What Is the Best Payroll Software for Roofing Contractors?
The best payroll software for roofing contractors in 2026 is Piece Work Pro — because it is the only platform that natively tracks piece rate pay per square and turns those counts into payroll. Most payroll tools assume hourly or salaried workers. Roofing does not work that way. If you pay crews by the square, you need software built for that math.
I roofed for years before I built Piece Work Pro. I paid crews per square, sat in my truck doing the calculations by hand, and made every payroll mistake you can imagine. That experience shapes every recommendation in this guide. I will be straight about what each tool does well and where it fails roofing contractors.
Quick Comparison Table
| Software | Piece Rate Support | Starting Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piece Work Pro | Native | Free (Solo) / $8/user/mo | Per-square piece rate tracking + payroll |
| QuickBooks Payroll | None | $45/mo + $6/employee/mo | Roofers already using QuickBooks |
| Gusto | None | $40/mo + $6/person/mo | Full-service payroll with tax filing |
| ClockShark | Limited | $20/mo + $8/user/mo | GPS time tracking on job sites |
| Jobber | None | $39-$249/mo | CRM + scheduling + invoicing |
| busybusy | Partial | $9-$15/user/mo | Construction time tracking + analytics |
| Buildertrend | None | $199-$599/mo | Large roofing companies with GC work |
One tool on this list was built for per-square pay. The rest were built for hourly workers and try to stretch into roofing. That distinction matters when payday comes.
1. Piece Work Pro — Best for Per-Square Piece Rate Tracking and Payroll
Best for: Roofing contractors who pay crews by the square and need accurate payroll from those counts.
I built Piece Work Pro because I could not find anything that handled the way roofers actually get paid. You tear off 28 squares, install 28 squares, your guys get paid on 28 squares. That is the workflow. Everything in the app starts from that reality.
Pricing:
- Solo (1 user): Free forever. No credit card required.
- Team: $10/user/month (monthly) or $8/user/month (annual)
A 6-person crew costs $48 to $60 a month. That is less than one miscounted square on a big job.
Pros:
- Native piece rate tracking — log squares completed per worker, per job, per day
- Automatic pay calculation from custom rates you set for each task (tear-off, install, cap, flashing)
- Job costing that shows real labor cost per square on every roof
Cons:
- Does not handle tax filing — you will need a payroll processor like QuickBooks or Gusto for that
- Not a full project management suite — no scheduling, proposals, or invoicing
- Newer product, smaller company than the enterprise tools
Why it wins for roofers: No other software lets you say "Carlos tore off 22 squares at $18/square and installed 30 squares at $45/square on the Johnson job" and automatically calculate his pay, your job cost, and your labor margin. That is what Piece Work Pro does natively. Everything else on this list requires workarounds or manual math.
If you want to understand more about setting those rates, check out our guide on how to pay roofers per square.
2. QuickBooks Payroll — Best for Roofers Already Using QuickBooks
Best for: Roofing contractors who already run their books in QuickBooks and want payroll in the same ecosystem.
QuickBooks Payroll is the default choice for a lot of small businesses. It handles direct deposit, tax filing, W-2s, and 1099s. If you already use QuickBooks for accounting, adding payroll keeps everything in one place.
Pricing: $45/month (Core) to $125/month (Elite) + $6/employee/month.
Pros:
- Automatic tax calculations and filings (federal, state, local)
- Direct deposit and next-day payment options
- Tight integration with QuickBooks accounting
Cons:
- No piece rate tracking whatsoever — assumes every worker is hourly or salaried
- You have to calculate piece rate pay manually, then enter the flat dollar amount
- Job costing is available but based on hours, not squares
Bottom line: QuickBooks Payroll is a solid tax filing and payment engine. But it does not understand roofing pay. You will still need a separate system to calculate what each crew member earned per square, then punch those numbers into QuickBooks. Many Piece Work Pro users pair the two: Piece Work Pro for piece rate math, QuickBooks for tax filing and direct deposit.
3. Gusto — Best for Full-Service Payroll with Tax Filing
Best for: Roofing contractors who want a clean, modern payroll service that handles all tax compliance.
