QuickBooks vs Nexa
The Real Comparison for Demolition Contractors

QuickBooks
$38/mo ($456/yr)
VS
Nexa
$279 once — own forever
or 3 payments of $99
Break even: 7.3 months at QuickBooks's current price.

Does QuickBooks Fit Demolition Contractors? Our Read

What demolition contractors need from their software, from sources outside QuickBooks and outside Nexa:

Disclosure: the publisher of this page makes Nexa, so weigh our lean accordingly. We have tried to lean toward QuickBooks wherever the facts do. Two problems get mixed up in this trade, so we take them separately. One is the books. The other is the regulated paperwork: the written OSHA pre-demolition survey on file for each job, and the demolition notice with the licensed consultant's asbestos survey attached. Pinellas County wants that notice at least 10 working days ahead, even when no asbestos is present. QuickBooks handles the books well. It has bank feed reconciliation, comprehensive reporting, 800+ integrations, and accountants who already know it. Plus adds project profitability and up to 40 classes and locations, and Advanced makes them unlimited. That tier costs more than the $38 plan, so budget for it. Classes let you give each job cost lines for the consultant's survey and for agency fees. Those fees follow measured quantities of regulated material, not the size of the structure. San Joaquin Valley's Rule 3050 works this way, with a minimum Tier 1 fee even when none is present. QuickBooks does not cover the paperwork side. Nothing in its feature list stores the survey with a job, tracks a notice date, or attaches the consultant's report. It also does not flag the 160 square foot, 260 linear foot and 35 cubic foot abatement thresholds.

Nexa covers the job side. It has jobs with costing and profit per job, estimates and proposals that convert to invoices, expenses, bank reconciliation, profit and loss, time tracking, a crew view of each person's jobs, and offline use. Missions with one level of sub-steps and templates, plus a task board, could hold a per-job checklist. But there are no task dependencies, so nothing enforces order or deadlines. Nexa has no field for a survey, a notice date, a fee or a measured asbestos quantity, so it does not close the paperwork gap either. A client record has no street-address field, which is awkward when every job is a specific site. It has no QuickBooks sync or import, no payroll taxes or pay stubs, and no integration library. You own and run it yourself, with no vendor support desk or onboarding. Its automated emails and reminders send only while Nexa is open on one of your devices, so do not rely on them to warn you about a notice deadline.

Over three years QuickBooks at $38 a month is $456 a year, or $1,368. Nexa is $279 once (or 3 payments of $99), or $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99 a month. The gap is real, but it only matters for the books, because neither product keeps survey and notice records. These are the publishers' own feature lists, and we have not tested either one against a demolition workflow. Check the details yourself. QuickBooks offers a 30-day free trial. If you already run QuickBooks, stay. Your accountant knows it, and its integrations are the likeliest way to link a separate records tool. Handle the paperwork in a dedicated document and compliance tracker. For each job it should hold the survey on file before crews start, the notice date counted back from the planned start, the consultant's report and the agency fee. Record measured quantities of regulated material on every estimate and change order. Keep separate notices and fees where renovation and demolition happen at the same facility. A very small outfit with no integration needs and a tolerance for self-support could run job costing on Nexa to save money. It would still need that tracker.

Our read for demolition contractors: Keep QuickBooks for the books, since Nexa's lower price does not fix the real demolition problem, and add a separate document and compliance tracker for the survey and notice records that neither product handles.

Read on each linked page in October 2026. Check them again before you decide; vendors change plans often.

Bottom Line

QuickBooks costs demolition contractors $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.

Can it pay for itself?

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 demolition contractors: 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.

Choose Nexa if:

  • You're done paying monthly forever
  • You're a solo operator or small team (1-5)
  • You need invoicing, task manager and financial suite in one tool
  • You're tired of price increases
  • You want to own your tools like you own your equipment

Choose QuickBooks if:

  • You have a large team (10+) needing enterprise features
  • You're deeply invested in QuickBooks's specific workflow
  • You need a feature Nexa doesn't have yet

Sound Familiar?

