When you need accounting that lives where the field does, not behind the accounting that stayed on the desktop.
Sage 100 Contractor and Sage 300 CRE are mature construction accounting systems with strong AP, GL, and job-cost depth. They're also installed software with desktop-era workflows, third-party portal add-ons, and a footprint that grew before the field went mobile. Here's how AOS overlaps and where the two differ.
Sage products dominate mid-market contractor accounting in the U.S. Sage 100 Contractor targets smaller GCs and subs; Sage 300 CRE (formerly Timberline) covers larger commercial GCs. Both are mature, audit-ready, and well understood by construction CPAs.
What Sage does well.
- Multi-entity GL depth and burden-cost allocation routines refined over 30+ years.
- CPA familiarity — many construction-focused accounting firms train on Sage.
- Certified payroll, AIA pay apps, and union reporting that survive audit.
What AOS does that Sage doesn't.
- Cloud-native on day one — no on-prem install, no client-server VPN, no separate Sage Service Operations server.
- PM, estimating, field operations, owner portals, compliance, and back-office in one record. Sage requires third-party Procore (or similar) plus a dozen point solutions to match.
- Sub-side AR with cross-tenant outbox (one record, every GC). Sage forces subs to retype.
- Flat pricing — not per-user, per-EIN, per-module. A 50-person GC pays ~$24k / yr on AOS vs. an order of magnitude more once you stack Sage modules, Procore, and the integration broker.
Honest call.
Stay on Sage if…
- …you already employ a Sage-trained controller and don't want to relearn the accounting workflow.
- …your auditor expects Sage and won't accept anything else.
- …you don't need field, portals, or compliance and can live with an accounting-only system.
Switch to AOS if…
- …you want PM, accounting, field, portals, and compliance on one platform with one bill.
- …you're tired of paying Sage AND Procore AND a compliance vendor AND a portal vendor and stitching them together.
- …you want cloud-native access without a Citrix or RDP layer in front of your accounting.
See AOS next to your Sage invoice.
Bring your last 12 months of Sage bills (plus any portal, compliance, or PM add-ons) and we'll walk through what AOS would replace and what it would leave alone.
Comparisons on this page reflect publicly available information and AOS's own understanding of each product; features and pricing change, so verify current details with each vendor. All product names, logos, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification and comparison purposes only — their use does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by AOS.