Sage 100 Contractor Review and Pricing for 2022

Sage 100 Contractor is cloud-based construction management and accounting software designed to help contractors manage their operations effectively. It allows you to manage projects, estimating, service operations, and accounting workflows in one place. Its features include job costing, scheduling, budget management, service management, and equipment tracking. Prices aren’t published, but you can contact Sage’s sales team for more information.

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What We Recommend Sage 100 Contractor For

Sage 100 Contractor is a terrific solution for startups and small organizations, including general contractors, service contractors, and home builders who need an all-in-one solution for powerful accounting and project tracking at a fraction of the cost of expensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) programs.

Sage 100 Contractor Is Especially Good For

• Construction companies seeking a single, comprehensive solution: Sage 100 Contractor combines project management and accounting in one platform so that you won’t have to purchase separate software for managing and tracking projects and bookkeeping. Explore our other top accounting programs for construction companies in our guide to the best construction accounting software.
• Small contractors looking for an affordable solution with basic ERP features: Access to basic ERP features, such as data analysis, automation, job orders, and inventory management, allows you to collect, store, manage, and analyze data so you can make informed decisions.
• Contractors who are outgrowing QuickBooks: Sage 100 Contractor is a great QuickBooks alternative for growing contractors that need more management and automated construction accounting features than those offered by QuickBooks.

Sage 100 Contractor Is Not a Good Fit For

• Mobile app users: There’s no available mobile app for Sage 100 Contractor’s accounting functions. If you often run your business from the road, check out our review of the best mobile accounting apps.
• Companies using QuickBooks and Xero: Buildertrend offers seamless integration with QuickBooks Online and Xero. To avoid the hassle of transferring to a new accounting program, we recommend Buildertrend if you already have a QuickBooks Online or Xero account.
• Contractors that want robust construction accounting features: QuickBooks Premier Contractor Edition is an industry-specific version of QuickBooks Premier for general contractors. We recommend choosing QuickBooks Contractor if you already have existing project management software. QuickBooks Contractor offers contractor-specific reports and features that can complement your project management software.

Are you looking for something different? Read our guide to the best small business accounting software and check out our top picks.

Sage 100 Contractor Pros and Cons

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Sage 100 Contractor Pricing

Sage doesn’t publish its prices directly on its website, so you’ll need to contact its sales team to request a quote.

Sage 100 Contractor vs Competitors

We compared Sage 100 Contractor with Buildertrend and QuickBooks Premier Contractor Edition. In our comparison, our evaluation of Buildertrend includes an integration with QuickBooks Online Plus, even though it’s separately billed.

Sage 100 Contractor as Compared to Buildertrend and QuickBooks Premier Contractor Edition

Sage 100 Contractor appears to be the middle ground in terms of pricing and features. Buildertrend with QuickBooks Online leads in construction accounting, ERP, and general features. However, Buildertrend with QuickBooks Online is pretty expensive, with a total cost of $429 per month.

Sage 100 Contractor Accounting Features

Sage 100 Contractor offers a huge array of features and modules to help you manage and track your books and projects. As a result, you won’t have to use multiple programs to address the different needs of your construction business.

Dashboard

The customizable dashboard allows you to drill down to key details. For instance, when viewing underbilled jobs, you can drill down to see the details to determine which jobs are affected and check any related documents, such as change orders and billing invoices. You can also review the dashboard every day to track issues that need attention, such as aging receivables and declining bank balances.

Sage 100 Contractor’s dashboard

Sage 100 Contractor offers a convenient navigational flow because of the left side menu bar and main menu bar at the top. You can use the left side menu bar to quickly access certain modules. If you want an overview of the transaction process, you can refer to the main menu bar. When you click any tab in the main menu bar, you’ll see a workflow diagram that can help you visualize the flow of transactions from start to finish.

Job Costing

Job Costing Module
(Source: Practical Software YouTube Channel)

This feature is integrated with all of Sage 100 Contractor’s modules, so it’s easy for you to organize and track your job cost information. The software generates detailed cost reports, including job status, job cost journals, job cost summaries, labor totals, labor journals, and billing summaries.

Accounts Receivable

Simple Invoicing in Sage 100 Contractor
(Source: Practical Software YouTube Channel)

Simple invoicing is one way to create an invoice in Sage 100 Contractor. You can add items in the invoice, quantity, discount dates, discount rate, status, and tax status. Another way would be AIA (American Institute of Architects) billing for progress billings. Sage 100 Contractor can generate an AIA-compliant invoice if it’s required. Otherwise, you can print standard invoices.

Generic Progress Billing
(Source: Practical Software YouTube Channel)

Accounts Payable

The A/P module of Sage 100 Contractor shows everything about the payables. If you click the arrow up button beside the Order Number, Sage 100 Contractor will show the purchase order (PO) detail pertaining to the payable entry. Furthermore, if you want to know what costs are affected by job, go to Costs and click Job Costs or Equipment Costs. Sage 100 Contractor will show you the cost code, cost type, and amount.

