Construction project management software · Built for Australia
Construction project management software for Australian builders
One record per contract, from the day it is signed to the day the retention is released. Schedule of values, stages, variations, progress claims and live cost against budget, all hanging off the estimate you already priced.
Free plan available · No credit card · GST, ABN & builder licence on every claim
Key takeaways
5- OneBookPlus is construction project management software for Australian builders: the accepted quote becomes a contract job with its schedule of values, and every stage, variation, retention amount and claim hangs off that one record.
- Progress claims go out by completed stage or percentage complete as GST-compliant tax invoices with a Pay Now button for card or bank debit, and claimed-to-date is tracked so a claim cannot exceed the contract.
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- Retention is withheld at the rate your contract sets and tracked through to release, so held money is visible per contract instead of hiding inside a part-paid invoice.
- Live cost control compares committed costs, actuals and forecast against the project budget and alerts you when a cost code trends over.
- Core plans run $0 to $69 per month in AUD; the Builder Suite project layer is $99 per month on top of any core plan, with unlimited users and a 14-day free trial.
The contract is the record
A build is a contract, not a to-do list
A build has a contract value, a set of stages that value is broken into, a list of things the client changed their mind about, money held back until the defects period ends, and a margin that only tells the truth at the end. Generic project management software models tasks and dates. Generic accounting models one invoice per sale. Neither knows what a frame-stage claim is, which is why so many builders end up running the real project in a spreadsheet beside both, and why the spreadsheet is where the errors live.
OneBookPlus keeps the contract as the record. The estimate you priced becomes the quote the client accepts online, the accepted quote becomes the contract job and its schedule of values, and every claim, variation, cost and retention movement afterwards attaches to that same job. There is no re-keying between an estimating tool, a project tracker and a ledger, because there is one of each and they are the same system. That is the difference between construction project tracking software and a folder of spreadsheets named after suburbs.
Pricing the work is a separate module and stays that way. Building the cost up before there is a price lives in construction estimating software, and measuring quantities off the drawings lives in digital plan takeoff. This page is about everything that happens once the price is agreed and the job is real.
Contract to handover
Five stages of a project, one record
This is the whole lifecycle a construction project management system has to carry. Every step below hands its output to the next one, so nothing is retyped and nothing is remembered.
Contract and schedule of values
The accepted quote converts into a contract job carrying its schedule of values: the stages or trades you will claim against, priced the way you priced the job. Nothing gets rebuilt in a spreadsheet, because the claim structure is the estimate.
Stages, subbies and the site record
Issue RFQs so subbies and suppliers price the scope you actually wrote, assign them to the stages they are on, and keep a dated site diary with photos, weather and who was on site. The paper trail builds itself while the build runs.
Cost control against the budget
Committed costs, actuals and forecast run live against the project budget, with an alert the moment a cost code trends over. Quoted versus actual margin is visible while you can still do something about it, not at handover.
Claim, retain, get paid
Claim a completed stage or a percentage against each line, hold retention at the rate your contract sets, and send a GST-compliant claim invoice with a Pay Now button for card or bank debit. Claimed-to-date is tracked so a claim can never quietly overshoot the contract.
Defects, retention release, handover
Log defects and close them out through to handover, then release the retention you held at the agreed milestone. The final claim is the final claim, not the start of a hunt through twelve months of invoices.
The actual product
What the project looks like on screen
Screens captured from OneBookPlus itself: the board every active build sits on, the quote that becomes the contract, and the stage claim that gets paid.
Every build, in the stage it is actually in
The pipeline board with each project sitting in its current stage, so where a job has stalled is a glance rather than a round of phone calls.
The quote that becomes the contract
A fixed-price or cost-plus quote with itemised lines and GST. When the client accepts it online, it converts to the contract job and the schedule of values you will claim against.
A stage claim, with retention shown
The claim invoice: this claim, retention held, claimed to date and balance due, with your ABN and licence number and a Pay Now link for card or bank debit.
Construction cost management
Three places a project quietly loses its margin
The first is the variation nobody billed. A client asks for something on site, the crew builds it, and six weeks later it is a conversation about what was agreed. In OneBookPlus a variation is priced, sent for the client to approve, and once approved it lifts the contract value and becomes claimable on the next progress claim. The scope change and the money follow each other instead of drifting apart.
