Contractor Foreman vs QuickBooks
Contractor Foreman wins on field and job management; QuickBooks wins on real accounting and is the ledger Contractor Foreman pushes into — so most contractors pay for both, which is the two-subscription gap Stairkey closes by building the books into the jobs tool.
Contractor Foreman and QuickBooks aren't really rivals — they're two halves of the same setup. Contractor Foreman runs the field: estimates, change orders, scheduling, daily logs, time cards, and AIA/progress invoicing. QuickBooks runs the books: chart of accounts, general ledger, sales tax, financial statements. Contractor Foreman has no native double-entry ledger, so from the Plus tier ($166/mo) up it syncs into QuickBooks. Run them together and you're paying two subscriptions and keeping two systems in step.
This page is written by Stairkey, a competing all-in-one tool — so we'll be straight about where each genuinely wins. Contractor Foreman is the deeper, more battle-tested construction platform with more standalone modules than we ship. QuickBooks is the de-facto accounting standard with a Canadian GST/HST engine and an integration ecosystem we can't match. The honest case for Stairkey is narrower: if you're a small contractor who doesn't want to run and reconcile two tools, the jobs and the real double-entry books can live in one flat-priced workspace.
At a glance
- Contractor Foreman
- $49/mo (Basic, annual)
- QuickBooks
- $38/mo (Simple Start, US)
- Stairkey
- $20/mo, capped
- Contractor Foreman
- Published tiers
- QuickBooks
- Published tiers; promo expires
- Stairkey
- Published, flat, usage-capped
- Contractor Foreman
- No — syncs to QuickBooks
- QuickBooks
- Yes — full double-entry GL
- Stairkey
- Yes — native double-entry GL
- Contractor Foreman
- Tax % on documents
- QuickBooks
- Native GST/HST/PST/QST engine
- Stairkey
- Native HST/GST
- Contractor Foreman
- Yes — robust
- QuickBooks
- No
- Stairkey
- Yes — measured takeoff
- Contractor Foreman
- Yes — deep
- QuickBooks
- No
- Stairkey
- Yes
- Contractor Foreman
- Yes
- QuickBooks
- No
- Stairkey
- Yes — phone-first crew
- Contractor Foreman
- No
- QuickBooks
- No
- Stairkey
- Yes
- Contractor Foreman
- No
- QuickBooks
- No
- Stairkey
- Yes
- Contractor Foreman
- QuickBooks, Zapier, Gusto
- QuickBooks
- Very large app store
- Stairkey
- Smaller; MCP to Claude.ai
- Contractor Foreman
- Field & job management
- QuickBooks
- The accounting ledger
- Stairkey
- One tool — jobs + books
Who each one is for
you want the deepest dedicated construction toolset — estimating, bids, change orders, daily logs, AIA/progress billing, time cards — and you're fine running QuickBooks alongside it (Plus tier and up) as the actual ledger.
you need full general-purpose accounting — chart of accounts, GL, trial balance, balance sheet, and a mature Canadian GST/HST/PST/QST filing engine — and you'll pair it with a separate field tool for the estimating and job management it doesn't do.
you're a small contractor who doesn't want two subscriptions and two systems to reconcile: estimating, scheduling, invoicing, client and crew portals, and real double-entry books with HST live in one flat-priced workspace, plus AI photo/voice capture and a real estate module for realtor-contractors.
Pricing
Prices verified June 18, 2026. Quote-gated vendors change pricing without notice — confirm before you buy.
Published tiers from Basic to Unlimited, flat per plan (not per user); QuickBooks Online sync starts on the Plus tier ($166/mo) and the books live in a separate QuickBooks subscription.
Tiers rise to Essentials ($75) and Plus ($115) with per-tier user caps; payroll and payments are separate add-ons and promo pricing expires after the intro period.
Optional +$20/mo accounting add-on adds extra usage allowance for the native books; first month free, no credit card, usage capped at $100/mo so no surprise bills.
Where the others win
Both rivals genuinely out-do Stairkey in their lane. Contractor Foreman is the more mature construction platform — more standalone modules (daily logs, bids, AIA/progress billing, broader field tooling) than we ship today, with a longtime user base. QuickBooks is the accounting standard: a deeper, more configurable ledger, a far larger app/integration marketplace, and a more battle-tested Canadian GST/HST/PST/QST filing engine than ours — most vertical tools, Contractor Foreman included, are built to sync into it for a reason. Stairkey is the newer, smaller-brand product with a smaller integration marketplace; it has no built-in telephony or automated SMS dispatch, no aerial roofing measurement, and it is not a full payroll system (it does contractor tax slips, year-end, and mileage, not payroll). Our edge is narrow and specific: keeping the jobs and the real double-entry books in one transparent, flat-priced workspace instead of paying for and reconciling two.
Common questions
Does Contractor Foreman replace QuickBooks?
No. Contractor Foreman has invoices, bills, expenses, and time cards, but no native general ledger or financial statements — it relies on QuickBooks for the actual books, and the QuickBooks Online sync is gated to its Plus tier ($166/mo) and up. Most contractors run both. Stairkey is the option that includes real double-entry accounting in the same tool so you don't need a second subscription.
Do I need both Contractor Foreman and QuickBooks?
If you want Contractor Foreman's field and job-management depth and proper books, yes — that's the standard setup, and you pay for and reconcile two systems. If you'd rather have one, Stairkey combines estimating, scheduling, invoicing, and native double-entry accounting with HST/GST in a single flat-priced workspace.
How is sales tax handled across these tools?
Contractor Foreman applies configurable tax percentages on estimates and invoices but doesn't track or file GST/HST itself — that lands in the synced QuickBooks ledger. QuickBooks has a strong native Canadian GST/HST/PST/QST engine with filing periods. Stairkey handles HST/GST natively inside its own books, so the tax tracking and the job records are the same system.