23May 2013 by Nancy Smyth
I-9 Form Updated – Make Sure You’re Prepared

I-9 Form Updated – Make Sure You’re Prepared

IRS Information, Payroll Tips
An updated Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification form was released by the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on May 8, 2013. As an employer you are required to complete a Form I-9 whenever you hire a new employee, so make sure that it is part of your New Hire Packet.  The employee must complete Section 1 of the I-9 on the day that you hire him and you must review the employee’s supporting documentation and complete Section 2 of Form I-9 within 3 business days of the hire date.  You can photocopy the documents that the employee provides you and you can keep them with the completed I-9 or store them with the employee’s records. Important Note:  If you hire a person for less than 3 (three) business days,…
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16May 2013 by Nancy Smyth
Is Someone at Work Wearing Too Much Perfume or Aftershave?

Is Someone at Work Wearing Too Much Perfume or Aftershave?

"Stuff" that drives me insane
Do you have a hard time with people who wear too much perfume or aftershave?  You know, the people who you swear just opened the bottle and poured it over their head, rather than having taken a shower in the morning - the ones that walk by you and leave a trail of overwhelming SMELL behind them?  Whether this happens in  your work environment or when you are in the grocery store or out having dinner at your favorite restaurant - this can certainly be annoying.    While I love perfume, perfume oils, fresh flowers, etc.  I also am VERY sensitive to those same smells - and I'll be the first to tell you that having a fragrance sensitivity can be downright painful!  For me it starts with a burning…
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02May 2013 by Nancy Smyth
Understanding & Implementing Prevailing Wage Decisions

Understanding & Implementing Prevailing Wage Decisions

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage
Prevailing Wage Decisions can sometimes be very difficult to understand and implement, however, it's very important that you learn to read and apply what is found in them. The Wage Decision for a Public Works or Government Construction project provides you with the prevailing wage requirements, including Work Classifications, hourly rates of pay and hourly fringe benefit amounts for every trade classification that could possibly be involved on a project.  Prevailing Wage requirements are found in the Labor Standard Clause of the Contract Provisions section of the bid package and become the backbone of payroll processing requirements for that specific project. One would think that if a project had prevailing wage requirements that the Wage Decision would contain an easy to understand breakdown of the fringe benefit portion of the…
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24Apr 2013 by Nancy Smyth
You Get What You Pay For – Do Cheap Bookkeepers Save Money?

You Get What You Pay For – Do Cheap Bookkeepers Save Money?

"Stuff" that drives me insane, Be A Better Bookkeeper
As a business owner it’s important to watch how much money you spend.  When it comes to bookkeeping though you tend to get what you pay for.  When you hire a cheap bookkeeper, ten-to-one it’s what they don’t know that is going to cost you big time! As a contractor would you go to the dollar store to buy hammers? Probably not – you’d want your employees to have the best possible tools to perform their job.  Hiring a bookkeeper and paying them minimum wage is no different than getting those dollar store hammers! If your bookkeeper (or potential bookkeeper) say they know QuickBooks because: they’ve taken a one-day seminar, watched some videos on YouTube, spent a tax season working in an accounting firm, or worst of all is “self-taught”…
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18Apr 2013 by Nancy Smyth
Entering Historical Paychecks – Payroll Taxes and the Accounts They Post To

Entering Historical Paychecks – Payroll Taxes and the Accounts They Post To

Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
Setting up QuickBooks payroll and entering historical information can be quite confusing.  Thankfully there is a Payroll Setup wizard that will help you through most of the really rough parts. I am entering historical payroll from 2012.  Our fiscal year began 10/1/12. It is now 4/12/13.  How is best way to enter this payroll and balance month by month until I get to the current info.  Also, I am confused on what accounts the payroll taxes post to. I'm not sure I have them set up at this point. Especially on the exact accounts I need for payroll taxes and are they debits or credits. and how do I link them to my chart of accounts. Any help would be appreciated.  Debbie Hi Debbie If you are entering historical payroll…
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13Apr 2013 by Nancy Smyth
InformedContractors.com – A New Resource for Contractors

InformedContractors.com – A New Resource for Contractors

From Our Guest Bloggers, News You Can Use
Diane Dennis of Monk and DBug, LLC,  known as "Diane at TheContractorsGroup.com" since 1999, is launching a new website and newsletter focused on making life easier for contractors - InformedContractors.com. This is Diane's 4th in a series of construction-related websites, all of which focus on providing information that her readers specifically have requested. Each newsletter from InformedContractors.com is made to keep up with the busy contractor rather than slow him down, because it: is designed to be read in 5-10 minutes has one article (written by an industry expert) answering reader's questions provides practical solutions for contractors to increase their income (and efficiency) while decreasing their hassles Early on in Diane's contracting career, she learned that there was painfully little information available for contractors.  Now she feels the exact opposite…
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21Mar 2013 by Nancy Smyth
Retainage Payable and Receivable – What’s the Difference?

Retainage Payable and Receivable – What’s the Difference?

