Painting contractors
Accounting software for painting contractors: quotes, deposits and seasonal crews
Turn quotes into invoices, take a deposit to book the start date, buy paint on your store account and charge it to the job, and pay a seasonal crew with payroll that handles overtime, vacation and the year-end slips.
For residential and commercial painters in the US and Canada, $399.99 once.
No card, no account. Windows 10 and 11. United States and Canada.
What it means
In practice
Quote by room or surface
Give each room, the trim or the exterior its own estimate line. When the customer says yes, it becomes the invoice; on a bigger job, bill part of each line as you finish it.
Paint charged to the job
Paint and supplies from your store account are entered as bills against the job. Mark them billable to pass them on, or keep them in your price and just track the cost.
Seasonal crews
Hire in spring, lay off in the fall. Payroll keeps year-to-date totals for W-2s or T4s, and in Canada the Record of Employment worksheet lists insurable earnings by pay period.
A line per room, straight from the estimate.
Interior, exterior or commercial: which pays?
Make each line of work a class. The P&L by class compares income and costs for exterior jobs, interior repaints and commercial contracts.
Add a lead source field to each customer and Sales by Lead Source shows whether yard signs, referrals or the website bring the work.
What is in the licence
The whole job, in one price
Quotes and billing
Job costs
Crew
Growth
Hourly crew payroll with overtime.
What it does not do
· No paint or square-footage calculator, and no job scheduling.
· Windows 10 and 11 for now (a Mac version is coming soon); no phone app.
· It imports your bank's statement file rather than connecting live to the bank.
Questions people ask
Before you download
Can I write the quote in AcboBooks?
Yes. Create an estimate with a line per room or surface. When it is accepted, turn it into an invoice in one step, or bill it in parts with progress invoicing.
How should I record paint bought for a job?
Enter the store bill or card charge with the customer:job. Mark it billable if you charge paint separately; either way it counts in the job's cost.
Does it help with seasonal layoffs in Canada?
It produces a Record of Employment worksheet with insurable earnings by pay period. You file the ROE itself through Service Canada's ROE Web.
Do I charge sales tax on labour?
That depends on your state or province. Each item has its own tax setting, so you can charge tax where it applies; check the rules with your accountant.
Coming from something else?
How it compares to what you use now
Get started
Quote it, paint it, know what you made.
Turn an estimate into an invoice in the trial.
No card. No account. Nothing to cancel.