ERP guide
Should a contractor buy a construction ERP or build a custom one?
Buy a construction ERP such as CMiC when your job costing, billing and payroll follow the patterns most contractors share and you want a vendor behind the system. Build a custom ERP when your office already works in spreadsheets beside the product, because over five years the product keeps charging for modules and users and a system you own has no license fee.
| What you are comparing | A product | A custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Cost over five years | A quoted license or subscription that varies with modules, users and entities, plus implementation, data conversion and training. No construction accounting vendor on our lists publishes the figure. | A one-time build scoped in writing, then running costs such as hosting, database and email. No licenses, so the total does not rise when you add staff or jobs. |
| Per-seat fees | Per-seat fees depend on the vendor. Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate varies with the number of users, Autodesk prices per user, and Procore charges on construction volume and not on users. | None. Every foreman, project manager and executive can have access at no added fee. |
| Fit to your process | You adopt the cost structure, billing formats and approval steps the product comes with, and configure what it allows. The rest is done in spreadsheets beside it. | Built from your cost codes, your billing formats and your change order approvals, including the steps that are specific to the owners and trades you work with. |
| Time to launch | A contract can be signed quickly, but a construction ERP rollout is a project, usually timed to a fiscal year-end, with data conversion and training before the office can work in it. | Starts with discovery and a written scope. Working screens are shown during the build, areas go live in stages, and the schedule is set in that scope. |
| Field access | Often a separate module or product, such as mobile time tracking or field management, priced on top of the core. | Field screens are part of the same system and are built around how your crews already report. |
| Payroll | Built in with some products and absent or unstated with others. Union and multi-state handling has to be confirmed with each vendor. | Time capture, rate rules and job cost posting are built for you and connect to a payroll engine, which keeps the tax filing. |
| Who can maintain it | The vendor and its consultants or resellers. | Any competent developer, since Black Badger writes the code to be read and extended and sets up every account in your name. |
When buying a construction ERP is the right answer
Buy when your accounting looks like the accounting most contractors do. Job cost by cost code, progress billing, retainage and standard payroll are what these products were built to do, and a product arrives with them working.
Buy when you need a vendor name that your surety, your bank and your auditors already recognize. That recognition has value, and a custom system does not start with it.
When building a custom construction ERP is the right answer
Build when the job cost report your team trusts is a spreadsheet. If the controller exports from the ERP every month and rebuilds the numbers by hand, the product is storing your data and not running your process.
Build when two systems that should agree do not. A project platform and an accounting system that disagree every month are a process problem that a third product rarely fixes and a system built to your rules can fix.
How to compare the cost of a construction ERP with a custom build
Compare five years and not the first-year quote. Add the license or subscription, every module, the hosting if the product needs it, the conversion, the training and the consultant hours you already pay for changes. That is the product number.
The custom number is a one-time build plus running costs. Black Badger does not publish a price, because the figure depends on what the system has to do and how many other systems it must agree with. A written scope gives you the number to put beside the product total.
What a custom construction ERP usually keeps
A custom build rarely replaces everything. A general ledger your accountants trust and a payroll engine that files the taxes can both stay. The build covers what sits between them and the field, which is job cost, change orders, billing and the reports the owner asks for.
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
Questions buyers ask
Is a custom construction ERP cheaper than buying one?
A custom construction ERP is not always cheaper than buying one in the first year. Construction ERP vendors quote per customer, so the fair comparison is your own five-year quote against a written scope for a build. A build is paid for once and a subscription repeats.
Will a surety and auditors accept a custom construction ERP?
A surety and your auditors care about the numbers and the controls behind them, whatever system produces them. A custom system that produces a WIP report tied to the ledger, with an audit trail on every change, meets the same test. Keeping a recognized general ledger underneath it is a common way to shorten that review.
Can a contractor keep QuickBooks or its current ledger with a custom ERP?
Yes, a contractor can keep its current ledger with a custom build. Many custom builds leave the ledger in place and post to it. The build then covers job cost, billing, field data and reporting, which are the areas an entry-level ledger handles least well for a contractor.