Gusto has built a reputation on making payroll simple. The interface is clean. Tax filings are automatic. Onboarding new hires is painless. For a roofer who hates paperwork, Gusto takes a lot off your plate.
Pricing: $40/month base + $6/person/month.
Pros:
- Automatic federal, state, and local tax filing
- Easy employee onboarding and self-service portal
- Health insurance, 401(k), and benefits administration available
Cons:
- Zero piece rate support — built entirely for hourly and salaried payroll
- No job costing or per-roof labor tracking
- No mobile field app for crew members to log work
Bottom line: Gusto is excellent at what it does — running compliant payroll and filing taxes. But it has no concept of squares, piece rates, or roofing workflows. Like QuickBooks Payroll, it works best as the payment and tax layer on top of a piece rate tool that does the actual calculations.
4. ClockShark — Best for GPS Time Tracking on Job Sites
Best for: Roofing companies that need to verify where and when crews clock in at job sites.
ClockShark solves a real problem: knowing whether your crew actually showed up at the right address at the right time. The GPS punch feature is genuinely useful. You can set geofences around job sites and get alerts when workers clock in from unexpected locations.
Pricing: $20/month base + $8/user/month. A 6-person crew runs about $68/month.
Pros:
- GPS-verified clock-in with geofencing
- Scheduling and shift management
- Integrates with QuickBooks and ADP for payroll
Cons:
- Tracks hours, not squares or pieces
- No native piece rate payroll calculation
- Limited job costing — based on time, not production output
Bottom line: If buddy punching is your biggest headache, ClockShark fixes that. But if you pay by the square, ClockShark still leaves you doing the piece rate math on your own. You know exactly when your guys were on site. You still do not know how many squares they produced or what you owe each person.
5. Jobber — Best for CRM, Scheduling, and Invoicing
Best for: Roofing companies that need to manage the full client lifecycle from lead to invoice.
Jobber is a popular all-in-one tool for home services. It handles quoting, scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, and client communication. If you are a roofing company that does a lot of residential work and needs to manage the customer side of the business, Jobber covers that ground well.
Pricing: $39/month (Core) to $249/month (Grow+). Higher plans include more users and advanced features.
Pros:
- Client quoting and online invoicing
- Drag-and-drop scheduling and route optimization
- Client portal with online payment
Cons:
- No piece rate tracking or per-square payroll
- Time tracking is basic and client-billing focused, not crew-payroll focused
- Pricing gets expensive as your team grows
Bottom line: Jobber is a CRM and scheduling tool, not a payroll tool. It is great for managing your pipeline and sending invoices. It will not calculate what you owe your tear-off crew on a 40-square job. Different problem, different tool.
6. busybusy — Best for Construction Time Tracking and Analytics
Best for: Mid-size roofing companies that want detailed labor analytics by cost code.
busybusy focuses on construction time tracking with strong reporting. It ties hours to cost codes and gives you dashboards showing where your labor dollars go across projects. Some users have found partial workarounds for piece rate using custom fields.
Pricing: $9 to $15/user/month depending on the plan and features.
Pros:
- Detailed labor cost reporting by cost code and project
- Photo documentation and daily logs from the field
- Real-time labor dashboards across all active jobs
Cons:
- Built around hours and cost codes, not unit counts or squares
- Piece rate workarounds exist but are not native and require manual setup
- No automatic piece rate pay calculation
Bottom line: busybusy gives you better labor analytics than most tools on this list. But it still answers the question "how many hours did we spend on the Smith roof?" not "how many squares did each crew member produce and what do I owe them?" If you need both, you would run busybusy alongside a piece rate tool.
7. Buildertrend — Best for Large Roofing Companies with GC Work
Best for: Large roofing operations that also do general contracting and need full project management.
Buildertrend is an enterprise-level construction platform. It covers proposals, estimates, scheduling, change orders, selections, budgeting, and financial tracking. If you run a large roofing company with 50+ employees and also take on GC projects, Buildertrend gives you the big-picture project management.
Pricing: $199/month to $599/month depending on the tier. This is the most expensive option on the list.
