What a construction ERP costs: four line items
- Subscription. Per site per month, or per user per month. Ask what a user is: site engineers, store keepers and accountants all need logins.
- Implementation and data import. Setting up cost codes and approval roles, importing open projects with their BOQs, and carrying over party ledgers and opening balances from Tally or Excel.
- Training. Separate sessions for the billing engineer, site store keeper and accounts team. This is the line most often under-budgeted.
- Extras. Custom reports, integrations and any add-ons such as AI agents.
For reference, WebSoftOS plans are ₹999 per month (2 users), ₹1,999 (5 users) and ₹2,500 (10 users, 2 companies), per site and excluding GST, with a free trial and Hermes AI agents as an add-on. A single-company construction rollout typically takes 2–4 weeks. See the current pricing.
Four ways contractors run today
| Option | Fits when | Breaks when |
|---|---|---|
| Tally + Excel | One or two projects; accounts and GST are the main job | BOQ revisions, RA bills, subcontractor retention and site material sit in separate files and nobody can state the current contract value or project margin |
| Construction-specific desktop software | Site billing and measurement are the main job | Accounts, GST and payroll are separate, access is limited to one office, and pricing is per user |
| Generic ERP you host yourself | You have an IT team and want full control | BOQ, RA bill and retention need custom work, and hosting, backups and upgrades fall on you |
| Integrated cloud construction ERP | You want BOQ, RA bills, subcontractors, site material, accounts, GST and payroll in one system | Your main need is detailed critical-path scheduling, which is better done in a dedicated scheduling tool alongside |
More detail in the Tally alternative and Excel alternative comparisons, and the buyer guide to construction ERP in India.
Eight signs it is time to switch
- The BOQ lives in several Excel copies and nobody can say the current contract value after variation orders.
- RA bills are typed from measurement sheets, and previous-bill quantities are checked by eye.
- Retention is noted in a register, and releases are missed.
- Subcontractor payments are not tied to certified RA bills, so back-charges and advances are argued about later.
- Project profit is known only after the project closes.
- Material is issued to site but nobody can say how much was wasted against planned consumption.
- You run three or more live projects with separate site teams.
- A client, bank or auditor asks for project-wise reports and producing them takes days.
When staying on Tally and Excel is fine
One small project, no subcontractors, simple fixed-price work and a single person who knows the numbers: Tally plus a disciplined Excel sheet is enough. Move when the number of projects, sites or people involved makes the files impossible to keep in step, not before.
A simple payback test
Add two figures from your own business. First, the staff time lost each month to preparing and reconciling bills. Second, the money lost to rework and wastage. Then compare the total with the subscription.
Illustration with assumed numbers, to be replaced with yours: if a billing engineer and an accountant together lose 6 days a month to bill preparation and reconciliation at ₹2,000 a day, that is ₹12,000 a month. Separately, every 1% of a ₹40 lakh monthly material spend is ₹40,000. Compare that with a subscription of ₹1,999 to ₹2,500. The savings only appear if people actually use the system, so budget for training.
Try the construction profit calculator with your own project figures, and read how contractors track project profit.
Questions to ask in every demo
- Show me the current contract value after a variation order.
- Raise an RA bill from BOQ items, including previous quantities and retention.
- Show a subcontractor RA bill with an advance and a back-charge recovered.
- Reconcile material issued to site against planned consumption.
- Import my Tally ledgers and opening balances, and show me the trial balance matches.
- How do I export all my data if I leave, and who owns the backups?
Frequently asked questions
How much does construction ERP software cost in India?
It ranges widely. Budget for the subscription plus implementation and training. WebSoftOS construction ERP runs on plans of ₹999, ₹1,999 and ₹2,500 per site per month excluding GST, depending on the number of users and companies.
Can I keep using Tally alongside the ERP?
You can during a parallel run, but the aim is one system for accounts and operations so nothing is typed twice. Ledgers, items and opening balances are imported from Tally during onboarding.
How long does a construction ERP rollout take?
A single-company rollout typically takes 2–4 weeks, including BOQ import and a pilot on one project before the rest go live.
Practical, India-specific guides from the team behind WebSoftOS cloud ERP, by Ridhi Technologies, Zirakpur, Punjab.