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Sage Intacct Construction: Job Costing, Billing and Retainage for Contractors

Sherman Hsieh
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Sage Intacct Construction: Job Costing, Billing and Retainage for Contractors

Last updated: October 8, 2026 · Independent buyer’s guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.

Sage Intacct Construction is the construction edition of Sage’s cloud financial system. It adds project, task (cost code) and cost type dimensions, progress billing with retainage, committed cost tracking through purchase orders and subcontracts, vendor compliance and lien waivers, and WIP schedules that post overbilling and underbilling to the general ledger. It suits US general and specialty contractors that have outgrown QuickBooks or Sage 100 Contractor and want multi-entity cloud accounting. You should still plan for separate payroll, field and estimating products, and for a partner-led implementation, because Sage does not publish pricing.

Key takeaways

  • Construction is a separate subscription on top of core Intacct, and it requires AP, AR, Cash Management, GL, Order Entry, Projects and Purchasing to be configured before retainage works.
  • A Construction company must use accrual-only accounting, and it cannot run the Intacct Contracts subscription in the same company.
  • WIP schedules post overbilling and underbilling to accounts you choose, but every project on the schedule must be marked finalized before you can post.
  • The Procore connector needs the Web Services and Construction subscriptions, does not sync owner invoices, and cannot pick up projects that existed before the connection.
  • Sage, FOUNDATION and Trimble Viewpoint all quote privately, so any published range is an estimate.

How construction accounting works, and where it breaks

Contractors track cost by job, cost code and cost type (labor, material, subcontract, equipment, other). Customers are billed in progress applications against a schedule of values, part of each bill is held as retainage, and revenue is recognized as work progresses, which produces over and underbillings on the WIP schedule.

The AIA describes the G702 as a form “on which the contractor can apply for payment and the architect can certify that payment is due,” used with the G703 continuation sheet (AIA Contract Documents, no date shown). On federal contracts, FAR 32.103 states that retainage “shall not exceed 10 percent of the approved estimated amount” (Acquisition.gov, last updated September 23, 2026).

Entry-level systems fail at the handoffs. Committed costs stay in a PM tool, change orders update the contract but not the budget, retainage lives in a spreadsheet, and the WIP entry is keyed by hand. Our guide to construction job cost accounting covers these failure points in more detail.

What Sage Intacct Construction does

Job, cost code and cost type structure

Intacct builds the job cost structure from dimensions rather than from a long chart of accounts. Sage’s help center states that the Construction subscription enables the Project, Task and Cost Type dimensions, and that “while use is optional, you cannot disable these dimensions” (Sage Intacct Help, last modified October 1, 2026). A cost code is a task and a job is a project, and you can relabel “Project” as “Job” (Sage Intacct Help, last modified October 1, 2026).

Committed costs, change management and compliance

Commitments are purchase orders and subcontracts in Purchasing that convert to AP bills. Enabling the “primary document” on the originating order shows commitments on the project and generates lien waiver compliance records automatically. Change requests revise the project estimate and contract price, and when the estimate is linked to a GL budget they can update the budget too. Secondary vendors entered on the primary document let AP issue joint checks (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026).

Vendor compliance for insurance and licenses is validated when you pay bills in AP. The Vendor Compliance subscription is included with Construction but must be switched on separately (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026).

Progress billing and AIA applications

Owner billing runs from a construction project contract and its contract lines, which act as the schedule of values. When you generate invoices under Projects > All > Invoices > Generate Invoices, you enter the current billing application number, the percent complete to date or the amount completed this period, stored materials and the retainage percent or amount to hold. Project Manager users can create draft invoices only, which create no GL entries while they remain drafts (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026). Sage’s product page lists AIA billing and invoicing support for fixed price, time and materials and cost-plus contracts (Sage, no date shown). For the mechanics of the forms themselves, see our guide to progress billing and AIA forms.

Retainage receivable and payable

Retainage is held on both customer invoices and vendor bills, with separate permissions for releasing each. When you release retainage through a project contract invoice, Intacct creates three documents: the project contract invoice showing retainage billed per line, an AR retainage release invoice and an AR credit retainage release invoice that offsets the released amount. You need a retainage release clearing account in AR configuration, and bulk release is also available (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026). The ICRW report library includes AP and AR construction retainage reports, though ICRW requires its own subscription (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026). See our guide to managing construction retainage and cash flow.

WIP schedules

WIP management is set up in Projects > Setup > Configuration. You choose the cost accounts that total job cost to date, the revenue accounts that total billings to date, the underbilling and overbilling accounts and their offsets, the posting journal and when postings auto-reverse. Project manager forecasts of cost at completion can be calculated from each project’s primary forecast estimate (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026).

