QuickBooks vs Nexa
The Real Comparison for Waterproofing 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 Waterproofing Contractors? Our Read

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

QuickBooks covers the money side of this trade well: accountants know it, it has bank feed reconciliation and comprehensive reporting, and the plans above Simple Start add project profitability and classes for tracking jobs. The $38/month plan does the core accounting job. The list of QuickBooks features does not include the trade's compliance needs, though. It has no place described for a written silica exposure control plan, training and medical exam records, per-job licence numbers and permit scope by state, or completion dates, photos and warranty terms kept for the six or more years that leak liability can run. Those records would live somewhere else.

Nexa covers the business side: estimates that convert to invoices, a client pay portal through your own Stripe account, jobs with costing and profit per job, crew assignments, time tracking, expenses, bank reconciliation and profit and loss. Its CRM notes could hold some job details. It does not list any compliance, licence or permit tracking, any way to keep warranty or exposure records, or any import from QuickBooks. It also does not run payroll, and it comes with no hosted support or vendor onboarding, since you own and run the software yourself. Without Cloud Sync it runs on one device.

Over three years QuickBooks at $38/month costs $456 a year, or $1,368 in total. Nexa costs $279 once, or $458.64 with Cloud Sync at $4.99/month. Nexa is cheaper, but price is not the deciding issue here. If your accountant works in QuickBooks, stay with it for the books. In either case, the silica plan, licence and permit tracking and long-term warranty files need a separate records tool, such as a document management or contractor compliance system. Switching accounting software would not solve them.

Our read for waterproofing contractors: Neither QuickBooks nor Nexa covers this trade's core compliance and long-term job-record needs, so look for a document-management or contractor compliance tool and keep your current books where they are.

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

Bottom Line

QuickBooks costs waterproofing 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 waterproofing contractors: Neither QuickBooks nor Nexa is the main system for this work; start with software built for it. Nexa only makes sense beside it, at $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 time tracker, invoicing and task manager 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?

A wet basement is usually a question of where the water comes from. My inspection looks outside first, at grading that slopes toward the house, gutters that overflow and downspouts dumping water at the foundation, because fixing those solves many problems cheaply. Inside, I look for where water appears: along the floor joint, through cracks, or seeping through the walls. Crack injection seals individual leaking cracks. For bigger problems, an interior drainage system means cutting a channel along the basement floor, installing perforated pipe in gravel that carries water to a sump pit, and a sump pump that sends it outside, with a backup pump or battery for power cuts. Exterior waterproofing means excavating down to the footing, cleaning the wall, applying a membrane and installing drainage, which is a bigger and more expensive job. Humidity control with a dehumidifier finishes many projects. I give a written estimate with the scope and a warranty, and I explain what will fix the problem and what's optional.

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.

What QuickBooks Actually Costs Waterproofing 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 waterproofing contractor

Software doesn't do the actual work — it automates the business around it. And that part is the same for every waterproofing 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 waterproofing 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 Interior drain + sump, 60 ft
Service Interior drainage (per ft) 60 × $80 $4,800
The invoice builds itself
Subtotal$5,700
Deposit credited−$2,000
Invoice total$3,700

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 Waterproofing Contractors

The median waterproofing contractor 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 waterproofing contractors. You own it like you own your Interior drain board (DeltaMS) and exterior dimple board.

Is Nexa actually right for a waterproofing 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 15,000 waterproofing 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 Interior drain board (DeltaMS) and exterior dimple board.

Look elsewhere if

  • You run a 20+ waterproofing 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 waterproofing 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.

Waterproofing 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 →

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.

What waterproofing contractors actually deal with

A day in the life of a waterproofing contractor

A wet basement is usually a question of where the water comes from. My inspection looks outside first, at grading that slopes toward the house, gutters that overflow and downspouts dumping water at the foundation, because fixing those solves many problems cheaply. Inside, I look for where water appears: along the floor joint, through cracks, or seeping through the walls. Crack injection seals individual leaking cracks. For bigger problems, an interior drainage system means cutting a channel along the basement floor, installing perforated pipe in gravel that carries water to a sump pit, and a sump pump that sends it outside, with a backup pump or battery for power cuts. Exterior waterproofing means excavating down to the footing, cleaning the wall, applying a membrane and installing drainage, which is a bigger and more expensive job. Humidity control with a dehumidifier finishes many projects. I give a written estimate with the scope and a warranty, and I explain what will fix the problem and what's optional.

The tools a working waterproofing contractor actually owns

Why waterproofing contractors leave the big platforms

Local waterproofing contractors on Nexa

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

The kit a working waterproofing contractor owns

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

Core kitEssential

Jackhammer and demolition tools

$300–$1,200
Core kitEssential

Concrete saw

$400–$1,500
Core kitEssential

Sump pumps and battery backups

$300–$1,500
Core kitEssential

Wet vacuum and pumps

$200–$900
Core kitEssential

Mixing drill and paddle

$100–$400
Core kitEssential

Hand tools, buckets and wheelbarrow

$80–$350
Core kitEssential

Crack injection kit

$150–$700
Upgrade

Mini excavator for exterior work

$25,000–$90,000
The core kit, bought once $1,530–$6,550

Here's the bar that matters: you spent $1,530–$6,550 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 waterproofing 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 waterproofing 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 waterproofing 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 waterproofing 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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