LiveCosts

What Is LiveCosts?

LiveCosts is a cloud-based construction job costing and cost management platform for contractors and construction teams. It helps businesses track project finances while work is underway through features such as job costing, purchase order tracking, invoice management, and time tracking. By connecting project costs with budgets, it helps contractors monitor spending and identify potential overruns early.

The platform tracks costs for materials, labor, subcontractors, equipment, and suppliers within each project. It is designed for general contractors and specialist trades, including electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and civil contractors.

LiveCosts integrates with accounting systems such as Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage, providing a dedicated space for construction cost management without replacing existing financial software. This can help contractors move away from spreadsheets and manage costs across multiple active projects.

What Is LiveCosts Best For?

The platform is best known for its AI-powered three-way invoice matching, which checks supplier invoices against purchase orders and delivery records before approval. The system extracts invoice line items and matches them with the related project costs. This helps contractors identify discrepancies before they become part of the actual payments.

This is particularly useful for construction businesses that handle a high volume of supplier invoices. By connecting invoice checks with project costs, LiveCosts gives financial and commercial teams a clear record of what was ordered, what was delivered, and what was billed.

How Much Does LiveCosts Cost?

LiveCosts pricing typically ranges from approximately $300 – $1,500/month, based on industry benchmarks for cloud-based construction management and job-costing platforms with procurement, budgeting, invoice management, time tracking, and financial reporting.

This is a general estimate for budgeting purposes. Actual costs may vary depending on the number of users, modules selected, accounting integrations, and implementation requirements.

Beyond the base subscription, organizations may also need to account for these estimated additional costs that commonly come with similar construction software platforms:

• Implementation And Onboarding: Typically, between $1,000 – $5,000. Project setup, construction workflow configuration, cost-code mapping, permissions, and staff training
• Data Migration: Generally, around $500 – $3,000. Importing existing project budgets, supplier records, cost codes, purchase orders, and historical financial data
• Accounting Integrations And Configuration: Approximately $500 – $3,000. Connecting and configuring accounting systems, including account mappings, tax settings, project structures, and synchronization rules
• Advanced Reporting And Customization: Often between $500 – $3,000+. Customized project reports, profitability views, CVR reporting, dashboards, and specialized financial workflows

Disclaimer: Pricing references are based on publicly available third-party information and industry benchmarks. Actual costs may vary.

LiveCosts Integrations

LiveCosts supports integration with several accounting systems, including:

• Xero accounting solution
• Sage accounting software
• Sage 50 UK
• QuickBooks Online

How Does LiveCosts Work?

Once your LiveCosts account is ready, you can set up your projects and budgets to begin tracking the construction costs. Here are the steps that you can follow to use the software:

• Log in to your LiveCosts account and set up your construction projects with their budgets and cost categories
• Add labor, materials, subcontractor work, equipment, and other costs to the relevant project
• Create purchase orders and record supplier spending as costs are committed to each job
• Record deliveries and connect them with the related purchase orders and project costs
• Review supplier invoices and match them with purchase orders and delivery records
• Compare actual and committed costs with the project budget as work continues
• Review project reports to monitor spending, WIP, and profitability
• Connect LiveCosts with your accounting software to sync approved project cost data

Who Is LiveCosts For?

LiveCosts software is designed for construction businesses and contractors, including:

• General contracting
• Electrical contracting
• Plumbing contracting
• HVAC contracting
• Civil contracting
• Subcontracting
• Mechanical and electrical contracting

LiveCosts Use Cases

Based on LiveCosts features, current capabilities, and published customer stories, we have identified some situations where the software is relevant to construction businesses dealing with common project cost management problems:

Contractors Relying On Spreadsheets For Project Costs

LiveCosts is relevant to contractors whose project budgets, purchasing records, and actual costs are spread across Excel files or other manual systems. This setup can make it harder to keep financial information current as a job progresses, particularly when several people are entering or updating data. JJC Group moved from Excel to LiveCosts to gain real-time reporting and a clearer view of project finances. The company also brought its purchasing and supplier information into the same system.

Growing Contractors Struggling To Keep Track Of Multiple Jobs

Managing several active construction projects can make it difficult to maintain a clear picture of how each job is performing. Costs can change at different rates, while commitments made on one project may not yet appear in the same place as its actual spending. LiveCosts is suited to contractors facing this problem because it lets them monitor individual project budgets alongside committed and actual costs. This is particularly relevant as the number of concurrent jobs grows, and manual tracking becomes harder to maintain.

Contractors Losing Time To Supplier And Invoice Administration

For contractors with frequent supplier orders and large numbers of invoices, administrative work can become a bottleneck. Staff may need to check whether an invoice relates to the correct order, project, and delivery before it can be processed. LiveCosts is suited to this situation because its purchasing and invoice workflows keep those records connected, including matching supplier invoices with purchase orders and delivery information. This makes it relevant to construction businesses where supplier administration takes up a significant amount of finance or office time.

Contractors Finding Out About Project Cost Problems Too Late

Some contractors only get a clear picture of a project's financial position after substantial work has already been completed. By then, overspending or weaker margins can be difficult to address. LiveCosts fits businesses facing this problem by keeping project costs and financial performance visible while jobs are still underway. PHA5E adopted the platform after struggling to see the financial position of live projects and used it to track costs as work progressed rather than waiting until the end of a job.

Is LiveCosts Right For You?

Are you looking for construction software that keeps project costs, purchasing, and budgets connected? LiveCosts gives contractors a real-time view of budget versus actual spending, helping them track financial performance while projects are underway.

LiveCosts is top-rated on Xero Marketplace and G2 and is a Xero Partner. It supports GDPR and Irish data protection requirements, with authorized-user controls and technical measures that protect customer data. For compliance, LiveCosts' privacy policy addresses GDPR and the Irish Data Protection Acts 1988-2018 and describes measures for handling customer data. Security includes authorized user access, account controls, password protection, and safeguards against unauthorized processing or data loss.

For growing contractors, LiveCosts supports multiple projects while connecting project budgets, committed costs, procurement, labor, invoices, reporting, and accounting integrations within one construction-focused workflow.

As construction firms place greater emphasis on AI and connected project data, LiveCosts is also adding AI-powered invoice extraction, three-way invoice matching, and AI-powered RFQs that link purchasing activity with project costs.

Still not sure if LiveCosts is right for you? Contact our customer support team at (661) 384-7070 to discuss your requirements.