What artificial turf installers need from their software, from sources outside QuickBooks and outside Nexa:
Disclosure: the publisher of this page makes Nexa, so we have set this read up to lean toward the tool you already have. Where QuickBooks does something turf installers rely on and Nexa does not, we say stay, and we list Nexa's gaps in full. QuickBooks covers the bookkeeping side of turf work well. Accountants know it, and it has bank feed reconciliation, comprehensive reporting and 800+ integrations. Plus adds project profitability and up to 40 classes and locations, which can help keep materials and labor apart. That separation matters because states tax turf installation differently, as a service, a real-property improvement or a material sale. It does not cover the trade's legal paperwork. That includes the license class and number on contracts and ads, California's cap on down payments, progress payments listed by phase with the work each covers, and the rule against billing for work not yet done. In California, breaking the down payment and progress payment rules is a misdemeanor, so the wording and billing schedule are yours to build and check in any tool.
Nexa covers part of the quote-to-payment path. Estimates and proposals convert to invoices. Clients can sign estimates and pay by card through your own Stripe account. Payment plans could be set up to follow phases such as excavation and base, then turf delivery and install, but you must check that against your state's rules. It also has sales tax tracking, expenses, bank reconciliation, and costing and profit per job. It does not supply license headings or the required contract statements. It has no QuickBooks sync or import, so handing books to an accountant who works in QuickBooks means starting over or re-keying. It has no app marketplace, and no payroll taxes, pay stubs or direct deposit, only a payroll CSV of hours x rate. It has no full inventory management, which matters if you track turf rolls and infill across jobs. Its automated emails send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices. It is software you run yourself, with no hosted support desk or vendor onboarding.
Over three years, the QuickBooks plan that does the core job is $38 a month, or $456 a year and $1,368 total. Nexa is $279 once (or 3 payments of $99), or $458.64 over three years with Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. Without sync it runs on one device. Nexa costs less, but neither tool handles the licensing and deposit rules for you, so price should not decide this. If your accountant uses QuickBooks, or you depend on its integrations, reporting or payroll-adjacent workflow, stay. A solo installer or small crew that mainly needs staged invoices, job profit and tax records, and is comfortable supporting its own software, could reasonably choose Nexa. Either way, have your contract template and payment schedule checked against your licensing board's rules, and ask your accountant how your state taxes turf work before you change systems.
Our read for artificial turf installers: Stay with QuickBooks if your accountant or integrations depend on it, since neither tool handles turf licensing or deposit rules and Nexa lacks QuickBooks sync and payroll.
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
QuickBooks costs artificial turf installers $456/year at today's list price. Nexa is $279 once for invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking and accounting in one suite — so after 7.3 months it has cost less than QuickBooks, and you own it after that. What it is not: hosted-for-you software with a support desk and a roadmap you can lobby. That is the trade, and the rest of this page is the detail behind it.
Nexa is $279 once, about $23 a month over its first year. Its Drain Guard reads your expenses (from a linked bank, an imported statement, or ones you type in), finds the charges that repeat, and adds them up by the month. Keep or Cut then walks you through them one at a time. Cancel $23 a month of charges you'd forgotten about and Nexa has paid for itself inside the first year, before you count the QuickBooks bill you'd stop paying.
It depends on what you find and what you cancel, so we don't promise a number. In our demo data, Drain Guard finds 5 subscriptions adding up to $110.13 a month. That is sample data, not a customer's.
The verdict for artificial turf installers: Stay with QuickBooks if the needs in our read above apply to you. If they don't, Nexa covers the core invoicing, scheduling and books for $279 once against $1,368 for QuickBooks over three years.
Time tracking, invoicing, job tracking and the books are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot into something you buy once. The sections below price both routes honestly.
None of that is a software problem you can buy your way out of in one click — it is why the tool you pick matters more than what it costs. QuickBooks solves some of it. So does Nexa. The difference is what you are left holding in three years.
Today's list price is $38/month — $456 a year, from QuickBooks's own pricing page. Every figure below is that price, multiplied. Nothing is projected.
Nexa: $279 once (or 3 × $99). Over the same three years, that is $1,089 less.
If QuickBooks raises its price, the three-year cost goes up; if it cuts it, the cost comes down. We don't guess which. Add-ons, extra seats and card-processing fees are not included, on either side.
Today's sticker price only tells you what a subscription costs today. These are dated changes, each linked to the announcement or report it comes from. Tap one for the numbers.
For renewals on or after February 1, 2026, Pro Plus and Mac Plus went from $999 to $1,149 a year for one user, and each extra seat from $200 to $230.
Source: SWK Technologies, Insightful Accountant (Dec 2, 2025)
From July 1, 2025: Simple Start $35 to $38, Essentials $65 to $75, Plus $99 to $115, Advanced $235 to $275 a month.
Source: Woodard Report (May 27, 2025)
After September 30, 2024, new US customers can no longer buy these Desktop editions. Existing subscribers can keep renewing.
Source: Intuit
Only changes we can link to a vendor announcement or a named publication are listed. Plans, add-ons and discounts vary, so check the vendor's current pricing page before you decide.
| Feature | QuickBooks | Nexa |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| CRM | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | — | ✓ |
| Full Accounting | ✓ | ✓ (SIMPL) |
| Task Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works offline | — | ✓ |
| Price | $38/mo | $279 once or 3 × $99 |
| 3-Year Total | $1,368 | $279 |
| You own it? | No — stop paying, lose access | Yes — forever |
✓ and ✗ for QuickBooks come from its own published feature list. — means the feature isn't in that list, which is not the same as QuickBooks lacking it: check with them. Three years is at today's price.