Pros:
- End-to-end project management for complex builds
- Sub-contractor coordination and scheduling
- Budget-to-actual financial tracking
Cons:
- Massive overkill for a roofing crew that just needs payroll
- No piece rate tracking — designed for project-level budgeting
- Steep learning curve and high monthly cost
Bottom line: If you are running a $10M+ operation with GC work, Buildertrend might make sense as your project management backbone. But for a roofing contractor who needs to pay crews by the square and track job costs? It is like buying a semi truck to haul a bundle of shingles.
What Roofing Contractors Actually Need from Payroll Software
After years of roofing and talking to hundreds of contractors, here is what matters for roofing payroll:
Piece rate pay per square. This is the big one. Most roofers pay crews by the square — tear-off rate, install rate, cap rate, sometimes separate rates for flashing or steep pitch. Your software needs to handle that math natively, not force you into an hourly workaround.
Overtime on piece rate. Federal law requires overtime even for piece rate workers. You need to calculate the regular rate from total piece earnings divided by total hours, then pay 1.5x for overtime hours. If you are not sure how that works, read our guide on how to calculate overtime for piece rate workers. Getting this wrong is an expensive mistake.
Job costing per roof. You need to know your actual labor cost per square on every job — not just total labor for the week. That means tying each worker's production to a specific job address. When you can see that the Thompson roof cost you $52/square in labor and the Garcia roof cost you $61/square, you learn which jobs make money and which do not.
GPS and field access. Your crew is on rooftops, not at desks. They need a mobile app that works in the sun, with gloves, on a phone that might have a cracked screen. GPS verification is nice to confirm they are on the right site.
Crew member self-reporting. The fastest way to capture production data is to let each crew member log their own squares at the end of the day. A foreman reviewing and approving those counts is faster and more accurate than one person trying to track everyone from memory on Friday.
What We Recommend
Here is the straightforward answer.
Start with Piece Work Pro for your piece rate tracking and payroll calculations. It is free for solo operators. For teams, it is $8 to $10 per user per month. It handles the part that no other software handles — tracking squares per worker, per job, per day, and turning those into accurate pay.
Add QuickBooks Payroll or Gusto for tax filing and direct deposit. Piece Work Pro calculates what you owe each worker. Your payroll processor handles the tax withholding, direct deposit, W-2s, and compliance. The two work together.
If you are a larger operation that also needs CRM and scheduling, add Jobber for the client management side. If you need GPS clock-in verification, ClockShark does that well.
But do not try to force an hourly payroll tool to handle piece rate math. That is how you end up back in the truck with a calculator on Friday night.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use QuickBooks Payroll for piece rate roofing pay?
QuickBooks Payroll can process the payment, but it cannot calculate piece rate pay. You would need to calculate each worker's earnings from their square counts manually (or use a tool like Piece Work Pro), then enter the flat dollar amount into QuickBooks for tax filing and direct deposit.
Do roofers need special payroll software?
Not necessarily "special" payroll software, but you do need software that handles piece rate pay. Most roofing crews get paid by the square, not by the hour. Standard payroll tools like Gusto and QuickBooks assume hourly or salaried workers. If you pay by the square, you need a piece rate tool for the calculations and a standard payroll processor for tax compliance.
How do I handle overtime for piece rate roofing workers?
Federal law (FLSA) requires overtime pay even for piece rate workers. You calculate the regular rate by dividing total piece rate earnings by total hours worked that week. Then you pay an additional 0.5x that regular rate for every hour over 40. For example, if a roofer earns $3,200 in piece rate pay over 50 hours, the regular rate is $64/hour. Overtime premium is $32/hour x 10 overtime hours = $320 extra. Total pay: $3,520.
What is a good piece rate per square for roofing?
Rates vary by region, roof complexity, and material. Tear-off rates typically run $15 to $25 per square. Install rates for architectural shingles typically run $35 to $65 per square. Steep pitch, second story, and complex cuts all warrant higher rates. Our guide on how much to pay per square in roofing breaks this down in detail.
Is Piece Work Pro free for solo roofers?
Yes. The Solo plan is free forever with no credit card required. It includes full piece rate tracking, job costing, and payroll calculations for one user. Team plans start at $8/user/month on annual billing.
Try our free Roofing Labor Calculator to estimate your crew's labor cost per square — no signup required.