Joinery Core vs QuickBooks — Accounting vs Job-Level Profit
QuickBooks is one of the most widely used accounting packages in the world, and for good reason — it handles your books properly: invoices, VAT, bank reconciliation, payroll, year-end. Every joinery business needs accounting like that. But QuickBooks looks at your business as one set of accounts. It rarely tells you the answer joinery owners actually lose sleep over: did this specific project make money once the real timber, real hours and real overheads were counted? That's the gap Joinery Core fills.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Joinery Core | QuickBooks |
|---|---|---|
| Company accounts / bookkeeping | ✗ Not an accounting package | ✓ Core strength |
| VAT returns & bank reconciliation | ✗ Not included | ✓ Built-in |
| Payroll | ~ Hours & wage calc, not full payroll | ✓ Built-in |
| Per-project profit / P&L | ✓ Real cost vs revenue per job | ~ Needs manual class/job setup |
| Production Gantt & scheduling | ✓ Whole workshop, one screen | ✗ Not included |
| Timber & materials stock | ✓ Live stock, low-stock alerts | ✗ Not for workshop stock |
| Labour cost by project | ✓ From timesheets, auto-allocated | ~ Manual |
| Workshop overheads spread per job | ✓ Built into project costing | ✗ Company-level only |
| Client & project archive | ✓ Full job history | ~ Financial records only |
The Fundamental Difference
QuickBooks answers "how is the business doing overall, and are the books in order for HMRC?" Joinery Core answers "is each job profitable, and where is the money leaking?" An accountant cares about the first. A workshop owner deciding whether to take the next job at that price cares about the second. QuickBooks can be coaxed into job-level reporting with classes and projects, but it's manual and rarely reflects the real workshop — the hours sprayed, the timber pulled, the overheads that quietly eat the margin.
Where QuickBooks Wins
For actual accounting, QuickBooks is the right tool and Joinery Core is not trying to replace it. VAT, statutory accounts, bank feeds, payroll and everything your accountant expects live in QuickBooks. Joinery Core deliberately stays out of that lane. It is not an accounting package — it's a workshop management system that happens to show you real profit per project.
Choose Joinery Core (alongside QuickBooks) if
- Your books are fine, but you don't know which jobs actually make money
- Labour and timber costs aren't tied back to specific projects
- You want profit per project without manual spreadsheets
- You also need production planning, stock and team in one place
- You're tired of finding out a job lost money only at year-end
They Sit Side by Side
This isn't a replacement decision. Keep QuickBooks for the company accounts. Add Joinery Core to run the workshop and see per-job profit as work happens — not months later. The accountant keeps the books; the owner finally sees which jobs are worth taking again.
The Bottom Line
QuickBooks tells you how the company did. Joinery Core tells you how each job did — while you can still do something about it. If you've got accounting covered but project profit is a mystery, Joinery Core fills the gap from £49/month, with production, stock and team included.
Your books are fine. Is each job?
Try Joinery Core free for 14 days. See real profit per project, plus production, stock and team.