Put retainage, cost-code and change order rules around the Contractor Foreman projects and pay apps reaching QuickBooks.
Your project managers and office bill in Contractor Foreman, and your bookkeeper closes the month in QuickBooks Online. A Contractor Foreman QuickBooks Online integration from Autymate adds the rules the native connector leaves to your team: retainage kept out of income, cost codes split by cost type, change orders on their own lines and each company routed to the right QuickBooks file. It is a QuickBooks integration for contractors whose jobs carry pay apps and job costing. Anything unclear in a record Autymate posts is held for review before it reaches the books, and Autymate works alongside Contractor Foreman's own QuickBooks sync, with each record type assigned to one system so nothing posts twice.
Yes, you can integrate Contractor Foreman with QuickBooks Online using Autymate. Contractor Foreman also ships its own two-way Contractor Foreman QuickBooks integration for QuickBooks Online, recommended on Plus and Advanced. When you connect Contractor Foreman to QuickBooks with Autymate, rules cover what that connector leaves to your team: one approved retainage treatment on every pay app, cost codes split into the right expense accounts and each company kept in its own QuickBooks file.
Every number a contractor's books need starts on a Contractor Foreman project, and each needs a home.
Approving an estimate sends the customer and the estimate to QuickBooks, and the project follows as a sub-customer carrying only its name, customer and address. Contractor Foreman then asks you to convert that sub-customer into a QuickBooks Project, which is where job costing in QuickBooks Online lives.
Progress invoices, the AIA-style pay apps and draws your owners approve, are built against the project's schedule of values, and each one syncs the moment it is marked Submitted. Billed to date and remaining to bill stay in Contractor Foreman.
Contractor Foreman keeps one retainage code for customer invoices and another for sub-contracts. Invoice retainage travels as an ordinary line item, and the account it lands in is whatever that code is mapped to, which decides whether held money reads as a receivable or as income.
T&M invoices pull in time cards, expenses, bills and change orders. The markup on each line stays behind, folded into the rate QuickBooks receives, so the margin a service or trade contractor adds on materials is not visible as its own figure.
Bills and purchase orders started in Contractor Foreman travel with their project and cost code. Expenses go one way and land under QuickBooks Category Details without a cost code or item type, so a card charge at the supply house arrives uncoded by trade.
Card and ACH payments taken in Contractor Foreman run on Stripe, which deducts its fee before payout: 2.9% + $0.30 on a card, 1% + $0.30 on ACH, capped at $10. A $10,800.00 pay app paid by card reaches QuickBooks at $10,800.00 and the bank at $10,486.50.
Divisions sharing one QuickBooks file and LLCs keeping separate ones follow the same job-cost rules.
Rules for cost types, retainage, change orders and payments are written once, so a remodeling arm and a new-homes arm report job cost the same way and a controller can compare their margins line for line.
Commercial work in one division can book retainage to its own receivable while residential work keeps the standard account, and the shared template stays intact for everyone else.
Remodeling jobs post to a Remodeling class in the shared file, while a new-homes LLC posts to a QuickBooks company of its own. Autymate routes on the customer or project field that identifies each division, so every job lands in the right file.
Contractor Foreman's setup guides describe connecting one QuickBooks Online company, and in a July 2024 review one administrator called that single connection the "biggest con". With Autymate, each company gets its own setup, and the next division starts on the template already in use.
Three things every Contractor Foreman accounting integration has to get right before the first close.
When an owner or general contractor holds 10% of each progress billing, that money is earned but not yet due. Contractor Foreman sends the retainage line to QuickBooks as a positive amount, so someone makes it negative by hand and works out any percentage manually. Mapped to a Retainage Receivable account, held retainage stays visible by project until a final Retention Invoice line bills it.
In a March 2023 review, one small contractor reported progress invoices "syncing over at full value instead of the designated percentage". After a fix, a new problem emerged: the values changed once they reached QuickBooks Online. That drift is why billed to date against the SOV is the first close check below, run before the numbers feed your WIP schedule.
