Cost Control Software for Canadian Contractors

Committed. Drawn. Invoiced. Control happens before the invoice.

Every commitment, every progress draw, every crew hour and every change order, reconciled against budget the day it happens. Committed cost runs months ahead of the invoices, WIP reporting is produced straight from the live records, and builders lien holdback is tracked per subcontract instead of living in a spreadsheet.

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Trusted by construction companies of every size, worldwide

Overruns caught at the commitment, not at project closeout

Cost control software for Canadian contractors starts with committed cost: purchase orders, subcontracts and contract values recorded the day they are made and reconciled against budget continuously, months before the invoices arrive. Archdesk allocates commitments to cost codes automatically, values delivered work as the job progresses, and keeps builders lien holdback tracked per subcontract with the rest of the commercial record. WIP reporting and progress billing run from the same live numbers, so the report you take to the bank or the bonding company is produced, not assembled at month end. Change orders are priced against their cost lines before approval, and holdback release timing stays visible per subcontract, so the forecast carries the whole commercial picture from the first draw to closeout.

Civil engineer holding a tablet with the city skyline behind

The true position, months before the invoices

Progress draws and delivered work feed earned value and cost-to-complete forecasting, with CPI, SPI and unbilled revenue tracked alongside any custom KPI, per project and across the portfolio.

Nothing posts without approval

Invoicing, payment certification and holdback go through multi-level approvals with custom logic, so nothing hits the numbers unseen.

Margin watched draw by draw

Budget versus actual and estimate versus actual run at cost code level, with variance alerts and margin projections that update as draws are certified.

Changes priced before they land

Every change order is priced against its cost lines before approval, so scope movement is in the forecast from the day it is raised, not found at closeout.

Committed cost is where control actually happens

By the time an invoice posts, the money is committed. Archdesk reconciles commitments, crew hours and delivered value against budget daily, so WIP reporting reads from live records and the forecast is one you can defend.

Three construction workers collaborating around a tablet on site at night

Financial Control

Invoices, payments, holdback and commitments go through approval before they hit the numbers, so nothing is spent unseen.

Invoice management and payment certification

Holdback tracking

Commitment monitoring

Multi-level approvals with custom logic

Cost Reporting & Analytics

Reports come straight from the live numbers: CVRs, cost and schedule variances, unbilled revenue, progress payments and performance metrics for every stakeholder, with nothing to rebuild at month-end.

CVR, cost and schedule variance reports

Unbilled revenue and progress payment reports

Custom report builder

Real-time dashboards at project and portfolio level

Budget Control

Budget against actual on every cost code, with change orders showing their impact the day they are raised, not at final billing.

Budget vs actual analysis

Change order impact tracking

Cost code management

Commitment tracking

Cost Forecasting

Earned value and cost-to-complete keep the forecast live, so the outcome is managed during delivery rather than reported after it. CPI and SPI are computed from the same records, so performance indices are always current, for each project and across the portfolio.

Earned Value Management with CPI and SPI

Cost-to-complete forecasting

Cash flow projections

Trend analysis and custom-defined KPIs

Real-time Job Costing

Every cost lands on its job the day it happens: labour, materials, equipment and subcontractors. Nobody waits for the ledger to find out where the project stands.

Live job cost dashboard

Automated cost code allocation

Purchase order monitoring

Subcontractor payments and payment notices

Procurement Control

Every purchase order, supplier payment and subcontract tracked from order to delivery, with contract values monitored against what has been committed.

Purchase orders across purchasing modes

Materials, supplier and subcontractor cost control

Contract value monitoring

Estimate vs. Actuals Analysis

The estimate you won with sits beside the cost you are actually carrying, at cost code level, with variances flagged as they open up.

