Construction ERP for Australian businesses: what to look for, what to avoid
Australian construction businesses evaluating ERP face a confusing market: generic enterprise systems built for manufacturing, entry-level tools designed for small businesses, and a handful of purpose-built construction platforms sitting in between. This is the market LimeLedger operates in, and Sage Intacct is the platform we implement.
The Australian construction ERP landscape, honestly assessed
Entry-level
MYOB, Xero, QuickBooks
Built for small business. Good for $0-$10M. Start to constrain at project count and entity complexity. Not built for WIP, retentions or construction compliance.
Mid-market (recommended)
Sage Intacct
Purpose-built for $10M-$200M construction and real estate. Native WIP, job costing, retentions, multi-entity and Australian compliance. Cloud-native and AI-powered.
Enterprise
SAP, Oracle, MS Dynamics
Designed for 500+ employee businesses with $200M+ revenue. Expensive to implement ($500K-$2M+), long implementation timelines, and heavy ongoing IT overhead.
There is also a legacy construction-specific tier: Cheops, Jobpac, Promaster and Sage 300 CRE. These systems were built specifically for construction and served the industry well for two decades. But they are on-premise, not cloud-native, lack modern API ecosystems, and most are not investing significantly in AI or automation. For businesses that have outgrown these systems, Sage Intacct is the most direct upgrade path.
What to require from any construction ERP you evaluate
Native WIP accounting
The system should produce a WIP schedule automatically, including percentage-of-completion calculations, overbilling and underbilling GL entries, without a spreadsheet workaround.
Job costing at cost code level
Actuals, committed costs and forecast at completion at the cost code level, in real time, without an export.
Australian compliance built in
TPAR, BAS, STP, retention trust accounts under QLD BIF Act, and SOPA-compliant progress claim management should be native, not add-ons.
True multi-entity architecture
Consolidated reporting across multiple legal entities, joint ventures and trusts should be automatic, not a monthly Excel exercise.
Cloud-native, not cloud-hosted
A system that was built for the cloud from day one has fundamentally different performance, uptime and scalability characteristics to an on-premise system hosted on a cloud server.
Open API for your tech stack
Integration with Procore, payroll, banking and your existing tools should be achievable via API, not CSV import and manual reconciliation.
Evaluating ERP for your construction business?
We'll give you an honest opinion.
We only implement Sage Intacct, so we will tell you honestly if it is not the right fit for your business. Book a free 30-minute conversation.
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