Approved change orders raise the contract value inside Contractor Foreman but never travel to QuickBooks as records of their own; they arrive only as lines on the next invoice. Autymate maps change order lines to their own item, so added scope stays visible in QuickBooks job reports and base-contract revenue reads apart from approved changes.
Six facts about the native Contractor Foreman QuickBooks sync that shape every integration plan.
Each module can be set to Sync Both Ways, which Contractor Foreman recommends, or to Send to QuickBooks for one-way traffic, so direction is chosen module by module rather than for the whole account.
The Contractor Foreman QBO integration is built around QuickBooks Projects, which only Plus and Advanced include. A company on Simple Start or Essentials plans an upgrade to Plus or Advanced before connecting.
Desktop syncing, development and support stopped on January 1, 2026. Some older product pages still mention Desktop; the retirement notice is the current position.
By design, existing projects, invoices, estimates and expenses are not imported, and invoices, payments and estimates already in both systems cannot be linked afterward. Contractor Foreman's advice is to start the integration with your next project rather than mid-job.
Change orders, schedules, daily logs, RFIs, punch lists and inspections stay in Contractor Foreman. On invoice lines, markup, units and item type do not transfer, and retainage arrives as an amount rather than a percentage.
Every send and receive is recorded in Contractor Foreman's Transaction Log, with each successful send, each error and a help link to resolve it. It is the first place to look when a record has not appeared in QuickBooks yet.
Each rule is approved by your accountant and built for your business.
| Source | Destination | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor Foreman Project | QuickBooks Project | Maple St Clinic TI → a Project under its customer, so every pay app, bill and time card stays together |
| Child Cost Code by Cost Type | Its Own Expense Account | Framing - Materials → Job Materials; Framing - Subcontractor → Subcontractor Costs |
| Progress Invoice | QuickBooks Invoice | Pay App 3, $12,000.00 billed this period → Construction Income under the Maple St Clinic TI Project |
| Invoice Retainage | Retainage Receivable | $1,200.00 held → Retainage Receivable, an asset, never income |
| Sub-Contract Retainage | Retainage Payable | Amounts held on a sub's bill → Retainage Payable, a liability, until it is released |
| Change Order Line | Change Order Item | CO 4, added exam-room casework → its own change order item, apart from the base contract |
| Verified Payment | Deposit or Clearing Account | Check → Undeposited Funds; Stripe card → Stripe Clearing |
| Division or Company | Class or Its Own Company | Remodeling → Class: Remodeling; a new-homes LLC → its own QuickBooks company |
| Document Numbers | Duplicate Controls | A retried invoice Autymate posts, with the same Contractor Foreman number, reaches QuickBooks once |
Job costing is only as clean as the Contractor Foreman cost codes QuickBooks receives from every project.
A common list nests child codes under each trade: 06-100 Framing, with 06-100-M Materials, 06-100-L Labor and 06-100-S Subcontractor, each mapped to its own account. A construction bookkeeping firm warns that "duplicated, overly detailed, or incorrectly mapped codes can produce reports you cannot trust", so split only where costs belong apart.
A bill keyed in QuickBooks under Category Details arrives in Contractor Foreman locked, with no cost code to add later. Bills and purchase orders entered in QuickBooks use Item Details, or better, start in Contractor Foreman.
Names match character for character, so General Requirements will not pair with Gen. Requirements. Customers, vendors and cost codes are cleaned up before connecting, or joined with Link Records as you connect, since records added to both systems first are a common source of duplicates.
Renaming a code or pointing a Product & Service at a new account splits job-cost reports between the old setup and the new. Each mapping change is kept as a version, tested on one project and approved before it reaches every open job.
Every pay app, bill and payment Autymate posts is checked first, and unclear ones wait for a person.
