Knowify is built around the books.
Forge is built around the work.
Knowify is a strong commercial subcontractor platform — job costing, AIA-style progress billing, change orders, and a deep QuickBooks integration that bookkeepers genuinely like. Forge starts somewhere else: one AI-native chest where estimating, scheduling, payroll, documents, comms, and in-field LiDAR share an architecture instead of syncing to an accounting tool.
Side by side. Honest about both.
Treasury (coming soon) will carry change-orders, certified payroll, and the RMR ledger in the same chest as the estimate. Billing and job-cost detail will be surfaced from that one ledger rather than reconciled across tools.
A core strength. Mature job costing, AIA G702/G703-style progress billing, retainage, and committed-cost tracking that commercial subs rely on.
Forge will run its own Treasury ledger (coming soon) as the system of record rather than syncing to QuickBooks. A one-time CSV onramp, not a nightly accounting sync.
Industry-leading. Deep, two-way QuickBooks Online and Desktop integration is one of the main reasons operators choose Knowify.
Treasury (coming soon) — Davis-Bacon / prevailing wage handled inside payroll, with WH-347 produced as part of the same job record rather than exported to a separate accounting tool.
Supports time tracking and prevailing-wage workflows; certified-payroll filing commonly runs through the connected QuickBooks/accounting and third-party tooling.
Yes. Hyperion — iPad/iPhone LiDAR. Walk the structure, get a line-item estimate. Methodology + sample plan published at /proof/hyperion-accuracy (independent third-party verification pending).
No native equivalent. Takeoff is manual or from a separate measurement tool, then keyed into the estimate.
A field-captured delta generates the change-order and will write its financial impact into Treasury (coming soon), instead of waiting for the office to re-key it.
Solid office-side change-order management tied to contract and billing — strong on paper trail, originated and managed primarily from the office.
Native documents — submittal packages, as-builts, and commissioning records attached to the project record in the same chest.
Project and document management is present; deep submittal/RFI and as-built workflows often lean on a separate construction-docs tool.
Built-in dialer, SMS, call recording, and AI call summaries that write back to the project log, federated with CRM and payroll.
Not in scope. Communication runs on a separate phone system and inbox.
Modules share state because they share one architecture — estimate, schedule, change-order, payroll, documents, and Hyperion are drawers in the same chest, not integrations.
Pre-AI architecture built to integrate cleanly with the accounting system. Best-of-breed by design: Knowify plus QuickBooks plus a docs and a phone tool.
Where Knowify is the right call.
- 01.Commercial subs whose operation already runs on QuickBooks and whose bookkeeper wants a tight, two-way sync rather than a new system of record — Knowify's accounting integration is genuinely best-in-class.
- 02.Operators whose top need is mature job costing and AIA-style progress billing with retainage, today, with a proven track record behind it.
- 03.Teams that prefer a best-of-breed stack — keep QuickBooks, keep your docs tool, keep your phone system — and want a PM layer that slots in cleanly without asking you to move the books.
- 04.Specialty subcontractors who want a stable, office-centric PM + billing platform and don't need in-field LiDAR or embedded comms.
The honest line.
If your operation is anchored to QuickBooks and your priority is a proven PM-plus-accounting workflow with AIA progress billing — and you don't need in-field LiDAR, embedded comms, or one unified system of record — Knowify is the right call, and the QuickBooks integration is a real reason to stay there. Founding Charter is built for the commercial install operator who wants the estimate, the scan, the change-order, the payroll, and the conversation in one chest rather than synced across four tools.
A PM tool synced to your books is one model. One chest the field and the office both work from is another. Pick the one built for the work.