Straight from QuickBooks's own feature set. If one of these is the reason you pay them, that reason does not disappear because Nexa is cheaper.
QuickBooks is the better call if you need industry standard - accountants know it specifically, or if your team is large enough that per-seat pricing still beats buying software outright.
QuickBooks Online is aimed at freelancers and new businesses, small and mid-size businesses, product-based businesses, and nonprofits. Larger or more complex operations are pointed to Desktop Enterprise (up to 40 users) or Intuit Enterprise Suite (multi-entity). (quickbooks.intuit.com)
What people outside QuickBooks and outside Nexa say:
Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.
Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every artificial turf installer: find the work, manage it, bill for it, get paid. Each step has a tool — and the right single tool runs the whole loop, so the handoffs are automatic and you get back to the actual work. Tap a step to see what gets automated.
A lead, a call, a referral — and a quote or estimate that turns it into a booked job.
The part you actually get paid for — with the time, materials, add-ons, and tasks tracked as you go, not guessed at later.
The work becomes the invoice — the hours, the add-ons, the materials, the deposit credited — totaled and sent, instead of re-typed at 9pm.
Paid by card or link, the deposit credited, and what's overdue chased — without you doing it by hand.
You can stitch four separate subscriptions across these four steps, or run one tool that does the whole flow so a booking becomes a job becomes an invoice becomes a payment without re-typing. Either way the goal is the same: less time on the business of the business, more on the actual work. (Nexa is built to be the one — but the honest options for each step are above and below.)
QuickBooks plus whatever else you're paying for:
Email yourself this comparison?
The median artificial turf installer earns $55,000/year. At $456/year, QuickBooks is a recurring slice of that — paid again every year, whether the year was good or not. Owning the same jobs outright is $279 once, and the slice stops.
Nexa is $279 once. Invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, accounting — all connected, built for artificial turf installers. You own it like you own your Plate compactor (and sometimes a jumping-jack rammer) for compacting the base in lifts.
An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.
The honest fit: if you're a solo or small artificial turf installers business that owns its tools and is sick of renting software, Nexa replaces your whole stack for $279 once. If you're scaling past a handful of crews, a fleet platform may fit better — and we'd rather tell you that now than sell you the wrong thing.
Year-round construction in SoCal. Fire season (June-November) drives restoration demand. Drought impacts landscaping. Earthquake retrofitting is ongoing market.
Extreme summer heat drives HVAC demand. Hurricane risk on Gulf Coast. Year-round construction. Rapid population growth in DFW, Austin, Houston, San Antonio creates sustained demand. Freeze events (like 2021) create emergency plumbing/HVAC surge.
Hurricane season June-November creates massive restoration demand. Snowbird season November-March boosts service volume 30-40%. Year-round construction. Pool service is year-round industry. Pest control peaks in summer humidity.
Harsh winters in upstate, moderate in NYC. Construction limited in winter upstate. NYC market is enormous but hypercompetitive. Brownstone/pre-war building maintenance is specialized trade. NYC licensing is notoriously complex.
Time tracking, invoicing, job tracking and the books are the pieces of that day. Some tools rent you each piece separately. A few — Nexa among them — bundle the lot into something you buy once. The sections below price both routes honestly.
The day starts at a supply yard or the shop, loading pallets of base rock, rolls of turf strapped to the trailer, and totes of infill before the heat builds. On site, the first hours are demo: a sod cutter strips the old lawn, then it's excavation down two to four inches, hauling spoils to the dump trailer. Base goes in next, spread and graded to fall away from the house, wet down and run with the plate compactor in lifts until it rings hard underfoot. A weed barrier gets pinned, then the real work: rolling out the turf, letting it relax in the sun so it lays flat, and lining up grain direction so every piece leans the same way. Seams are the make-or-break, tape and glue down, edges trimmed with a hook blade, then kicked and stretched tight and nailed on the perimeter. The afternoon is infill, broadcasting silica or zeolite with a drop spreader and driving it down to the backing with a power broom so the blades stand up. Pet yards get extra infill and a hard look at drainage; putting greens get a tighter cut, cup-setting, and a rolled, true surface. It ends dusty, brushing out footprints and walking the customer across a lawn that looks impossibly green.
Real artificial turf installers near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you an artificial turf installer? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every artificial turf installer on Nexa →
The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.
Here's the bar that matters: you spent $1,270–$5,300 on tools that last for years, and never thought twice. So why should the software cost more than your whole kit — every single year? Hold it to the same standard as a good tool: $279, once.
We build an artificial turf installer's guide the same way every time, and we'd rather you trust it than take it on faith. Nexa is our product, so the test we hold ourselves to is simple: a tool only "wins" a job here when it genuinely does that job better for an artificial turf installer — and where something free, open-source, or buy-once does it better, we say so and link you to it. Where Nexa falls short (payroll is the honest example), we name the alternative outright.
Found something out of date? Prices change and we don't catch every move the day it happens. This guide is published and maintained by the Nexa team; if a figure here is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it — getting it right matters more to us than the sale.
For solo artificial turf installers and small teams, yes. invoicing, scheduling, CRM, time tracking, task management, and full accounting — all for $279 once. QuickBooks may be better if you have a large team (10+) or need enterprise-specific features.
QuickBooks has features like Industry standard - accountants know it and 800+ app integrations that some businesses rely on. For most solo artificial turf installers, these aren't dealbreakers.
At $38/month, Nexa pays for itself in 7.3 months. After that: $456 saved every year.
Yes. Nexa is $279 as a one-time payment, or 3 payments of $99 ($297 total). Either way it's a one-time purchase — no subscription, no recurring fees ever.
Own your tools. Stop renting your software.
Get Nexa — $279 Once