Every period, Autymate compares the pay apps, bills and payments in your Contractor Foreman account with what reached QuickBooks, so anything missing surfaces before close.
A cost code, retainage code or division added after go-live waits for review until it has an approved account, so it never drops into a catch-all.
A pay app Autymate posts is matched on its Contractor Foreman invoice number and carries a link to its source, so a resend posts a single time.
Close checks tie billed to date, retainage and job cost on every project to QuickBooks, and any difference goes to your accountant before the month closes.
A held pay app shows why it stopped, for example a retainage code with no approved account, and waits for your team's decision.
Autymate's team monitors your runs, and support is on hand when a held item needs your team's decision.
Five checks that tie each Contractor Foreman project to QuickBooks and the bank before close.
Compare each project's billed to date in Contractor Foreman with the progress invoices QuickBooks holds for that Project.
Agree retainage held on customer invoices, and on sub-contract bills, with the Retainage Receivable and Payable balances by project.
Match every verified payment to its invoice, and agree how net Stripe payouts tie to the gross payments they cover.
Compare bills, expenses and labor by cost code with the Contractor Foreman budget once payroll has run, since time cards reach QuickBooks as hours.
Close the month when the Transaction Log and the review queue are both clear, or each open item is explained.
The native connector alone suits one company whose projects start after go-live and rarely carry retainage. Bring in Autymate once retainage, cost-type reporting, change order detail or a second QuickBooks company need rules of their own. In both cases, decide up front whether each bill and payment is entered in Contractor Foreman or in QuickBooks, so it is never keyed twice.
| Approach | Best Fit | What to Plan For |
|---|---|---|
| Native Contractor Foreman + QuickBooks Online | One company on QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced, records entered in Contractor Foreman first | Retainage made negative by hand on each pay app, cost types kept apart only by child codes, and expenses that arrive without a cost code. |
| Native Connector + Autymate Rules | Contractors who need retainage, change order and cost-type rules applied the same way on every project | Each record type assigned to one system, so Autymate works alongside the native connector and nothing posts twice. |
| Several QuickBooks Companies | Divisions or LLCs that each keep their own QuickBooks file | Contractor Foreman's setup guides describe connecting one QuickBooks Online company, so Autymate routes each division or LLC to its own QuickBooks file. |
| Moving from QuickBooks Desktop | Contractors whose history and open jobs sit in a Desktop file | A move to QuickBooks Online planned with your accountant or a migration partner, then the integration starting with new projects. |
Five steps take a Contractor Foreman QuickBooks Online integration from one tested project to every project.
List your QuickBooks Online edition, sync modes per module, companies and divisions, and who enters each bill and payment where.
Settle where Projects, classes, both retainage accounts, change order items and each cost type land, and how tax follows contract type.
Match parent and child codes to Products & Services and accounts, and clean up names before anything connects.
Run an estimate, a pay app with retainage, a sub's bill, a time card and a payment through to QuickBooks and the bank.
Apply the rules to every new project and company, with the review queue and monitoring running from the first close.
Autymate reviews your Contractor Foreman sync first, then builds construction rules for everything it leaves to your team.
Your sync modes and Transaction Log are reviewed before any rule is drafted, then each record type is assigned to one system, so nothing posts twice.
Pay apps, held retainage, change order lines and material-versus-sub costs are each mapped on purpose, never left to a default item.
Every mapping carries your accountant's sign-off before it reaches an open job.
Rules name pay apps, SOV lines, retainage codes and child cost codes, so your project manager and your accountant read the same map.
QuickBooks is one of 300+ tools Autymate connects, so payroll or a second system can join the same workflow.
Mostly.
The native Contractor Foreman QuickBooks sync moves customers, vendors, estimates, invoices, invoice payments, bills, purchase orders and cost codes both ways in Sync Both Ways mode. Expenses and time cards travel to QuickBooks only, and projects go across as sub-customers. Contractor Foreman sends changes at once, QuickBooks changes take up to five minutes to return, and every send is recorded in the Transaction Log.
