Acctivate Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives in 2023

Acctivate construction inventory software, or simply Acctivate, is a desktop-based inventory management solution that helps contractors monitor inventory levels, automate purchase orders (POs), track materials used, and more. It integrates with QuickBooks for enhanced inventory capabilities, including multilocation inventory tracking and lot and serial number traceability. In this Acctivate inventory review, we’ll provide an in-depth analysis of its features, pricing, benefits, and drawbacks to help you decide if it’s right for your construction business.

• Pros/Cons
• Deciding Factors
• Best For
• Not Ideal For

Overall Score: 4.07 / 5

RATING CRITERIA	QuickBooks Integration		4.80 out of 5
	Ease of Implementation		5.00 out of 5
	Pricing		2.50 out of 5
	Construction Features		2.80 out of 5
	Construction Reporting		3.25 out of 5
	Mobile App		5.00 out of 5
	User Reviews		4.20 out of 5

Pros

• Integrates with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop
• Offers enhanced inventory features not offered in QuickBooks Online, such as multilocation tracking and lot and serial number traceability
• Includes business activity monitoring tools, like sales call tracking
• Has an Android app for PO receiving, sales order picking, and picklist picking
• Can take your files online through cloud hosting (not required for data syncing with QuickBooks Online)

Cons

• Is expensive for small-scale contractors
• Is not a complete construction management solution; focused on inventory management
• Doesn’t support multiple companies
• Lacks a free trial

Supported Users	Medium-sized and large contractors looking for enhanced inventory management features beyond QuickBooks Online’s offerings
Pricing	One-time payment: $995 to $28,995 “Baker’s Dozen” Financing: $833 to $2,416 monthly
Free Trial	None, but offers a free demo
Standout Features	Allows you to monitor inventory levels and be alerted when stock is low Provides over 100 standard reports and documents and customized reports through its integration with Crystal Reports, a leading Windows-based report writer solution Lets you use specific-identity costing for lot or serialized products Integrates with leading electronic data interchange (EDI) platforms to streamline electronic transactions, like invoices and POs Enables you to generate purchase requisitions and then convert them into POs once approved Allows you to track expenses, whether they are related to labor, materials, or equipment
Ease of Use	Less user-friendly compared to simpler, online-based inventory management solutions
Customer Support	Phone and email, free 90-day onboarding, and online self-help resources, like blogs and tutorials

• Construction companies seeking QuickBooks Online inventory enhancements, such as multiwarehouse tracking, lot and serial traceability, and barcode scanning
• Midsize and large-scale contractors preferring a locally installed inventory software with QuickBooks integration
• Large-scale construction companies wanting to use integrated EDI to centralize and automate their procurement and supply chain operations

• Companies seeking a complete construction management solution: If you prefer an all-in-one construction management solution, consider Procore. It offers project management, time tracking, employee location tracking, and even financial management tools.
• General contractors focused on project management: General contractors managing subcontractors may not need the extensive inventory features offered by Acctivate and only require a robust project management solution. CoConstruction is a great alternative as it offers all the tools you need to manage and track projects, including estimation, document management, and scheduling tools.
• Residential remodeling contractors: Companies specializing in residential remodeling and renovation projects are usually focused on job scheduling and tracking project timelines. That said, they may need construction scheduling software like ECI Bolt—which allows users to create, manage, and track schedules online and offline.

All three recommendations are in our roundup of the best construction software that integrates with QuickBooks Online. To learn more, head over to that guide or scroll to the next section.

Visit Acctivate

Acctivate Alternatives

Visit Procore	Visit CoConstruct	Visit ECI Bolt
Best for: Contractors seeking a complete construction solution	Best for: General contractors focused on project management	Best for: Residential contractors managing remodeling projects
Cost: Custom priced	Cost: From $399 monthly	Cost: Custom priced

Acctivate’s pricing took a hit in our evaluation because the structure isn’t favorable for small-scale contractors. You will either have to pay a hefty one-time fee or choose a condensed monthly plan—still with high monthly fees.

The tables below sum up the Acctivate inventory pricing structures.

