- What is Forge ERP?
- The ERP for project-based businesses, built first for construction finance teams: projects, purchasing, AP, billing and AR, job cost and WIP, reports and close, with an AI assistant that works inside your approval controls. Cloud, browser-based, in beta. What an AI-native construction ERP means at Forge
- Is it an ERP or an accounting system?
- Both, scoped to project-based businesses. It is the accounting system of record (governed ledger, AP, AR, close) and it carries the operational modules a contractor’s finance team touches: purchasing, subcontracts, work orders, inventory, time. It does not try to be a general ERP with CRM or manufacturing.
- Does Forge ERP do payroll?
- No. Payroll runs in your payroll provider. Forge imports job-costed labor with burden so job cost and WIP are complete. Certified payroll reports come from the provider.
- Does Forge ERP integrate with Procore?
- Not yet. A Procore connector is planned: projects and cost codes aligned, commitments and change orders flowing in as committed cost, subcontractor invoices routed into Forge approvals, and posted job cost returned to Procore. Timing is set with the first construction customers that run Procore.
- Can I move from QuickBooks?
- Yes. Setup imports customers, vendors and employees from QuickBooks exports with duplicate matching that rates each probable match low, medium or high, and an import can be reverted completely. Open items and job balances are entered as an opening-balance batch by job and tied out before posting. Historical transactions stay in QuickBooks for reference.
- Can I move from Sage, Foundation or another construction system?
- Yes, the same way: export master records and opening balances by job and cost code, import them in Forge’s setup. There is no direct connector to those systems.
- Does it handle AIA progress billing and retainage?
- Yes. Schedule of values from the awarded estimate, cumulative applications in the AIA G702/G703 style, retainage tracked separately on work and stored materials, approved change orders carried into the contract sum and the billing lines. Subcontractor pay applications are handled on the payable side with retainage withheld.
- Does it produce a WIP schedule?
- Yes, from posted job cost, contract value and approved change orders, with cost-to-complete forecasts captured and approved in Forge and the over/under billing entry prepared for review.
- Can it run more than one entity?
- Yes. Multi-entity is part of the design rather than separate company files.
- How do approvals work?
- Preparing, approving and posting are separate steps with an audit trail. Accounting users can prepare and submit; a controller or admin approves. Approval routing is configured per company, because a self-run shop and a compliance-minded company need different rules.
- What does the AI assistant actually do?
- It reads your data and prepares reviewable drafts: a journal entry from lines you reviewed, a schedule of values or job budget from an awarded estimate, a list of pay applications blocked from payment and why. It works inside your permissions. It does not approve or post; people do.
- Is my data safe?
- Tenant and object-level authorization, MFA with step-up for protected actions, audited platform-role changes, governed integrations and egress, retention and legal holds, recovery evidence. The security program is described at theerpforge.com/security and current service status at theerpforge.com/status.
- How long does implementation take?
- Forge is set up for a direct cutover measured in weeks: clean master data, import with duplicate matching, opening balances by job and cost code, a parallel month, then the first close from Forge. There is no partner implementation project.
- What does it cost?
- Tiered subscription plans; module availability varies by plan; custom plans by contacting sales. Current plans and the 14-day free trial are on the homepage.
- What does beta mean here?
- The product is usable and the accounting foundation is permanent, but features are still maturing and there are no published customer results. Keep your own backups and reconciliation controls, and expect to talk directly with the people building it.
- Who builds Forge ERP?
- Forge Software, at theerpforge.com. The product name is Forge ERP; it is unrelated to Autodesk Forge, Laravel Forge or other products called Forge.
- Which industries besides construction?
- Professional and technical services, field services and trades, software and SaaS, nonprofits and real estate services each have workflow pages on the site. Construction is first and deepest.
- How does it handle subcontractor pay applications and lien waivers?
- A subcontract is a governed commitment with a schedule of values and compliance terms. Pay applications are entered against it, certified by someone other than the preparer, and converted to a vendor invoice that splits accounts payable from retainage payable. Certification checks the period’s compliance: a verified W-9, active insurance assigned to the project, and a verified lien waiver of the required type; payment eligibility re-checks it and names anything missing.
- Does it do cost-to-complete forecasting?
- Yes. Estimated cost to complete is entered by cost code in the project ledger’s Control workspace, cannot be set below open binding commitments, and goes through draft, submit and approve with a revision hash. Only the approved forecast drives job cost, estimate at completion and the WIP schedule, and historical reports use the forecast that was approved as of the report date.
- How does it track committed cost?
- In stages: approved requisitions post as pre-encumbrances, approved purchase orders and subcontracts as binding encumbrances, and invoices and pay applications as actual cost, each visible as of a date. Only actual cost reaches the financial statements. A project cannot be closed while binding commitments or approved requisitions remain open.
- Can it bill stored materials?
- Yes. Each schedule-of-values line carries materials presently stored with retainage on stored materials at its own rate. A new application seeds prior work in place into the previous-application column and the prior stored balance into the stored column, so material cannot be billed twice when it is installed.
- How do opening balances come over at cutover?
- Trial balances, vendors, customers and employees import from QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage Intacct and NetSuite exports, or any CSV through column mapping, with duplicate matching and a full revert. Open AR and AP items, retainage and WIP balances are entered as an opening-balance batch by job and tied out to the old system before posting. The construction cutover plan lists the reconciliations to sign off.
- Does it fit specialty trades, heavy civil or homebuilders?
- Construction setup offers Commercial GC, Specialty Trades, Heavy Civil & Infrastructure, Residential / Homebuilder and Industrial specializations. Each lays a trade-specific chart of accounts over the base (truck stock and service contract revenue for trades; equipment and unit-price revenue for heavy civil; lot inventory, deposits and warranty reserves for builders), sets the dimensions, and enables the matching modules. The guides on this site walk through the accounting for each.
- How are cost codes set up?
- Cost codes are shared across modules and support a parent hierarchy, so a MasterFormat-style list can be loaded; Forge does not ship the CSI list itself. Setup can create cost codes in bulk from a reviewed list, budgets are created from the awarded estimate by cost code, and every purchase order, bill, pay application and time entry carries job, cost code and cost type at entry.
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FAQ
Forge ERP: frequently asked questions
Short, direct answers. Where a question deserves more, the guides and comparisons on this site cover it. Everything here reflects the product as it ships today, in beta.
Updated October 2026
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