Project cost control for civil infrastructure
Roads, bridges, earthworks, utilities, civil contracting means long project timelines, heavy equipment costs, and the financial complexity of multi-contract project billing. Entry-level accounting systems don't come close.
Why civil contractors outgrow Xero and MYOB
Heavy equipment depreciation, long project timelines, government billing requirements, and tight margins, civil is one of the most financially complex segments in construction.
Equipment cost allocation is a mess
Allocating depreciation, fuel, maintenance, and operator costs for each piece of plant and equipment to the right project, and the right cost code, manually is a constant source of error.
Contract billing is too complex for standard AR
AS4000 and AS2124 contract structures, milestone-based billing, and Commonwealth reporting obligations require a billing engine built for this, not a workaround in a standard accounts receivable module.
Earned value management is manual
Tracking progress against schedule, identifying cost overruns before they compound, and generating EVM reports for head contractors all require effort that Xero simply wasn't designed for.
Multi-project visibility is limited
Running three to ten civil projects simultaneously with different clients, billing milestones, and cost structures makes getting a consolidated view of your business almost impossible.
Long project timelines distort your P&L
Revenue recognition on multi-year civil contracts, using percentage of completion, requires accounting mechanics that Xero and MYOB handle crudely at best.
AP volume and retention management overwhelm standard tools
Civil contracts involve dozens of subcontractors and hundreds of supply deliveries. Tracking retentions, TPAR obligations, and reconciling costs at that volume requires an AP system built for scale, not a workaround.
The financial tools civil contractors need
Sage Intacct handles the financial complexity of civil infrastructure, from equipment cost allocation to government contract billing to multi-year revenue recognition.
Project cost tracking & EVM
Track all project costs, labour, plant, materials, subcontracts, in real time against your budget. Generate earned value reports automatically for head-contractor and internal reporting.
Equipment & plant cost allocation
Allocate depreciation, fuel, maintenance, and operator costs to specific projects and cost codes automatically. Track utilisation rates and calculate true equipment cost-per-hour for accurate project pricing.
Government contract billing
Generate progress claims and milestone invoices that meet AS4000, AS2124, and government contract formats. Manage variations, latent conditions claims, and extension of time requests in the same workflow.
Revenue recognition & WIP
Automate percentage-of-completion revenue recognition for multi-year contracts. Track WIP accurately and generate compliant financial statements without manual adjustments at each period-end.
Subcontractor & supply management
Manage high-volume subcontractor claims, retentions, TPAR reporting, and security of payment obligations. TPAR data is captured automatically at the transaction level and exported as an ATO-ready file at year end. Track materials deliveries against purchase orders and allocate costs to the right project automatically.
Built for civil infrastructure at every scale
From road upgrades and utilities to major infrastructure projects, Sage Intacct handles the financial complexity that comes with civil contracting.
Road & Highway Construction
Manage earthworks, pavement, and structure packages within a single contract. Track earned value against the schedule of rates and generate progress claims in AS4000 or AS2124 format automatically.
Earthworks & Bulk Excavation
Track plant utilisation and fuel burn against excavation quantities. Allocate every hour of machine time and every litre of diesel to the right cost code, and use that data to price your next job accurately.
Water & Utilities
Handle the billing complexity of water authority and utilities contracts, including milestone payments, schedule of rates billing, and the compliance reporting requirements of government clients.
Bridges & Structures
Manage the financial complexity of long-duration bridge and structure contracts with percentage-of-completion revenue recognition, detailed cost code structures, and retained margin tracking through to defects liability.
Civil contractors with transport and logistics operations
For many civil businesses, fleet and logistics are not a side operation - they are central to how work gets done. Transport costs are among the hardest to allocate accurately, and they can quietly destroy project margins if your system does not track them at the project level.
Your fleet is moving. Do you know which runs are actually profitable?
Fleet cost allocation by project, run-level profitability reporting and subcontractor TPAR compliance - built into Sage Intacct from day one.
Every day your field data sits unreconciled, your project margins are wrong.
Kynection runs job management, scheduling and safety from site. Integrated with Sage Intacct, field data flows to finance automatically - no re-entry, no reconciliation lag.
Questions about Sage Intacct for civil contractors
How does Sage Intacct handle equipment and plant cost allocation for civil contractors?
Sage Intacct allocates equipment costs - including depreciation, fuel, maintenance, and operator time - to specific projects and cost codes automatically. Each piece of plant is set up as a cost centre, and costs are assigned to jobs in real time rather than at month-end. LimeLedger configures the equipment cost allocation framework during implementation, specific to the types of plant your business runs and the contract structures you work under.
Does Sage Intacct support AS4000 and AS2124 contract billing for civil contractors?
Yes. Sage Intacct supports milestone-based billing and progress claim structures used under AS4000 and AS2124 contract forms. Payment claim schedules are set up against each contract, and the system tracks claim amounts, scheduled values, and retention separately. LimeLedger configures these billing workflows during implementation so your progress claims generate from the system rather than being prepared manually.
Can Sage Intacct produce TPAR reports for civil contractors?
Yes. Taxable Payments Annual Reports generate automatically from subcontractor payment records in Sage Intacct. If your civil business pays subcontractors for construction services, the TPAR data is captured at the transaction level throughout the year. At lodgement time, your BAS agent receives a clean, ATO-ready export rather than a year-end data extraction exercise.
How long does Sage Intacct implementation take for a civil contracting business?
LimeLedger implements Sage Intacct for civil contractors in 14 weeks on a fixed-fee basis. Larger civil businesses with complex plant registers, multiple entities, or significant legacy system data may run to 16 weeks. The implementation covers discovery and design, system build, data migration, and training. Every engagement is led personally by Justus Siage, a CPA with 10+ years in the ERP industry who helped launch Sage Intacct's construction capability in Australia.
Have more questions about Sage Intacct, implementation costs, or migrating from Xero or MYOB?
Browse the FAQ →Get the financial control your civil projects demand.
We will assess your current setup and show you exactly how Sage Intacct handles the cost complexity, billing and compliance requirements of civil contracting.
Questions? Email info@limeledger.com