To post, you open the schedule under Projects > All > WIP schedules, review the posting preview and select Post. Every project on the schedule must be marked finalized first (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026). One late review holds up the whole schedule.

Procore and other integrations

Sage and Procore launched the Sage Intacct Construction connector in October 2021, describing it as their first joint cloud-to-cloud integration (CPA Practice Advisor, October 20, 2021). Procore’s documentation says the connector syncs cost codes, cost types and job costs, exports approved commitments and commitment change orders to Intacct after an accounting approver accepts them, and imports Intacct estimates and prime contracts. It requires the Intacct Web Services and Construction subscriptions (Procore Support, no date shown).

Owner invoices and payments are not integrated, and projects created before the connection cannot be synced without paid professional services. Mixed cost code tiers and non-sectioned cost codes are not supported (Procore Support, no date shown). Budget sync is amount-only, and Procore also notes that Sage charges extra for the required subscriptions (Procore Support, no date shown).

Sage also sells its own field and preconstruction products: Sage Construction Management, Sage Estimating and Sage Intacct Construction Payroll, which Sage says handles federal, state and local certified payroll (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026). The product page also names Sage HCM, and ADP Workforce Now for Construction as an outsourced payroll option (Sage, no date shown).

Restrictions to check before you sign

  • Accrual only. Sage states that Construction-enabled companies must use the accrual-only accounting method (Sage Intacct Help, October 1, 2026).
  • No Contracts subscription. You cannot enable Contracts and Construction together in the same company.
  • Regions. Construction is supported only in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
  • No equipment section. The Construction help index, last modified October 1, 2026, has no equipment management section (Sage Intacct Help). Equipment-heavy firms should ask partners how they cost equipment.

How Sage Intacct Construction compares

Product Deployment Payroll Fit and limitations
Sage Intacct Construction Multitenant cloud Separate product (SIC Payroll, Sage HCM) or third party Strong on multi-entity and dimensional reporting; no equipment section in help; PM tools via integration
Sage 300 CRE Client-server, with hosted options Standard module Includes service and property management; you maintain servers, backups and updates
FOUNDATION Hosted requirements published Built-in module Construction accounting vendor; equipment and service are add-on modules
Trimble Viewpoint Vista Not stated on product page Workforce and payroll management Includes equipment, service and HR management
Trimble Viewpoint Spectrum Not stated on product page Payroll and HR with union compliance Includes service and inventory; no equipment module listed

Table sources: Baker Tilly, a Sage Intacct implementer, on 300 CRE’s client-server model and standard payroll module and Intacct’s SOC 1 and SOC 2 multitenant cloud (Baker Tilly, no date shown); Sage, no date shown; FOUNDATION Software, no date shown; and Trimble’s Vista and Spectrum pages (no date shown).

Intacct is a general cloud ERP with a construction layer, so it is strongest when you run several entities, need dimensional reporting for owners or lenders, and are happy to buy field, estimating and payroll tools separately. FOUNDATION, Vista and Spectrum are construction-focused suites that put payroll and, in Vista’s case, equipment in the same database. Sage 300 CRE adds service and property management but keeps you on servers.

What it costs

Sage does not publish Sage Intacct Construction pricing. The product page offers only “Request pricing” and says the Construction Essentials bundle has a “more accessible price point” without figures (Sage, no date shown). The bundle combines Sage’s preconstruction, operations and financial products (Sage, no date shown). FOUNDATION states that it does not offer standard pricing, and Trimble asks you to contact sales for Vista and Spectrum.

The only published figures we found come from third parties. ERP Research, which ranks paying partners first and may share enquirers’ details with listed partners, estimates $18,000 to $32,000 a year in licensing plus $35,000 to $80,000 in implementation for a $10 million to $30 million contractor with 10 to 25 users, plus $5,000 to $25,000 a year in integration fees, without citing a source (ERP Research, last reviewed July 12, 2026). e2b teknologies, an implementation firm, suggested $1 to $1.50 of implementation per subscription dollar for Intacct generally (e2b teknologies, January 11, 2022). Use these as a sense check on quotes, not as a budget.

What implementation involves

Baker Tilly says a move from Sage 300 CRE to Intacct can take three to six months and that historical data migration usually covers two years (Baker Tilly, no date shown). ERP Research puts a mid-size deployment at six to ten months, including six to ten weeks for PM system integration (ERP Research, July 12, 2026). The work usually runs in this order:

  1. Design the dimensions. Settle the cost code list, cost type catalog, entity structure and ID sequencing before anything is loaded. If you will use Procore, design to its rules: sectioned codes, one tier depth and one delimiter.
  2. Configure the modules. Core financials, Order Entry, Projects and Purchasing, then retainage, compliance and WIP accounts.
  3. Migrate open jobs. Load contracts and schedules of values, billed-to-date and retainage balances, open commitments and estimates for every active job. Decide which jobs finish in the old system.
  4. Connect payroll and field tools. Map labor to project, task and cost type, and test commitment approvals end to end.
  5. Run a parallel close. Produce one month’s pay applications and WIP in both systems and reconcile.