Most of my work is interior demolition for renovations and small structures: gutting kitchens and bathrooms down to the studs, removing walls, tearing out old decks, garages and sheds. Before anything comes down I'm confirming which walls are load-bearing, shutting off and capping utilities with the right trades, and checking for asbestos or lead in older buildings, because disturbing them without testing is dangerous and illegal. Permits are needed for most structural work. On site, demolition is controlled, not wild: protecting the parts of the house that stay, putting up dust barriers, and taking things apart in the right order so nothing falls unexpectedly. Salvage and recycling matter; metal goes to scrap, clean wood and concrete to recyclers, and fixtures in good condition to reuse centres. Dumpster logistics are half the job: the right size, placed where the truck can reach, and swapped out before it overflows. I price by the scope and the disposal volume, with the dumpster and hauling costs spelled out.

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.

What QuickBooks Actually Costs Demolition Contractors

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.

Three years at today's price

Year 1$456
Year 2$456
Year 3$456
Three years of QuickBooks$1,368

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.

What QuickBooks has actually done to its price

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.

Since launch Nexa — $279 once. No annual hike, no per-seat creep, no "your plan is changing" email.

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-by-Feature

FeatureQuickBooksNexa
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 accessYes — 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.

What "$279 Once" Does And Doesn't Buy

What QuickBooks Does Better

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.

What QuickBooks Is Built For

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.

Where business tools fit — for a demolition contractor

Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every demolition contractor: 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.

  1. 1
    Find the work

    Win the job

    ↓

    A lead, a call, a referral — and a quote or estimate that turns it into a booked job.

    • CRM / contacts
    • Estimates & proposals
    • Booking / scheduling
    then ↓
  2. 2

    The part you actually get paid for — with the time, materials, add-ons, and tasks tracked as you go, not guessed at later.

    • Job / project tracking
    • Time tracking
    • Expenses, materials & add-ons
    then ↓
  3. 3

    The work becomes the invoice — the hours, the add-ons, the materials, the deposit credited — totaled and sent, instead of re-typed at 9pm.

    • Invoicing
    • Deposits & credits
    then ↓
  4. 4

    Paid by card or link, the deposit credited, and what's overdue chased — without you doing it by hand.

    • Card / online payments
    • Automatic reminders

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.)

Watch a job become an invoice

This is the connection that makes the rest worth it. A demolition contractor's job already holds the services, the hours, the add-ons, and the materials — so the invoice builds itself from the work instead of you re-typing it at 9pm. Toggle an add-on or nudge the hours and watch it recompute.

The job Kitchen gut to studs
Service Interior demolition 1 × $1,800 $1,800
Time Labor — tracked on the job 4 hrs × $60/hr $240
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$2,690
Deposit credited−$800
Invoice total$1,890

You didn't write this invoice — the job did.

Calculate Your Full Stack

QuickBooks plus whatever else you're paying for:

Email yourself this comparison?

Switching from QuickBooks

1
Export your data — Go to Reports → export to CSV. Download clients, invoices, expenses.
2
Set up Nexa — 15-minute setup. Import your clients and expenses by CSV; re-enter your main services.
3
Parallel run — Run both for 1-2 weeks. Verify everything transferred.
4
Cancel QuickBooks — Cancel subscription. Download final backup. You're done.
✓ 30-day money-back guarantee. Zero risk.

What This Means for Demolition Contractors

The median demolition contractor earns $48,000/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 demolition contractors. You own it like you own your Skid steer or mini excavator.

Is Nexa actually right for a demolition contractor?

An honest fit check — because the wrong tool is worse than no tool.

Right for you if

  • You run solo or a small crew — like the 10,000 demolition contractors in the US who do, and you wear every hat.
  • You're tired of paying every month for jobber and a pile of apps that don't talk to each other.
  • You want to invoice, schedule, and track from the field — not from a back office.
  • You'd rather own your software once, the way you own your Skid steer or mini excavator.

Look elsewhere if

  • You run a 20+ demolition contractor fleet that needs enterprise dispatch and multi-crew routing — Nexa is built for 1–5, and a fleet platform will serve you better.
  • You need full payroll for a large team or deep, SKU-level inventory — that's not what Nexa is for.
  • You're genuinely happy paying monthly and don't mind stitching tools together. No tool fixes a workflow you already like.

The honest fit: if you're a solo or small demolition contractors 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.

Demolition Contractors by the numbers — by place

Tax, licensing & seasonality where you operate

1-13.3%income tax
CSLB (Contractors State License Board)licensing

Year-round construction in SoCal. Fire season (June-November) drives restoration demand. Drought impacts landscaping. Earthquake retrofitting is ongoing market.

