Tradify vs LiveCosts
Side-by-side comparison
| Aspect | LiveCosts | Tradify |
|---|---|---|
| Best suited to |  |
 Sole traders and smaller trade businesses |
| Primary focus | Project costs, procurement and profitability |
Customer enquiries, scheduling and job administration |
| Typical work | Longer, multi-phase construction projects |
Service, maintenance and smaller trade jobs |
| Project budgeting | Detailed budgets by phase and cost code |
Quotes and estimated costs by job |
| Committed costs | Purchase orders and commitments included in real time |
Purchase orders connected to jobs |
| Supplier RFQs | RFQs and side-by-side quote comparisons |
Not a core workflow |
| Progress claims | Claims, variations and retentions |
Progress invoicing and retentions |
| Implementation | Guided human onboarding |
Self-service setup and free trial |
Trusted by construction companies globally
Why teams pick LiveCosts
Live project profitability
LiveCosts brings budgets, purchase commitments, actual spending and expected remaining costs together, giving contractors an up-to-date view of project margin.
Detailed construction budgets
Create budgets that reflect the original estimate, with costs organised across projects, phases, categories and individual cost codes.
Controlled purchasing
Purchase requests can be checked against the available project budget and routed to the appropriate manager before an order is issued.
Competitive supplier pricing
Send RFQs to multiple suppliers, collect their quotations and compare responses before choosing where to place the order.
AI invoice processing
Extract individual invoice lines automatically and assign costs to the relevant project, phase and cost code.
Claims connected to costs
Compare progress claims, variations and retained amounts against live project expenditure and expected profitability.
LiveCosts and Tradify features compared
Job and project costing
Understand what each job or project is costing and whether it remains profitable.
LiveCosts
LiveCosts tracks materials, labour, plant and subcontractors against detailed project budgets. It includes approved commitments, actual expenditure, cost-to-complete forecasts and expected margin.
This provides commercial teams with a fuller picture of project performance before the final costs are known.
Tradify
Tradify records labour, materials, bills and other costs against individual jobs. Trade businesses can compare those costs with the quoted or invoiced value and review job profitability.
This is well suited to smaller and shorter jobs that do not require a complex project budg
Job scheduling and workforce management
Organise work and record the time employees and subcontractors spend on jobs.
LiveCosts
LiveCosts allows employee, subcontractor and equipment time to be recorded against projects. The purpose is to capture accurate labour and resource costs for project reporting.
Tradify
Tradify provides a more comprehensive scheduling workflow. Businesses can manage calendars, appointments, recurring jobs, staff availability and customer reminders.
Tradify is therefore the stronger option when daily scheduling and dispatch are the main requirements.
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Implementation timelines
| Product | Typical duration | Typical steps |
|---|---|---|
| LiveCosts |
Guided implementation completed within days |
1. Connect the accounting software 2. Import suppliers, customers and active projects 3. Upload project budgets 4. Configure cost codes and approval levels 5. Train office, project and site teams 6. Begin managing costs on the first live project |
| Tradify |
Self-service setup with training available |
1. Begin the free trial 2. Select a subscription plan 3. Enter business and tax information 4. Import customers and price lists 5. Connect the accounting platform 6. Add employees and calendar settings 7. Prepare quote and invoice templates |
Larger ERP projects will naturally require a more extensive implementation because of the additional accounting, commercial and operational processes involved.
Where LiveCosts fits — and common drawbacks
Tradify provides a practical way for smaller trade businesses to organise customer enquiries, prepare quotations, schedule employees, record job information and issue invoices.
It is particularly suitable for electricians, plumbers, HVAC contractors and maintenance businesses completing frequent customer jobs.
LiveCosts serves contractors managing larger or more financially complex projects. It provides greater control over project budgets, purchasing commitments, subcontractors, supplier documents and commercial reporting.
Where LiveCosts fits
- Contractors running multi-phase construction projects.
- Businesses managing several active projects at the same time.
- Teams that need detailed project budgets and cost codes.
- Contractors that want commitments included before invoices arrive.
- Businesses managing several suppliers and subcontract packages.
- Teams that require structured purchase approvals.
- Contractors seeking competitive prices through RFQs.
- Commercial teams managing progress claims, variations and retentions.
- Management teams that require cost-to-complete forecasting.
- Businesses that have outgrown job-level reports and spreadsheets.
Common drawbacks of Tradify
- It is primarily designed for job management rather than detailed construction cost control.
- Project budgets do not offer the same depth of phase and cost-code reporting.
- Committed-cost and cost-to-complete reporting is more limited.
- Supplier RFQs and structured quote comparisons are not central features.
- Purchase orders and AI bill capture require the higher-priced Plus plan.
- Complex purchasing approval processes may need a more specialised platform.
- Progress invoicing is available, but it is not as closely connected with live project costs and forecast margin.
- Per-user pricing becomes more expensive as additional site and office users are added.
- Businesses must check how information synchronises with their specific accounting platform.
Tradify is a strong choice for straightforward trade job management. LiveCosts is better suited to contractors that need deeper project-cost, procurement and profitability controls.
Why Choose LiveCosts
Control the complete project budget
LiveCosts tracks spending across detailed phases and cost codes, providing more financial depth than a single job total.
See costs before they reach accounts
Purchase orders and subcontractor commitments appear immediately, helping teams understand financial exposure before supplier invoices are received.
Bring structure to procurement
Manage internal requests, supplier RFQs, quotation comparisons, approvals, purchase orders and deliveries through one consistent process.
Approve spending with confidence
Managers can review the available project budget and existing commitments before authorising another purchase.
Verify what suppliers charge
Match supplier invoices with purchase orders and delivery records to identify differences in products, quantities and prices.
Reduce invoice administration
AI-powered extraction captures invoice information at line-item level and helps code each charge to the correct part of the project.
Forecast the final result
Combine actual costs, approved commitments and remaining work to calculate the likely final cost and profit.
Manage construction claims properly
Track progress claims, variations and retentions while keeping revenue connected with current project expenditure.
Connect site, office and accounts
Site users can request materials and record deliveries while office teams control budgets, approvals and invoices using the same live information.
Related Comparisons
Frequently asked questions
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