ERP guide

What is the best ERP for a contractor with union or multi-state payroll?

FOUNDATION is the best ERP for most contractors with union or multi-state payroll, because its vendor states plainly that Payroll is built in next to Job Costing and Accounts Receivable. A custom system built by Black Badger ranks third, and its role is to capture crew time against jobs and feed a payroll engine, while that engine keeps filing the taxes.

Updated November 14, 2026 How we rank

Best ERP for contractors with union or multi-state payroll. Updated November 14, 2026.
Rank	Option	Best for	Pros	Cons
1	FOUNDATION	Contractors that want payroll and job cost in one product	Job Costing, Payroll and Accounts Receivable are built in The vendor serves only contractors	No standard or published pricing Service Dispatch, Equipment Management and mobile time are add-ons No full project management suite in the same product
2	Viewpoint Vista	Larger contractors with their own payroll and HR staff	Configurable enterprise ERP with multi-entity accounting Subscriptions include 24/7 support and unlimited academy training	No published price Setup effort is sized for large contractors HR, field management and field service are separate parts of the family
3	Custom build by Black Badger	Contractors whose time capture and pay rules are unusual	Built around your process, so staff stop working around the software No per-seat fee, so adding a person adds no license cost You own the code and every account it runs on	Costs more up front than the first year of a subscription A wait before anyone can use it, while it is scoped and built Your team has to know its own process well enough to describe it
4	CMiC	Contractors that want labor cost on the same database as jobs	Accounting and project controls on a single database Serves general contractors, subcontractors and heavy-highway firms	No published prices or tiers Its pages do not say whether it is cloud or on-premise Many areas are listed as separate items, so check what a quote covers
5	Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate	Contractors with deep accounting needs who host their own software	Deep construction accounting Choice of perpetual or subscription licensing	Runs on your servers, a third-party host or AWS, not one vendor cloud No published price Project management and service work may be bought separately
6	Sage Intacct Construction	Multi-entity contractors that outsource payroll processing	Cloud accounting with job costing and WIP across entities A Specialty Contractor package covers HVAC, electrical, plumbing and roofing	No published price Project management is a separate platform that needs Intacct as well Several packages exist, so check which one a quote covers

The ranking, entry by entry

1 FOUNDATION

Best for contractors that want payroll and job cost in one product

Crew payroll is a hard part of construction accounting, because rates change by job, trade and location. FOUNDATION is first because its vendor says Job Costing, Payroll and Accounts Receivable are built in, so labor cost reaches the job without an export. Mobile Time Tracking is available as an add-on. The pages we read do not state how it handles union rules or multi-state tax, so that is the first thing to ask.

Watch for. Ask for a demonstration using one of your own union agreements and one out-of-state job. Do not accept a general answer on either.

How it charges: Quoted, modular pricing with paid add-on modules
Main limit: Modular pricing, with Service Dispatch and Equipment Management as add-ons
Checked: November 14, 2026 on foundationsoft.com

2 Viewpoint Vista

Best for larger contractors with their own payroll and HR staff

Viewpoint Vista is second. It suits a larger contractor with several entities and its own payroll and HR, and Trimble lists Vista HR Management as part of the family. Deep data configuration is the point of the product, which is what complicated pay rules usually require. It ranks behind FOUNDATION because the Trimble page we read does not describe payroll features, and the configuration effort is higher.

Watch for. Have Trimble show which part of the Vista family handles payroll and whether it is priced separately.

How it charges: Quoted by sales, no published price
Main limit: Described as an enterprise ERP for large contractors, with no published price
Checked: November 14, 2026 on trimble.com

3 Custom build by Black Badger

Best for contractors whose time capture and pay rules are unusual

Black Badger publishes this guide and builds custom software, and a custom build ranks third on payroll. Tax filing belongs in a payroll engine that keeps up with every jurisdiction, and we connect to one and do not rebuild it. We build the part that is specific to you, which is crew time captured against jobs, your own rate and fringe rules applied, and the result posted to job cost. You own that system.

