 300 CRE. Agave's sync has a published record list for that pairing and a named general contractor running it, and buying it keeps the project software your teams use. Settle the direction of each record type during scoping, because Agave says changing one later often carries a professional services fee.

Trimble is the better pick when Vista or Spectrum is the accounting system you are keeping. The ledger is then Trimble's own product, and Trimble Pay's path from pay application to AP invoice is documented for both. On Vista, choose between SmartCompliance's uploaded files and Pipeline's API integration with ADP Workforce Now. On Spectrum, the ADP export covers tax reporting, so ask Trimble how payroll processing itself reaches ADP.

Other construction software providers