Side-by-side estimate comparison

Cost code level variance alerts

Profit projection updates

Historical performance tracking

Estimate vs. Actuals Analysis screenshot

Cost value reconciliation, defined

Cost value reconciliation (CVR) is the comparison of the costs a construction project has incurred against the value of the work it has delivered, showing the true margin position while the project is still running. The cost side counts what has been committed and spent: subcontracts, purchase orders, labour, materials and general conditions. The value side counts what the work done is worth under the contract: the internal progress draw position and certified sums. The gap between the two is the project's real profit or loss to date, and the movement of that gap month to month is the earliest warning a contractor gets that a job is drifting.

CVR component	What it counts	Where it lives in Archdesk
Cost	Committed and actual cost: subcontracts, purchase orders, labour, materials, general conditions	Commitments and job costing, coded to cost codes the day they happen
Value	Work delivered under the contract: progress draws and certified sums	Progress draws and certified sums, tied to the same budget lines
Reconciliation	Cost against value: profit or loss to date, variance and its month-to-month movement	CVR reports with CPI, SPI, unbilled revenue and custom KPIs, at project and portfolio level

Plenty of pages define CVR. The difference here is that Archdesk delivers it: the CVR is a report the platform produces from live records, at project level for the commercial team and rolled up across the portfolio for the board, not a template you fill in from three other systems.

The CVR, produced instead of assembled

The monthly CVR (cost value reconciliation) is where cost control gets tested. Most teams assemble it: exports from accounts, a billing spreadsheet, a commitments list someone keeps by hand. Archdesk produces it instead, straight from the live commitment, progress draw and cost records the project already runs on, with cost and schedule variances, unbilled revenue and CPI and SPI from the same numbers. It works at project level for the commercial team and rolls up to portfolio level for the board, and because the records are current daily, the CVR stops being a month-end reconstruction of what already happened.

Comparing options? See the best construction cost control software compared.

This page is about live cost control: actuals against the estimate, and the CVR. Setting and managing the budget is construction budgeting, and what each job really costs against the priced numbers is construction job costing.

Frequently Asked Questions: Construction Cost Control

What is cost control in construction?

Cost control is managing the money while it can still be influenced: recording every commitment the day it is made, valuing work as it is delivered, and reconciling both against budget continuously. By the time an invoice arrives the money is already spent, so control happens at committed and earned, not invoiced.

How does Archdesk track committed cost?

Purchase orders, subcontracts and contract values post to their cost codes at the point of commitment. The gap between committed and invoiced stays visible per line, so the true cost position is known months before the invoices arrive.

Does Archdesk support earned value management?

Yes. Delivered value is tracked against commitments and budget, feeding earned value, cost-to-complete forecasting, CPI and SPI, computed from the same live records at project level and across the portfolio, alongside any custom KPI you define.

How does the monthly CVR get produced?

The CVR (cost value reconciliation) comes straight from the live commitment, progress draw and cost records, produced rather than assembled. Cost and schedule variances, unbilled revenue and progress payment reports build from the same numbers, with nothing rebuilt at month-end.

How are variations kept out of the base budget?

Change order impact tracking puts every variation against its cost lines when it is raised, so scope movement is approved, priced and in the forecast rather than discovered at final billing. Approvals run through multi-level workflows.

How does Archdesk track builders lien holdback?

Holdback is tracked per subcontract alongside the rest of the commercial record, so balances and release timing stay visible with the same numbers WIP reporting is produced from, instead of sitting in a side spreadsheet until someone remembers to chase them.

Does Archdesk produce WIP reports?

Yes. Work-in-progress reporting comes straight from the live commitment, cost and billing records at project and portfolio level, so over- and under-billing positions are read from current numbers rather than reconstructed at month end.

Does Archdesk integrate with QuickBooks Online?

Yes. Archdesk integrates with QuickBooks Online, so job cost records and the ledger stay in step without double entry and finance keeps its own system.

How do progress draws fit into cost control?

Progress draws sit on the same project records as commitments and costs, so drawn, certified and committed positions read together per job and across the portfolio, from the first draw to the final one.