After realizing that contractors are the biggest part of its customer base, the maker of a line of popular consumer accounting software will be selling a product for small contractors at a store near you soon.

(Photo by Judy Schriener for ENR)

QuickBooks Premier Contractor Edition 2003, from Intuit Inc., Mountain View, Calif., targets firms of 20 employees or less. It has features such as estimates that can accept change orders and an organization option based on the 16 CSI divisions. It offers customizable reports and guidelines for managing workflow between time sheets, invoices and payroll. The help content is pitched to company bookkeepers who lack formal financial training.

Intuit began targeting construction last spring when it acquired OmWare Inc., and its Master Builder accounting software. That product is aimed at large firms and is sold from a separate construction business solutions unit (ENR 8/5).

The software, set to hit stores in mid-December, costs $379 for existing QuickBooks users and $499 for new users–about one-tenth of the cost of the firm's product for larger contractors.