The second is retention. Contracts commonly let the client hold back a percentage of every claim until the defects liability period ends, and in software that has no concept of retention that money shows up as a part-paid invoice or an overdue debtor and gets written off in someone's head. Here the retention is withheld on the claim at the rate you set, and the running balance per contract, what is held and when it falls due, stays visible through to release.
The third is budget drift, and it is the expensive one. Committed costs, actuals and forecast run against the project budget while the build is live, with an alert when a cost code starts trending over, so construction cost management software earns its keep in week six rather than at handover. Every supplier bill and subbie invoice is booked against its job, which means quoted versus actual margin is a number you can look at today, and the GST credits on all of it flow into the same BAS summary as the claims you have issued.
How we compare
How the project side compares to Buildxact, Xero and a spreadsheet
Every row below is about the mechanics of running a contract: the schedule of values, the claim against it, the retention held, and whether the client can actually pay it.
| Feature | OneBookPlus | Buildxact | Xero | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule of values built from your estimate | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Claim by stage or percentage complete | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Retention held per claim, tracked to release | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Claimed-to-date tracked against the contract | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Approved variations lift the contract value | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| AI drafts % complete from your site photos | Yes | No | No | No |
| Client pays the claim online (card + bank debit) | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| GST-inclusive tax invoices (AU) | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Native accounting ledger and BAS summaries | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Connected to estimating and plan takeoff | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Flat price, unlimited users | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Price | $0–$69/mo + $99/mo suite | From $199/mo | From ~$35/mo | $0 |
Buildxact and AroFlo have line-by-line pages of their own, with every claim sourced: read the OneBookPlus vs Buildxact comparison or the OneBookPlus vs AroFlo comparison. Procore and Buildertrend come up in the same searches and we have not published a verified comparison against either, so this page will not characterise what they do. The table above is what OneBookPlus does, checked against the product, and you can line it up against whatever shortlist you are holding.
Example walkthrough
One two-storey extension, contract to retention release
A worked example: a Bendigo builder running a five-stage contract over four months
February. Nadia wins a two-storey rear extension. The estimate she priced is already in OneBookPlus, so the client accepts the quote online and it converts to a contract job carrying the schedule of values she quoted against: demolition, slab, frame, lock-up, fixing and completion. Before a shovel moves she sends RFQs to her concreter, framer and roof plumber, and their prices come back against the job as committed costs rather than as texts she has to remember.
March. The slab goes down. Nadia raises the slab claim from the schedule of values, holds the 5% retention the contract allows, and sends it as a GST tax invoice with a Pay Now link. The owners pay by card that evening. Halfway through the frame the clients ask for a wider opening to the deck. She prices the variation at $3,180, sends it for approval, and once they sign it lifts the contract value and sits ready to claim with the next stage instead of turning into an argument in June.
April. The cost-control view flags the framing code trending over budget: the timber order came in above the estimate. Nadia sees it in week two of the stage, not at handover, and pulls the difference back on the roofing package while she still can. Every supplier bill and subbie invoice is booked against the job, so the quoted-versus-actual margin she is looking at is the real one.
June. Practical completion. The last claim goes out with the approved variation included and claimed-to-date reconciling exactly against the contract, because nothing was ever typed twice. Two defects get logged at the walkthrough, closed out in a fortnight, and the retention releases on the milestone the contract sets. The job's final margin is a number she can read off the project, and the GST on every claim is already in the quarter's BAS summary.
Where the line sits
Residential, renovation and small commercial
The contract shape this models, a head contract broken into a schedule of values, claimed by stage or percentage, adjusted by approved variations and reduced by retention, is common to new homes, extensions, renovations and small commercial fitouts. Those are the builders it is built for, and everything on this page is aimed squarely at them.
Two honest limits. Larger civil contracting brings requirements this does not carry: plant-hire fleet registers, inspection and test plan libraries, and bill-of-quantities schedules for tendered packages. And there is no Gantt chart with task dependencies and a critical path; stages sit on the job calendar with crew and subbies assigned, and the scheduling detail some builders want lives in other tools. We would rather you knew both before you signed up than after.
If what you are actually shopping for is a tool for the whole building business, the trade, the pricing and the stack it replaces, rather than the mechanics of one contract, start with construction software for builders. Trades running a service book rather than contract builds are better served by job management software, and the ledger side, GST, BAS and reporting, sits in the Finance module.