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup, Vendors & Accounts Payable
Retainage or retention, in the construction industry, is an agreed upon portion of the contract price that is deliberately withheld until the work is substantially complete to assure that the contractor or subcontractor will satisfy its obligations and complete a construction project.  Retainage is often confusing all by itself, and then there is also a lot of very confusing terminology as well.  But there is a difference between Retainage Receivable and Retainage Payable. To put it as simply as possible: Retainage Receivable is money that is owed to you, while Retainage Payable is money that you owe to someone else Usually, if you are a General Contractor you will need to track both Retainage Receivable (for money due to your company) and Retainage Payable (money you owe to your Subcontractors).…
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18Mar 2013 by Nancy Smyth
How-to Customize a Report – One Employee for All Jobs Worked

How-to Customize a Report – One Employee for All Jobs Worked

Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Corner
Customizing reports in QuickBooks is often a huge source of frustration for users.  Here's a great example of just how frustrating it can be.  This question was submitted by a reader of our blog. I am going insane with the lack of source name available for filter.  I want to specifically target ONE employee for ALL jobs worked in a particular time period. H-E-L-P For the life of me I cannot understand why source name is a foundation for reports yet not available as a selected filter.  Thank you - Sam Hi Sam Source Name is only available in certain QuickBooks Reports - which I agree can be quite frustrating, to say the least. I think that I would approach creating the report that you need, that targets one specific…
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13Mar 2013 by Nancy Smyth
Quick is a fantasy!

Quick is a fantasy!

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff
Quick is a fantasy!  When was the last time that you stopped for a quick cup of coffee, took the dog for a quick walk, or ran a quick errand? The definition of "quick" is occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly - Wiktionary. But seriously, when was the last time that you did something that was "quick"?  I mean really done something that only took you a short amount of time to accomplish? Personally, I think "quick" is a fantasy that we all live in or believe in.  Is it because we have lost our concept of time?  Or is it because that we live in such a fast paced world and have so much on our plates that we feel we should be able to complete…
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12Feb 2013 by Nancy Smyth
Pardon the mess on the QuickBooks for Contractors blog

Pardon the mess on the QuickBooks for Contractors blog

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff
If you are arriving here between February 12 and quite possibly right up until the 18th - I apologize for the disarray.  I'm working on rebranding and revamping our blog and it's just gotten to the point that I need to work on the "real thing" and not locally on my computer in a test environment. I have to admit, it's quite a challenge to optimize your website for mobile devices --- when you don't own one!  Where we live we have no cell phone coverage.....that's right I said NO cell phone coverage --just repeating this in case you think it could be a typo :-) so I don't have a smart phone.  Thankfully, I've had the help of a couple of really wonderful folks who will pull up the…
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01Jan 2013 by Nancy Smyth
Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff
We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day. - Edith Lovejoy Pierce Welcome to 2013! Many people make New Year's resolutions, goals or plans to change things in or about their personal lives that they don't like or just feel aren't working.    We all need to stop and make this sort of assessment. One area that we often forget about in this assessment is our professional lives - and really we shouldn't, as our professional life does take up a great deal of our time. As a business owner or an employee about to embark upon a New Year, now is a good time to pause…
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07Nov 2012 by Nancy Smyth
Job Costing Payroll When Using a Payroll Service

Job Costing Payroll When Using a Payroll Service

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
Using an outside payroll service, such as Paychecx or ADP, is a popular option for many business owners.  While using a payroll service often provides many benefits one of the biggest challenges or drawbacks is for the company that needs job costing.  See this question submitted by a reader. My company uses a 3rd party to do all of our payroll.  We receive an itemized report back showing what we spent for the week.  I am having trouble trying to get this information charged out to individual jobs.  I track all of the hours separately in Excel, with estimated costs.  How can I job cost this information?  Thank you – Michelle Hi Michelle I bet you are having trouble getting payroll information charged to individual jobs, that’s one of the…
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09Oct 2012 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2013 – Group Item Limit Increase

QuickBooks 2013 – Group Item Limit Increase

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?
In QuickBooks 2013, the Group Item limit has been increased to 50 in Pro and Premier – this means that a single QuickBooks Group Item can hold up to a total of 50 individual items! I’m a big fan of QuickBooks Group Items, I think that they are a HUGE productivity booster – but I’ve always had one gripe – they could only hold 20 items in previous versions of QuickBooks – which meant that you had to create more group items in order to accomplish what you set out to do.  This has changed with the release of QuickBooks 2013.  With the increased number of items that a group can hold, these item types will be even more powerful. While some of you may know, I’m not a fan…
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02Oct 2012 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2013 Revamped Employee Record

QuickBooks 2013 Revamped Employee Record

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?
The Employee Record has been revamped in QuickBooks 2013 and that is one of the new changes in design that I really like!  For years we've had to navigate through the employee record through both tabs and drop down menus and in my opinion the overhaul was long overdue! For years the typical instructions for navigating through an employee record in order to change a rate of pay went something like this: Go to the Employee Center, in the employee list find this employee, double-click or click the Edit Employee button, now grab that drop down menu and choose Payroll and Compensation Info - no, no, no there is a drop down menu just above the tabs that say Personal, Address and Contact, and Additional Info.  It was quite a…
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