Accounting software for Australian builders

The question to ask a vendor

Can I code a supplier bill to a job and to a section of the estimate, and see committed cost as well as spent cost?

A general ledger answers one question well: did the business make money this quarter. A builder needs a second answer while the job is still open, and every dollar has to land against a job to get it. The trap is a package that offers tracking categories and calls that job costing. A tracking category splits a profit and loss two ways. It will not tell you the frame section is over while the roof has not started, and it holds none of the purchase orders you have raised but not been billed for.

What good looks like

• Every bill and subbie invoice carries a job code, and coding it is one field rather than a monthly re-key.
• Quoted against actual is live per build and per section, not a report you assemble after handover.
• Purchase orders raised but not billed show as committed cost, so the remaining budget is not flattering itself.

The question to ask a vendor

Does the claim carry this-claim and to-date columns, and does retention come off as its own line on the tax invoice?

A build bills in stages against a schedule of values, and what you send is a tax invoice in law and a progress claim in practice. It has to show five numbers the client can check: contract sum, approved variations, previously claimed, this claim, and the balance to complete. A general accounting package has no concept of any of that, so you type an invoice for an amount and keep the arithmetic in a spreadsheet, which is where the retained five per cent goes missing.

What good looks like

• The claim shows contract sum, variations, previously claimed, this claim and balance to complete, on the document the client pays.
• Retention comes off at the contract percentage with nobody doing arithmetic, and prints as its own line.
• Claimed-to-date is measured against the contract value, so a claim cannot overshoot it unnoticed.

Where we stand on this: In OneBookPlus the schedule of values is generated from the accepted estimate's sections. There is no stage editor and no deposit stage, so section the estimate to match your contract's stages before you accept it.

The question to ask a vendor

Does an approved variation lift the contract value before the next claim, or does it only add a line to one invoice?

Variations are where residential builds lose money, and they lose it quietly: the rock under the footing, the change of tile, the extra pier. In the books the approved variation has to lift the contract value, so the next claim bills the higher figure, and the record has to outlive the job: what changed, what it cost, when, and who said yes. If variations live in an email thread, the claim under-bills and the conversation at handover has no exhibit.

What good looks like

• A variation carries its own cost, approval and date, and lifts the contract value once approved.
• The next claim bills against the lifted contract value with no manual adjustment.
• Work done but not yet priced is visible as a number, because unpriced work is the one cost a ledger never sees.

The question to ask a vendor

Does the annual report assemble itself out of the supplier bills I already entered, and does it carry the ABN the ATO asks for?

In accounting terms most residential builders are mostly a payments business, and payments for building and construction services go to the ATO in a taxable payments annual report each year. That report is only as good as the year's coding: either it assembles from bills you already entered, with the ABN on the supplier record, or August is a week of spreadsheet archaeology. Check one thing at payment time, whether an invoice arrived without an ABN, because the withholding obligation bites when you pay rather than when you report.

What good looks like

• Subbie bills are coded to the job and the supplier, with the ABN on the supplier record rather than in a memo field.
• The annual report builds from those payments, not from a register somebody has to remember to keep.
• An invoice with no ABN on it is visible before you pay it.

Where we stand on this: In OneBookPlus the report exports as a CSV, its address column comes out blank, and it is not the fixed-length file the ATO's lodgement channel accepts. Treat it as the working paper your agent lodges from.

The question to ask a vendor

Can I see the GST on issued-but-unpaid claims separately from the GST on money that has actually arrived?

Cash versus accruals is not a bookkeeping preference on a build. It is a cash-flow decision with a due date. On a non-cash basis the GST is attributed in the period you issue the claim, so a claim issued on 28 June sits in that quarter's activity statement whether or not the client pays in July. Retention adds a second timing question, because the retained portion is claimed but not yet payable to you, and its treatment turns on contract wording as well as basis.

What good looks like

• Which basis you may use is set by s 29-40 of the GST Act, and the basis decides the quarter: on a cash basis the GST follows the money, on a non-cash basis it follows the earlier of the invoice and the payment.
• Every progress claim is a compliant tax invoice with your ABN and the GST shown, whatever the contract calls it.
• The BAS figures come off the same ledger the claims post to, so there is nothing to reconcile.

Where we stand on this: This is general information about timing, not tax advice about your contracts. The ATO's building and construction guidance is linked below, and your accountant should read it against your contract wording before the first claim goes out.

How attribution works on a progress claim, with the provision

The question to ask a vendor

Can I see, by job, what is claimed, what is outstanding, what is held as retention and what is committed on purchase orders?

A monthly cash-flow report tells a builder something they mostly already know, and tells it late. The view that changes a decision is per job: claimed, certified, held as retention, and committed on purchase orders nobody has billed yet. Three builds each eighty per cent claimed and sixty days from certification is a solvency problem a monthly forecast will not show until the month it arrives. The detail most packages get wrong: retention held is not late, it is not yet due, and it belongs nowhere near the overdue column.

What good looks like

• Aged receivables are readable by job, not only by client, because one client can be three builds.
• Retention held is shown separately from overdue, because it is not late, it is not yet due.
• Committed cost from open purchase orders sits beside spent cost, so the remaining budget is real.