Watch for. The written scope must name the payroll engine the system feeds and who owns each rate table. Without that, payroll errors have no owner.

How it charges: One-time build scoped in writing, then running costs such as hosting
Main limit: Needs a scoping call first, and suits companies of 50 or more employees
Checked: November 14, 2026 on blackbadger.biz

What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one

4 CMiC

Best for contractors that want labor cost on the same database as jobs

CMiC ranks fourth. Its single database for accounting and project controls suits labor cost, since hours and cost would sit in the same records as the job. It ranks below the top three for this question because the pages we read list Construction Financials and other areas without describing payroll, so a contractor has to confirm payroll coverage directly.

Watch for. Ask CMiC in writing whether payroll is included in Construction Financials or quoted as its own item.

How it charges: Quoted by sales, no published price
Main limit: No price or deployment model is stated on its pages, so both need a sales call
Checked: November 14, 2026 on cmicglobal.com

5 Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate

Best for contractors with deep accounting needs who host their own software

Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate is fifth. It is deep construction accounting that a contractor hosts or has hosted, with cost set by the modules chosen and the number of users. The Sage pages we read do not describe its payroll handling, so it ranks here for its accounting alone. A contractor already running it should ask Sage how payroll is covered before looking elsewhere.

Watch for. Module choice sets the price. Confirm which module, if any, covers union and multi-state payroll and what it adds.

How it charges: Quoted by modules and users, perpetual or subscription
Main limit: Runs on your servers or a third-party host or AWS, not as one vendor cloud
Checked: November 14, 2026 on sage.com

6 Sage Intacct Construction

Best for multi-entity contractors that outsource payroll processing

Sage Intacct Construction ranks sixth on a payroll list. It is cloud accounting with job costing and WIP for contractors with several entities, and the pages we read say nothing about payroll. It can still be the right ledger for a contractor that sends payroll to an outside processor and needs the labor cost to arrive on the right jobs. Rank it higher if that describes you.

Watch for. Find out how labor cost gets from your payroll processor to job cost, and who fixes it when the two disagree.

How it charges: Quoted by business size, entities and modules
Main limit: Sage Construction Management needs a Sage Intacct subscription as well
Checked: November 14, 2026 on sage.com

How this list was ranked

We ranked for a contractor of 50 or more employees with crews paid under more than one rate structure, whether through union agreements or work in several states. We could rank only on what each vendor states. FOUNDATION states that payroll is built in, and Trimble lists HR management in the Vista family. The other vendor pages we read do not describe payroll.

No vendor page we read states how union rules or multi-state tax are handled. Treat this list as an order in which to ask that question. It is not proof that any product answers it.

Questions buyers ask

What should a contractor ask a vendor about union payroll?

A contractor should ask a payroll vendor to show its own union agreement set up in the product. That means the rate by classification, fringe benefits paid to the fund or to the employee, and the reports each union local expects. A vendor that can do it will show you. None of the vendor pages we read states this in writing.

What makes multi-state payroll hard for contractors?

Multi-state payroll is hard for contractors because a crew can work in more than one state in the same pay period, and each state has its own withholding and unemployment rules. The payroll system has to split hours by where the work was done and still post the cost to the right job.

Should a contractor outsource payroll or run it in the ERP?

A contractor can run payroll in the ERP or outsource it, and either can work. Running it in the ERP keeps labor cost and job cost in one place. Outsourcing moves the tax filing risk to a processor and leaves you to get the cost back onto jobs. The choice usually follows whether you have payroll staff who know construction.

Will Black Badger build a payroll system?

We build the time capture, rate rules and job cost posting around a payroll engine, and we say plainly that the tax filing stays with that engine. Those are the parts a custom build is suited to for a contractor. The written scope names what we build and what we connect to.