A/P Module
(Source: Practical Software YouTube Channel)

Inventory Management

Sage helps you keep an eye on your inventory, whether for a central warehouse or different locations and service trucks. The platform also helps you organize nonstock and serialized items for bin numbers and multiple locations and vendors. You can allocate inventory to jobs and see the inventory trail as well.

Sage 100 Contractor Construction Management Features

Project Management

Sage 100 Contractor’s project management module gives you access to documents and task lists, operation status, daily field reports, and correspondence. You can also collect and approve your employees’ time and enable the entire team to share and access documents and photos online.

Report Writer Wizard

The Report Writer Wizard provides the tools you need to design customized reports in any fields that are tracked in the system. You can modify some of the existing reports available in the system or create entirely new reports based on your needs.

To access the Report Writer Wizard, go to Review & Reporting (drop-down 13) under the My Menu tab and then click on Report Writer:

Sage 100 Contractor’s Report Writer wizard.

Equipment Management

Equipment Module
(Source: Practical Software YouTube Channel)

The equipment management add-on allows you to maximize your productive hours using in-depth analytics on equipment, such as cost, maintenance, and revenue records. It provides the data you need to allocate equipment costs directly to jobs, service your equipment at the right cycles, and optimize equipment ROI.

Estimating and Budgeting

Sage 100 Contractor makes it easy to manage your budget and complete bids. It enables you to export budgets, estimates, subcontracts, and POs, saving you more time and reducing the chance of data entry errors. You may also include budgeted hours in your estimates and copy a budget directly from Excel.

Creating and Viewing Estimates

The Job Estimates module allows you to see all details about the job. You can see the part number, description of the part, unit of measurement, such as by piece, box, or direct labor hours, and the quantity needed. Sage 100 Contractor will compute the cost automatically and apply overhead rates and profit rates. If you’re going to outsource some materials or labor, you can add the vendor and expense account. Furthermore, you can classify the cost as material and labor.

Sage 100 Contractor can also filter data by selecting the vendor that offers the lowest cost for the material or labor needed. This feature can help you minimize the cost and increase the overall profit of the project. Once you’ve selected the vendors, you can generate a budget.

Scheduling

Sage 100 Contractor generates subcontractor and supplier notices automatically that alert them when work should be done. It also creates call sheets with schedules, phone numbers, dates, and work descriptions, and it sends project documents to your customers and subcontractors automatically at your set dates and times.

Scheduling Work Based on the Budget

After you create a budget, Sage 100 Contractor will create a Gantt chart automatically based on the items in the budget. Task details are also brought forward from the budget alongside the standard time per task. Since Sage 100 Contractor creates the Gantt chart based on standard time, you can adjust the bars if a certain task needs to be extended due to unforeseen delays or downtime. Sage 100 Contractor can also show critical path and float time, which can be useful in project evaluation and review.

Sage Service Operations

Sage Service Operations App

The Sage Service Operations app is a companion app for Sage 100 Contractor. This app helps officers in the field receive updates from the back office and vice-versa. Users can also view change orders and incidents. Back office personnel can use the app to send dispatch orders to employees in the field. Employees can see dispatch orders under Assignments. Even though the app can relay information to and from the back office, the app doesn’t offer communication channels where employees can directly message each other.

Reports

Sage 100 Contractor generates nearly 1,200 reports and 100 form designs. It creates reports on accounting, general ledger, accounts receivable (A/R) and accounts payable (A/P), payroll, project management, inventory, estimating, and more. Accounting reports include income statements, balance sheet reports, cash flow statements, and chart of accounts.

Customer Service and Ease of Use

Sage 100 Contractor isn’t software that you can use out-of-the-box. It’ll take time to set up since you’ll need to input a lot of accounting and construction data. Using the software can be difficult for people with no experience in construction accounting. Sage 100 Contractor is best if you have an in-house CPA who has experience in financial accounting and reporting and taxation for construction companies.

Nevertheless, Sage 100 Contractor has valuable resources to help you ease into the system. From anywhere within the software, you can access a library of easy-to-find topics to learn more about particular features. Other support resources include an online Sage Knowledgebase, online user community forums, a Sage 100 Contractor InfoCenter, and Sage 100 Contractor virtual conferences. You can contact Sage over the phone or submit your request for customer support online, 24 hours a day, through the customer log-on portal.

Sage 100 Contractor Alternatives

Bottom Line

Sage 100 Contractor is a mid-range construction accounting and management program. It offers the best of both worlds, with a mix of useful accounting features and project management tools. However, using Sage 100 Contractor can be a challenge to users without bookkeeping knowledge. It has many niche features like AIA billing that only CPAs with construction accounting experience can understand.