Acctivate Feature Comparison by Plan

Acctivate offers uniform tiered features across all plans, whether you choose the one-time payment or the monthly option. All subscriptions include standard features, such as inventory management, sales automation, customer management, and QuickBooks integration, while the higher plans offer more advanced tools, summarized below.

Acctivate earned an excellent mark in this category because of the value it provides to businesses when it’s integrated with QuickBooks Online. The bidirectional integration between Acctivate and QuickBooks offers an enhanced solution for optimizing your inventory, warehousing, ordering, and purchasing workflows

Some list items, such as customers, can be updated in either Acctivate or QuickBooks. However, there are some items that don’t automatically flow between the two programs, which explains the slight hit in its score.

For instance, most inventory items, including inventory asset accounts, must be handled in Acctivate, while salespeople and sales tax codes must be entered and updated in QuickBooks. Nevertheless, we don’t find this a problem since this approach allows you to separately leverage the strengths of each program.

While Acctivate is a locally installed software, it doesn’t require to be hosted to integrate it with QuickBooks Online. Once you install the software and sign in to your Acctivate account, you need to grant permission for Acctivate to access your QuickBooks Online company.

Once permission is granted, Acctivate will prompt you to review and map your data prior to import.

Once a section has finished syncing, you’ll see a check symbol next to that section, which indicates the data has successfully synced.

Syncing status showing whether sections have synced with QuickBooks successfully (Source: Acctivate)

Take note that when importing product information from QuickBooks to Acctivate, you first need to create product classes in Acctivate. Each product you import will be associated with one of these product classes.

QuickBooks and Acctivate have different approaches to accounting configuration. QuickBooks assigns the cost of goods sold (COGS) and sales accounts to each individual product. In contrast, Acctivate uses the product class system—meaning each product class in Acctivate is linked to specific COGS and sales accounts.

That said, when you import products from QuickBooks to Acctivate, you will need to map or assign each product to a corresponding product class. This mapping ensures that the imported products in Acctivate are linked to the appropriate COGS and sales accounts based on their assigned product class.

While this approach may be challenging at first, we believe that once you understand the system, it provides a structured and consistent way to manage your products and their associated accounts.

The perfect score is a result of Acctivate’s availability on the QuickBooks App Store—meaning you can set it up directly from your QuickBooks Online account. Once done, you will be taken automatically to your Acctivate dashboard where you can instantly initiate the syncing process by clicking the Synchronize with QuickBooks button under the QuickBooks menu.

If you encounter some problems before, during, or after the integration, you can reach out to either Acctivate or QuickBooks’ customer support team, depending on the nature of the problem.

Acctivate is a bit weak when it comes to these features, which is not surprising since its main focus is on inventory management rather than offering a full-fledged construction solution. However, it still earned some points for offering some salient construction features:

Inventory Management

As a specialized inventory management software, Acctivate offers many enhanced inventory features, including those not found in QuickBooks Online. Below is a list of some of its most notable inventory management features.

Barcoding

Multiwarehouse Management

Construction projects often involve multiple job sites, each with its own set of materials and equipment requirements. Acctivate’s multiwarehouse management feature allows managers to specify which job site or warehouse each batch of materials should be allocated to.

The software provides real-time visibility into inventory levels at each job site or warehouse so that project managers and site supervisors can easily track the availability of materials in a specific warehouse. They will also be alerted when inventory reaches low levels, helping them ensure that materials are adequately stocked in each location.

From the Product Information window under the Inventory tab, you’ll see important information, including the inventory levels of a specific product in each warehouse and the total inventory levels for all warehouses.

Product information screen in Acctivate (Source: Acctivate)

Bill of Materials (BOM)

Integrated EDI

Purchase Management

Business Activity Monitoring Tools

Acctivate provides various business activity monitoring tools, including the ability to assign, manage, and track jobs. Project managers can assign tasks to team members or subcontractors and track them until they are completed. Acctivate allows you to see who is working on what, the deadlines, and the progress of each task.

For sales and marketing teams, the platform allows you to manage sales calls, customer communications, and quote requests. For instance, when a potential client calls with a query or a request for a project quote, Acctivate allows the company to log the details of the call, schedule follow-ups, and ensure that the inquiry is addressed promptly.

