QuickBooks Live vs. a Contractor Bookkeeping Specialist
QuickBooks Live Full-Service runs $300 to $700 per month depending on your expense volume, and it comes from Intuit itself, sitting right inside the QuickBooks Online file you already use. For a contractor comparing options, that's a credible pitch at a fair price, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a dismissal.
We keep the books for contractors every day, so consider the source, but here's the breakdown of what QuickBooks Live genuinely does well, which businesses it fits, and where its scope ends relative to what contract work requires.
What QuickBooks Live is and what it does well
QuickBooks Live is Intuit's own bookkeeping service, offered in two tiers.
Expert Assisted, at roughly $50 per month, gives you on-demand access to a QuickBooks-certified bookkeeper who answers questions and reviews your work while you keep doing your own books.
Full-Service Bookkeeping assigns a team that handles categorization, reconciliation, month-end close, and financial reports, priced by your average monthly expenses. As of this writing, it’s $300 per month up to $10,000 in monthly expenses, $500 up to $50,000, and $700 above that, plus a custom cleanup fee for the first month and your QuickBooks Online subscription on top.
The strengths are real.
Your books live in your own QuickBooks Online file, which you own and keep no matter what. This is an advantage worth flagging, and one reason we'd point a contractor here over proprietary-platform services if those were the only two options.
The bookkeepers hold ProAdvisor certification, Intuit backs the work with an accuracy guarantee, there's no long-term contract, and for a simple business that needs transactions categorized and accounts reconciled every month, it delivers exactly that at a price a specialist firm can't match.
Where the scope ends
The limitation isn't quality; it's scope. QuickBooks Live is a categorize-reconcile-close service, and Intuit is upfront about the boundaries: it doesn't handle your invoicing, your bill payment, your AR follow-up, or your payroll, and it doesn't file taxes. It keeps the ledger tidy, but it doesn't run a back office.
For a contractor, the gap is more specific than the general scope line suggests. Tidy books and useful books are different things. A contractor's books earn their keep through job costing: costs and labor tracked to specific jobs at burdened rates, so margin by job is visible while the work is still running.
That requires structural setup (a contractor chart of accounts, projects configured, field time tracking connected, payroll flowing in at burdened cost) and monthly maintenance discipline that sits well outside a categorize-and-reconcile engagement.
A QB Live team will keep a generic file clean, but nobody in that model is building or maintaining the machinery that tells you what the last job actually earned, whether your service work is subsidizing your installs, or what a crew member truly costs per hour.
The team model matters too. Full-Service assigns a shared team rather than one person who knows your business, response times can stretch when questions get specific, and there's no CPA reviewing the work or thinking about how this year's books land at tax time.
And for subs on contract work, the construction layer (retainage tracking, progress billing support, and certified payroll) simply isn't on the menu.
The comparison, line by line
| QuickBooks Live Full-Service | Prophet Accounting | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $300–$700 + QBO subscription + cleanup fee | $500–$2,500+ (construction subs from $3,500) |
| Platform | QuickBooks Online (you own the file) | QuickBooks Online (you own the file) |
| Scope | Categorize, reconcile, close, reports | Full back office incl. AR, AP, payroll coordination |
| Job costing | Not included | Core service |
| Burdened labor | No | Yes, built into job costs |
| Margin by job | No | Monthly, while jobs run |
| Retainage / certified payroll | No | Yes (construction engagements) |
| Who does the work | Shared team, ProAdvisor certified | Firm owner, CPA-led |
| CPA oversight | Not included | Included |
| Best fit | Simple businesses under ~$500K on QBO | Contractors $500K+, construction subs |
The decision framework
QuickBooks Live fits a contractor in two situations.
If you're under roughly $500,000 in revenue, doing your own invoicing and payroll anyway, and mainly need the ledger kept clean, Full-Service at $300 a month is a legitimate option, and Expert Assisted at $50 is a genuinely cheap safety net if you do your own books and just want a professional checking your work.
We'd rather tell you that than sell you scope you don't need yet.
The switch point is the same one it always is: when the questions change from "are the books clean" to "which jobs make money."
A $1.5 million contractor whose payroll sits in one lump at base wages doesn't know their real margins within five points, and every bid inherits that error.
Saving $700 a month on bookkeeping while mispricing one job a year is the most expensive savings available. When you need margin by job, burdened labor, AR and AP handled, and a CPA in the loop, you've outgrown what categorize-and-reconcile can do, no matter how competently it's done.
At Prophet Accounting, we work with home service contractors and construction subcontractors across Port St. Lucie, the Treasure Coast, and nationwide: full back-office bookkeeping, job costing at burdened rates, and monthly reporting that shows margin by job.
If your books are clean but can't answer the questions that price your work, schedule a consultation at prophetaccounting.com/contractors or give us a call at (772) 380-2871.
For a quick read on monthly bookkeeping costs, our pricing calculator gives you a ballpark in about two minutes.