Contractor Foreman recommends QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced, because Simple Start and Essentials have no Projects feature and its job costing is built around QuickBooks Projects.
Contractor Foreman's integrations feature page lists the QuickBooks connector as included, alongside your own QuickBooks plan. Advanced also removes the cap of 40 classes and locations combined that applies on Plus, which matters when divisions are tracked as classes.
Contractor Foreman's QuickBooks Desktop integration ended on January 1, 2026, with no further syncing, development or support, and Contractor Foreman does not provide migration help.
Once your company is on QuickBooks Online, start the integration with new projects, since history is not imported.
QuickBooks Online has no retainage field of its own, so Contractor Foreman sends invoice retainage as an ordinary line item, and its own setup guide points that line at a Retainage Receivable account.
In an Autymate setup, invoice and sub-contract retainage each follow a rule your accountant approves, and a retainage code with no approved rule is held for review instead of posting as income.
Progress invoices can drift from the SOV because the schedule of values lives only in Contractor Foreman.
Billed to date and remaining to bill never transfer, and an invoice created in QuickBooks does not link back to the SOV. Contractor Foreman recommends creating every progress invoice in Contractor Foreman, and Autymate's close check compares billed to date with the Contractor Foreman invoices QuickBooks holds, so any drift surfaces before close.
Each cost code becomes a QuickBooks Product & Service, matched by exact name, and the income and expense accounts on that item decide where the money lands.
Because Contractor Foreman's item type does not transfer, Autymate's mapping blueprint gives materials, labor and subcontractor costs their own child codes and accounts before the first project posts, so job cost reads by cost type.
Bills move both ways.
Contractor Foreman bills QuickBooks receives keep their project, purchase order and cost code, which is why Contractor Foreman strongly recommends creating every bill there. A supplier invoice split across several projects in QuickBooks lands entirely on the first project when it comes back, so a shared invoice is entered as one bill per project.
Project records such as change orders, daily logs and RFIs stay in Contractor Foreman, and invoice lines arrive without markup, units or item type.
Payment attachments stay behind too. Change orders still reach the books as lines on the next invoice, and Autymate maps those lines to their own item so approved changes stay visible next to the base contract.
Yes, with Autymate.
Contractor Foreman's setup guides describe connecting one QuickBooks Online company, so a contractor running separate LLCs, such as a remodeling company and a new-homes company, uses Autymate's routing: each LLC posts to its own QuickBooks company and each division to its own class, all on one shared set of rules.
Yes, with limits.
Customers, vendors, projects and cost codes already in both systems can be joined with Link Records, and cleaning up names first avoids a common source of duplicates. Past invoices, payments and estimates cannot be linked, and past projects, invoices, estimates and expenses are not imported, so Contractor Foreman advises starting the integration with your next project.
Yes.
Autymate builds each connection around your account, so it does not depend on a public API, which Contractor Foreman does not document; its Zapier app covers customers, leads and files rather than invoices, projects or time. Autymate connects to the data your Contractor Foreman account shares and, where the native sync runs, the records it writes to QuickBooks, then applies the retainage, cost-type and change order rules on every project.
A Contractor Foreman accounting integration with Autymate includes a mapping blueprint approved by your accountant, rules for retainage, change orders and cost types, routing for each division or company, duplicate controls on every record Autymate posts, a review queue for anything unclear, close checks and monitoring of every run by Autymate's team, with support on hand when a decision is needed.
Share one recent project's pay apps, including one with retainage held, plus your divisions and QuickBooks files. We'll mark which records the Contractor Foreman sync already posts, then draft the rules to connect Contractor Foreman to QuickBooks for the retainage, cost-type and change order treatment it leaves to your team.
Intuit Gold Partner
SOC 2 Type II
1,000+ Five-Star Reviews