Foundation Software does not publish a price, and its own pricing page says so: “we don’t offer you standard pricing.” Intuit quotes QuickBooks Enterprise by tier and seat band. So whether renewing Foundation or moving to QuickBooks Enterprise Contractor is cheaper is not a question anyone can answer from a vendor website. It is a question your Foundation renewal notice, your last twelve months of Foundation invoices and one written Intuit quote can answer in an afternoon. This post is the two-column worksheet for doing that, with every Foundation and Intuit product fact checked on the vendors’ own sites on the review date.
Foundation is sold as a modular system, and that is exactly why the renewal notice understates the annual cost. Foundation’s pricing page lists the modules that come with the core product — job costing, payroll, purchase orders and subcontracts, accounts receivable — and then a second list of add-on modules: mobile time tracking, service dispatch, equipment management and tracking, project management. Each add-on is a line. Pull twelve months of invoices and fill in all seven:
Intuit’s Enterprise pricing page shows “starting at” amounts that change with promotion, tier and seat band, so we do not reprint them. Get a written annual quote for the tier and seat count you need and fill in these lines from it and from the page’s own footnotes:
Print it or copy it into a sheet. Where a Foundation line has no QuickBooks equivalent, write zero and note why — the zeros are usually where the decision hides.
| Annual line | Foundation (your invoices) | QuickBooks Enterprise (your quote) |
|---|---|---|
| Core subscription / maintenance (users × rate) | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Add-on modules or construction apps | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Hosting or server share (+ RDS CALs) | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Payroll (per employee × frequency) | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Time tracking | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Support, consulting, report design | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Internal admin hours × loaded rate | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| Annual run-rate | $ ________ | $ ________ |
| One-time: conversion + overlap month + retraining | — | $ ________ |
| 24-month total (2 × run-rate, + one-time) | $ ________ | $ ________ |
The figures below are invented to show the arithmetic. They are not a Foundation quote, not an Intuit quote, and not a benchmark. Picture a single-entity general contractor with 8 office users, 45 field employees paid weekly, on FOUNDATION Hosted with the equipment and mobile modules.
Suppose the Foundation side adds up to $34,000 a year once modules, hosting, post-warranty support and 60 admin hours are counted. Suppose the Intuit quote for Enterprise Platinum, 10 seats, hosted, with Enhanced Payroll for 45 employees and a certified-payroll app, adds up to $11,500 a year, and the one-time column is $3,500 conversion plus one overlap month and 40 retraining hours, call it $7,000. Over 24 months that is $68,000 to stay against $30,000 to move. Change the assumptions and the gap moves; the point is that the payback lands inside the first year in this example, and the worksheet will tell you whether it does in yours.
Module count. Every add-on module on the Foundation invoice is a line QuickBooks either covers natively (job costing, committed costs, WIP report) or needs an app for (service dispatch, scheduling, equipment). If you run six add-ons, price six replacements before you believe the gap.
Concurrent users. Above 30 users, the only Enterprise option is Diamond on a monthly plan. Above 40, Enterprise is not the target; talk to us about the Intuit Enterprise Suite route instead.
Certified payroll volume. Foundation’s payroll module is built around prevailing-wage and union work. QuickBooks Desktop produces a certified payroll report through Excel. One or two Davis-Bacon jobs a year is an admin line; ten a week is a reason to weigh staying, or to budget the app properly.
Write “stay” without guilt if any of these are true: your AIA progress billing runs weekly across many jobs and your PMs manage by units installed, not dollars; certified or union payroll is every pay run, every job; you are past 40 concurrent users; or the worksheet gap is under one year of savings and your Foundation contract has more than a year to run. If none apply and the Intuit quote clears your ceiling, the Foundation to QuickBooks Enterprise route is the one to scope, and our QuickBooks Enterprise page covers the tier choice in more detail.
Add up five sources: the Foundation renewal notice, invoices for each add-on module, the FOUNDATION Hosted or server and SQL Server bill, support and consulting invoices after the included six months, and any Payroll4Construction or WorkMax charges. Then add internal admin hours at a loaded rate.
No. Foundation’s pricing page says it does not offer standard pricing because the system is sold by module and user count, and its FAQ directs buyers to the sales team. Any Foundation dollar figure you read online is a third-party estimate.
Gold and Platinum are sold for 1–10 users or up to 30 simultaneous users. Enterprise Diamond supports up to 40 users, sold in 1–10, 20, 30 and 40 user increments, and Diamond is available on a monthly plan only.
Numerawise quotes it fixed-price, from $3,500 for a single-entity contractor, with job count, payroll complexity and equipment fleet size moving the number. The written quote arrives within 24 hours of a scoping call.
When your worksheet says move, the Foundation to QuickBooks conversion page explains how job structures, retainage balances and WIP are protected, and how to get the fixed quote.
Tell us what you’re working on. We respond same business day.
Founder of Numerawise Solutions, established MMXXIV in Atlanta. Intuit ProAdvisor Gold tier. Former Intuit Technical Support engineer. Has personally led two hundred accounting software conversions for US small businesses since founding the practice. Reachable directly at [email protected].