Worked example: one month on one job

Illustration only; figures are invented to show the mechanics. A specialty contractor has a $2,000,000 fixed-price contract with 10% retainage, a $1,600,000 cost estimate and $640,000 of cost to date, so the job is 40% complete on a cost-to-cost basis.

Item Amount Where it sits in Intacct
Billed to date (gross) $860,000 Project contract invoices
Retainage held (10%) $86,000 Retainage receivable on AR invoices
Earned revenue (40% of $2,000,000) $800,000 WIP schedule
Billings in excess of costs $60,000 Posted from the WIP schedule to the overbilling account

When the schedule is finalized and posted, Intacct debits the overbilling offset account and credits billings in excess of costs for $60,000, then auto-reverses the entry on the date you configured. If the project manager revises the cost estimate to $1,700,000 with no matching change to the contract price, the percent complete falls to about 37.6% and the overbilling grows to roughly $107,000. Our article on construction WIP reports explains how to read and review these numbers.

Our independent take

Sage Intacct Construction is a credible step up from QuickBooks or Sage 100 Contractor for contractors that care most about multi-entity accounting, dimensional reporting and a clean cloud ledger. Its native WIP posting, three-document retainage release and primary-document commitments address the spreadsheet work that hurts most at this size. It is a weaker fit if you own a large equipment fleet, run complex union payroll and want it in the same database, or keep a cash-basis book. The Procore connector is useful but partial, because owner billing stays in Intacct. Ask partners to demonstrate a WIP posting and a retainage release on your own job data before you sign.

Three buyer scenarios

A $40 million commercial GC on QuickBooks and Procore. Intacct Construction fits well. Design cost codes to Procore’s rules, start new jobs in the integrated setup and budget for separate payroll.

A $120 million mechanical contractor with union crews and a service division. Compare Intacct with Vista and Spectrum carefully. Both Trimble products list payroll and service management in the suite, and Spectrum lists union compliance, while Intacct would need Sage’s payroll product or a third party plus a field service tool.

A three-entity holding company on Sage 300 CRE. The case for Intacct rests on getting off servers and consolidating entities faster. Confirm how property management and equipment will be handled, because 300 CRE includes property management and Intacct Construction does not list an equipment section.

When you do not need Sage Intacct Construction

If you run fewer than a handful of jobs at a time, bill lump sum without AIA applications and do not track retainage, a construction add-on for QuickBooks may be enough. If your main pain is daily logs, RFIs and submittals, fix project management first. A single-entity, equipment-heavy contractor may be better served by a construction-only suite with native equipment costing.

How we researched this

We read Sage’s Sage Intacct Construction help center pages, all marked last modified October 1, 2026, Procore’s connector documentation, and the product pages of Sage, FOUNDATION and Trimble Viewpoint on October 8, 2026. We also reviewed the ranking pages from Sage, ERP Research, ERP Today and partners Baker Tilly and RKL eSolutions, and we name each third-party source’s commercial interest. No vendor paid for or reviewed this article.

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

Is Sage Intacct Construction a separate product from Sage Intacct?

It is a Construction subscription added to a Sage Intacct company, enabled through your Sage account manager. It turns on the project, task and cost type dimensions, construction contracts, retainage, vendor compliance and WIP schedules. It requires the core financial modules, Order Entry, Projects and Purchasing to be configured.

Does Sage Intacct Construction include payroll?

Payroll is not part of the core Construction subscription. Sage sells Sage Intacct Construction Payroll, which it says handles certified payroll, and Sage HCM, and it names ADP Workforce Now for Construction as an outsourced option.

How does Procore integrate with Sage Intacct Construction?

Procore’s connector syncs cost codes, cost types and job costs, and it pushes approved commitments, commitment change orders and prime contract change orders to Intacct. It does not integrate owner invoices or payments, and it cannot sync projects created before the connection without paid services.

How much does Sage Intacct Construction cost?

Sage does not publish pricing and quotes through sales and partners. ERP Research, a site that ranks paying partners first, estimates $18,000 to $32,000 a year in licensing and $35,000 to $80,000 in implementation for a contractor with $10 million to $30 million in revenue.

Sources

Sherman Hsieh

CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Business-Software.com
Independent analysis of enterprise software — ERP, CRM and more
Sherman Hsieh is the founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Business-Software.com. He leads the site's independent, buyer-focused coverage of ERP, CRM, and other business systems, including vendor-neutral comparisons, pricing analysis, and implementation guidance. Before founding Business-Software.com, Sherman was an executive at Siebel ...

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