Accounting Software for Tradies: What It Won't Do
Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks all do the books well. None of them was built to run your jobs — and knowing exactly where the line falls saves you buying the wrong thing twice.
Every Australian tradie ends up on one of three accounting packages, usually because their accountant said so. They're all good at what they're for, and all three will handle GST, BAS and reconciliation without complaint. The trouble starts when you ask them to do the other half of the job — quoting on site, tracking what's happening on a job today, knowing which work made money. This guide covers what to look for, how the main options differ, and the line where accounting software stops.
Doing this job for a living? See job management in ServiceYak.
What a tradie needs from accounting software
Most comparison articles list every feature. As a trade business you only really need it to do a handful of things well:
- Australian GST and BAS — handled natively, not bolted on for another market.
- Bank feeds — transactions coming in automatically so reconciliation isn't a monthly evening.
- Invoicing — at minimum the ability to receive invoices raised elsewhere without retyping.
- Payroll — if you have anyone on the books, this is a big deciding factor.
- Your accountant already uses it — an underrated criterion, and the one that saves the most friction.
- It connects to whatever runs your jobs — the integration matters more than any single feature.
Ask your accountant or bookkeeper before you choose. If they work in one package daily, picking a different one costs you money in their time — and that cost recurs every month for as long as you run the business.
How the main options differ
| Package | Known for | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Xero | Cloud-first, wide integration ecosystem, very common in AU trades | Most small trade businesses; easiest to connect to job software |
| MYOB | Long-established in Australia, strong payroll heritage | Businesses with staff, and accountants who've always used it |
| QuickBooks | Competitive pricing, projects and class tracking | Sole traders and small teams watching cost |
| Sage | Bigger-business feature set, stronger presence offshore | Larger operations, or those already on it |
Pricing across all four changes regularly and tiers differ in what's included — particularly payroll, which is often the thing that decides the real monthly cost. Get current numbers from each vendor rather than trusting any comparison table, including this one.
The line where accounting software stops
This is the part worth understanding before you buy, because it explains why most established trade businesses end up running two systems rather than one.
Accounting software records transactions. A job, while it's running, is mostly not transactions yet — it's hours being worked, materials being picked up, and a variation agreed in a driveway. None of that exists in Xero until someone turns it into an invoice or a bill, which is usually well after the moment it mattered.
| What you need | Why accounting software can't |
|---|---|
| Quote from a saved rate library on site | Quotes are documents, not a costed line-item system |
| Today's schedule and who's on what | There's no job or calendar to schedule against |
| Photos and notes attached to a job | Attachments hang off transactions, not jobs |
| Labour hours against a job | Payroll knows hours worked, not which job they went to |
| Variations agreed mid-job | Nothing exists until it becomes an invoice line |
| Quote versus actual on a finished job | There's no quote baseline stored to compare against |
What most trade businesses end up running
The common arrangement, and the one worth planning for from the start, is two systems with a sync between them:
- Job management runs the work. Enquiry, quote, schedule, job record, photos, materials, variations and the invoice — everything that happens before the money moves.
- Accounting runs the books. GST, BAS, reconciliation, payroll and everything your accountant needs at year end.
- The sync connects them. Invoices raised against a job push into the accounting package automatically, so nothing gets typed twice and the two systems agree.
The mistake is buying accounting software and expecting it to cover both. It's genuinely good at one half, and no amount of tracking categories turns it into the other.
ServiceYak runs the job side and syncs the invoicing across to your accounting software, so quotes, job records and payments live in one place and your books stay exactly where your accountant wants them.
Frequently asked questions
What accounting software can I use for job costing?
All the main packages will do a limited version — Xero via tracking categories, QuickBooks via projects or classes, MYOB via job codes. They work if you run a few large jobs. They fall over with many small ones, and none of them capture labour hours or on-site variations, which is where most of the cost actually sits.
What's the best accounting software for tradies in Australia?
For most small trade businesses Xero is the path of least resistance — it's widely used here, and it connects to more job management tools than anything else. MYOB is strong if you have staff and payroll matters most. The genuinely deciding factor is usually which one your accountant already works in.
Do I need job management software as well as accounting software?
Once you're quoting regularly, running a crew, or losing variations, yes. Accounting software records what has already been transacted; job management captures the work while it's happening. Businesses that try to run on accounting alone end up doing the job side in a notebook, which is the admin they were trying to remove.
Can I just use spreadsheets instead?
You can, and plenty of tradies start there. Spreadsheets stop working at the point where more than one person needs the same information at the same time, or where a job's history matters months later. That's usually the first employee, or the first dispute.