Register a business in California →

Noneincome tax
TDLR (Texas Dept of Licensing and Regulation)licensing

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.

Register a business in Texas →

Noneincome tax
DBPR (Dept of Business and Professional Regulation)licensing

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.

Register a business in Florida →

4-10.9%income tax
NYC DCA + NYS DOS + specialty boardslicensing

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.

Register a business in New York →

Where demolition contractors actually talk shop

Your people are already online — swapping real numbers, tool picks, and war stories. Here's where to find them.

Recent in r/sweatystartup · Where solo service businesses swap real numbers and hard-won lessons.
Quit my six-figure corporate sales job to buy a home service franchise. On pace to do $2M+ this year. AMA. Three years ago I posted about starting a company with no construction experience. Here's what I've learned since. I run my business — it doesn't run me. I think AI search is about to change how local service businesses get found. Anyone else seeing this? Update: $12k/mo revenue after 1.5 years. What I'd do differently from day one.

Subreddits worth your time

r/Construction

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →
r/Demolition

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →
r/HomeImprovement

Active community — tool picks, pricing, and day-to-day questions.

Open on Reddit →

Facebook groups to join

Demolition Contractors Demo Business Owners Junk Removal & Demolition
Forums
ContractorTalk.com

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.

What demolition contractors actually deal with

A day in the life of a demolition contractor

Most of my work is interior demolition for renovations and small structures: gutting kitchens and bathrooms down to the studs, removing walls, tearing out old decks, garages and sheds. Before anything comes down I'm confirming which walls are load-bearing, shutting off and capping utilities with the right trades, and checking for asbestos or lead in older buildings, because disturbing them without testing is dangerous and illegal. Permits are needed for most structural work. On site, demolition is controlled, not wild: protecting the parts of the house that stay, putting up dust barriers, and taking things apart in the right order so nothing falls unexpectedly. Salvage and recycling matter; metal goes to scrap, clean wood and concrete to recyclers, and fixtures in good condition to reuse centres. Dumpster logistics are half the job: the right size, placed where the truck can reach, and swapped out before it overflows. I price by the scope and the disposal volume, with the dumpster and hauling costs spelled out.

The tools a working demolition contractor actually owns

Why demolition contractors leave the big platforms

Where demolition contractors actually talk shop

Local demolition contractors on Nexa

Real demolition contractors near you who run their business on Nexa — book directly, no platform fee. Are you a demolition contractor? Post your business and get found in your area — $2.99 one-time. Or browse every demolition contractor on Nexa →

The kit a working demolition contractor owns

The tools of the trade — each a one-time buy that earns its keep for years.

Core kitEssential

Demolition hammer / breaker

$300–$1,200
Core kitEssential

Reciprocating saws

$120–$300
Core kitEssential

Sledgehammers and pry bars

$60–$250
Core kitEssential

Respirators and PPE

$80–$350
Core kitEssential

Hard hats, eye and hearing protection

$60–$250
Core kitEssential

Dust suppression sprayer

$100–$500
Core kitEssential

Debris chutes and containment

$200–$900
Core kitEssential

Negative air machine

$400–$1,500
Upgrade

Skid steer or mini excavator

$25,000–$90,000
Upgrade

Dump trailer

$8,000–$20,000
The core kit, bought once $1,320–$5,250

Here's the bar that matters: you spent $1,320–$5,250 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.

How To Read This Page

How we put this guide together

We build a demolition contractor'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 a demolition contractor — 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.

Where the numbers come from

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.

FAQ

Is Nexa really a QuickBooks replacement?

For solo demolition contractors 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.

What does QuickBooks do that Nexa doesn't?

QuickBooks has features like Industry standard - accountants know it and 800+ app integrations that some businesses rely on. For most solo demolition contractors, these aren't dealbreakers.

How fast does Nexa pay for itself?

At $38/month, Nexa pays for itself in 7.3 months. After that: $456 saved every year.

Can I pay in installments?

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.

$1,368 Over 3 Years. Or $279 Once (or 3 × $99).

Own your tools. Stop renting your software.

Get Nexa — $279 Once
or 3 payments of $99
✓ 30-day money-back — save $500 or full refund

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