Another helpful tool is search functionality, which allows you to easily locate specific activities, whether it’s a job assignment, a customer communication, or a historical record. This feature makes it easy to retrieve critical data so that they are readily available for reporting and client inquiries.

You can enter a business activity using the Enter Business Activity form.

Business activity recording tool in Acctivate (Source: Acctivate)

Service & Repair Management

​​With this, contractors can visually plan and organize repair and maintenance activities. Acctivate provides a single dashboard where you can see all your team members’ scheduled tasks at a glance. You can drag and drop service orders easily to assign them to specific team members or reschedule them as needed.

As tasks are completed, they are automatically removed from the user’s job column, so it shows a clear view of ongoing work and progress. This makes it easy for you to monitor all pending and ongoing jobs until they are completed.

We docked a few points in this category, which is somewhat expected because most of the reports primarily focus on inventory. You can create more than 100 inventory reports and documents out of the box and create customized reports through its integration with Crystal Reports, an industry-leading reporting software.

Acctivate has an extensive list of inventory reports, including those unavailable in QuickBooks Online, such as multilocation inventory reports, serialized inventory reports, and kit and bundle performance reports. To help you easily locate and access the reports you need, Acctivate has a dedicated report catalog where you can organize, store, and manage all your reports.

Meanwhile, we awarded points for Acctivate’s customization options—which allow you to create a report dashboard that displays the important data you want to see in a single window using colorful graphs and charts.

Sample reporting dashboard in Acctivate

Acctivate received perfect marks in our rubric—thanks to its mobile app, which excels in three primary areas: PO receiving, sales order picking, and picklist picking. It allows contractors to process POs, fulfill customer orders, and execute picking tasks right from their mobile devices. The app can even scan barcodes, including those with product IDs, lot numbers, serial numbers, and warehouse details.

You can download the Acctivate mobile warehouse management system (WMS) companion app from Google Play once you purchase and install the desktop app. Currently, there is no mobile app available for iOS users.

Many satisfied users who left a positive Acctivate inventory review online commented that the platform integrates smoothly with QuickBooks to enhance inventory management and synchronize important financial data. One reviewer likes that Acctivate records every interaction with their customers, including job transactions, emails, and phone calls.

Meanwhile, those with negative feedback complained that its reporting tool is a bit clunky and the reports are not that customizable. One also shared that they had problems syncing order information between Acctivate and QuickBooks.

As of this writing, here’s how Acctivate is rated on popular review websites:

• Capterra^[1]: 4.2 out of 5 based on more than 100 reviews
• G2^[2]: 4 out of 5 based on about 100 reviews

Acctivate Ease of Use & Customer Service

Acctivate may require a steep learning curve, especially for those who are new to such advanced inventory management tools. It may take time to understand fully how to complete the entry forms and how to execute the enhanced inventory features, such as serial and lot number tracking and multilocation management.

Additionally, since it’s a desktop software, it requires setup and maintenance, including software updates and data backups, which you might find inconvenient as opposed to cloud-based solutions. However, you can always consider bringing Acctivate online through cloud hosting, but you have to pay an additional fee.

To help you learn how to effectively use Acctivate, the provider offers various customer support options, including phone and email support and online tickets. You will also receive a free 90-day onboarding session to help you set up and customize your Acctivate company. If you encounter minor issues, you may browse through its wide selection of online resources, including blogs and online tutorials.

How We Evaluated Acctivate

We used our internal scoring rubric to evaluate and rate Acctivate.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Acctivate construction inventory software?

Does Acctivate integrate with QuickBooks Online and Desktop?

Is Acctivate cloud-based or desktop-based?

Bottom Line

Acctivate may not be a complete construction accounting tool, but it is a one-stop shop for all your inventory management needs. This feature alone can benefit construction businesses significantly, especially those that own and manage multiple equipment, tools, and materials.

Additionally, Acctivate is an excellent choice for QuickBooks Online users who require extensive inventory management capabilities and want to sync important financial data, such as customer, vendor, and product information.

User review references:
¹Capterra
²G2