Australian Owned
Built in Melbourne, AU
GST Compliant
ATO-ready from day one
Encrypted & Isolated
TLS in transit, AES-256 at rest, tenant isolation at the database layer, read the security page
Free Plan Available
No credit card needed
Run the next build off one record
Start free, quote a build in stages, and add the project layer when the contracts justify it. No credit card required.
Also on the build: construction estimating software · digital plan takeoff · progress claims
FAQ
About construction project management in OneBookPlus
What should construction project management software do that generic project software cannot?
A build is a contract, not a task list. The software has to hold a contract value, a schedule of values broken into stages, the variations that move that value, the amount claimed to date against it, and the retention the client is holding back. Generic project tools model tasks and dates; generic accounting models one invoice per sale. Neither knows what a frame-stage claim is, which is why builders end up running the real project in a spreadsheet beside both. OneBookPlus keeps the contract as the record and hangs every stage, variation, cost and claim off it.
How is this different from the OneBookPlus page for builders?
Deliberately, they cover different halves of the same business. The construction software for builders page covers the whole building business: the trade, the pricing, the free plan, the tool stack it replaces. This page covers the project itself, from the signed contract through stages, variations, retention and progress claims to defects and handover. If you are choosing software for your building business, start there. If you are working out how a specific build gets tracked, claimed and closed out, you are in the right place here.
Can I see whether a project is over budget while the build is still running?
Yes, that is the point of the cost-control view. It shows committed costs (what you have ordered or approved), actuals (what has been invoiced or paid) and forecast against the project budget, and it alerts you when a cost code trends over rather than reporting it after the fact. Every expense, supplier bill and subbie invoice is booked against its job, so quoted versus actual margin is live per build rather than a quarterly surprise.
Does it schedule the build like a Gantt chart?
No, and we would rather say so plainly than let you find out later. Stages live on the job calendar with the crew and subbies assigned to them, but there is no Gantt chart with task dependencies and a critical path. If the Gantt screen is the one you live in, the OneBookPlus vs Buildxact comparison says the same thing in more detail and names it as a genuine Buildxact strength. What OneBookPlus does instead is tie the stages to money: the schedule of values, the claim against it, and the cost booked to it.
Is OneBookPlus a construction ERP?
No. Builders searching for construction ERP software are usually after one system instead of five, and that part is fair: estimating, project delivery, claims, online payment and the GST ledger are one account here, with no sync jobs between them. But an enterprise ERP means procurement modules, warehouse inventory, plant and equipment registers and multi-entity consolidation, and OneBookPlus does not carry those. It is built for a builder running builds, not a contracting group running divisions.
Does it suit civil or commercial projects, or only residential?
The contract shape it models, a head contract with a schedule of values, staged or percentage claims, variations and retention, is common to residential, renovation and small commercial work, and those are the builders it is built for. Larger civil contracting brings requirements it does not carry, including plant-hire fleet registers, inspection and test plan libraries, and bill-of-quantities schedules for tendered civil packages. If those are on your list, this is not the right tool and we would rather tell you now.
How do subbies and suppliers get their prices into the project?
Send an RFQ with the scope you wrote, and their prices come back against the job rather than into your inbox and out of your memory. Those prices become the committed costs the cost-control view watches, and each subbie invoice books against the stage it belongs to, so the trade breakdown you priced is the trade breakdown you are tracking. Subbies and office staff cost nothing extra to add: the Builder Suite add-on has no per-seat fee.
Which parts of this are in the core plan and which need Builder Suite?
Quoting, jobs, GST invoicing, expenses, contacts and the accounting ledger are in the core plans, which run $0 (Free), $29 (Starter), $49 (Plus) and $69 (Growth) per month in AUD. Retention tracking is included on the Growth plan. The full project layer, the cost catalogue and recipes, AI plan takeoff, RFQs, live cost control with overrun alerts, the site diary, defects and the claims workflow, is the Builder Suite app at $99 per month on top of any core plan, including Free, with unlimited users and a 14-day free trial.
Last reviewed and updated: by Bishal Shrestha
About the author
Bishal Shrestha
Founder & CEO, OneBookPlus
Bishal spent a decade running digital projects for Australian small businesses before founding OneBookPlus. OneBookPlus is built and supported from Melbourne for Australian small and medium businesses. The construction project layer covers contract jobs with a schedule of values, stage and percentage progress claims, priced variations, retention held and released, RFQs to subcontractors, a dated site diary and defects close-out, with GST-compliant claim invoices clients pay online.
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