Construction

Business Central for Construction

Project accounting for construction: estimates, stages, subcontractors and completion certificates. Every site is its own project. See project accounting in Business Central.

Construction companies face specific processes that an out-of-the-box system covers poorly. We implement Business Central so it fits your reality — not the other way around.

Industry challenges

Estimate overruns on sites
Complex material and equipment accounting
Manual subcontractor settlements
No control over site profitability

How it works in your industry

Construction accounting in Business Central runs by job: each has a budget by line, actual material and equipment costs, and subcontractor settlements. A line overrun is visible when it occurs, not after handover.

The material loop links warehouse and sites: purchases plan against the work schedule, transfers to site are recorded, and material “disappearance” becomes visible. Subcontractor acts tie to a specific job and stage.

How a site is accounted for from tender to final account

Stage	What the system records	What it gives you
Tender and estimate	Estimated cost by work package	The budget that follows has a traceable origin
Contract and budget	Job with a cost structure and target margin	Everyone works to one budget, not three versions of it
Procurement	Purchase orders and subcontract commitments per site	Committed cost is visible before the invoice arrives
Site costs	Materials, labour, plant and subcontractor valuations	Cost lands against the site that incurred it
Applications and retention	Payment applications and amounts retained	Retention stops being tracked in a private spreadsheet
Final account	Actual cost against tender, variations included	You learn what the job really made while it still matters

The four problems that come up most

Overspend surfaces after it is irreversible

The number that matters on a live site is committed cost, not invoiced cost. Purchase orders and subcontract orders raised against the job show exposure the moment it is created, which is typically weeks before an invoice would have revealed it.

Subcontractors and the CIS

For UK contractors the Construction Industry Scheme is a scoping question, not a detail. Business Central does not handle CIS deductions, statements and monthly returns in the standard product — this is covered by a UK-focused extension from AppSource, and choosing one belongs in the project scope alongside the licence decision.

Retention nobody is chasing

Amounts retained against applications need a defined release date and an owner. Held outside the system, retention is reliably the last money anyone thinks to collect.

Plant and equipment cost

Own plant is tracked as fixed assets with depreciation charged onward to the site using it. Hired plant runs through purchase commitments. Either way the site carries its own cost rather than a group overhead line absorbing it.

Decisions to make before you start

How deep the work breakdown goes — enough to control the job, not so deep that site staff stop recording anything.
Who owns the budget and who may approve a variation.
Your CIS approach and which extension covers it.
Retention policy: percentage, release trigger and who chases it.
Dimensions for site, phase and cost type, so reporting works from day one.

Key BC capabilities

Job-based accounting

Estimates & work budgets

Material procurement

Subcontractor settlements

Discuss your project

Frequently asked questions

How is job-based accounting handled?

Each site runs as a separate job with its own budget, estimate, costs and profitability.

Can we control estimate overruns?

Yes, the system compares planned and actual costs by line and flags variances.

How are subcontractors accounted for?

Through purchase orders and work completion records tied to a specific site.

Can we run several projects at once?

Yes, there is no limit on parallel projects. Each one carries its own budget, actuals and financial result, and the company-wide picture is built on top of them.

How is equipment accounted for?

As resources with their own hourly rate. That puts the real cost of machinery into the project cost and at the same time shows how heavily the fleet is used.

Can we invoice by completion stage?

Yes. Invoicing is tied to work stages rather than to the calendar, so receivables and the expected cash schedule are calculated per project.