accountancy | QuickBooks for Contractors blog

23May 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Creating a More Meaningful Payroll Expenses Section

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

QuickBooks, by default, offers a single account called Payroll Expenses in your Chart of Accounts and all of the pre-programmed Payroll Items for wages and taxes are assigned to that one single account. When a business owner runs a Profit & Loss Report, when QuickBooks is set up in this manner, the report doesn't really provide him with any real idea of how much he paid in wages vs. taxes because it’s all just lumped together in a single amount. [caption id="attachment_2183" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Right click on the image to enlarge it"][/caption] I find this to be very frustrating because it means that you have to run additional reports and perform additional calculations in order to determine very basic information. Previously, we covered creating a more functional Payroll Liabilities section…

16May 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip-Creating a Functional Payroll Liabilities Section

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

A QuickBooks Payroll Tip for creating a more functional Payroll Liabilities section on your Chart of Accounts. QuickBooks, by default, provides a limited Payroll Chart of Accounts containing only two accounts - Payroll Liabilities and Payroll Expenses. When you run a Balance Sheet or a Profit & Loss Report (or look at your Chart of Accounts listing) you only see the totals with no details and have to run further reports to find the individual amounts that make up the totals. I find this to be problematic. This article will show you how to add sub-accounts to the standard Payroll Liabilities account so that you can quickly and easily "see" the individual amounts for each payroll liability and how to edit your existing payroll items to accurately point to these…

09May 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Payroll Tip – Tracking Employee Advances or Loans

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Corner, QuickBooks Tips & Tricks

Tracking employee advances or loans in QuickBooks on future paychecks is a must for those companies that has a policy that allows giving employees advances/loans for personal reasons. There are three ways in which to record an employee advance or loan: Including it with the employees regular paycheck Writing a regular check Giving the employee cash from the company Petty Cash account Step 1 - Create an Other Current Asset Account to track employee advances/loans The first thing that you need to do - or have in place - is an Other Current Asset type account in your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts to track the money that is given to the employee. If you need to create the account: From the Lists menu -> choose Chart of Accounts Click the…

18Apr 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Prevailing Wage Fringes-Taking Credit for Company 401k Contributions

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Payroll Tips

Taking a credit against the full prevailing wage fringe benefit for company paid 401k contributions and reporting it correctly on the Federal WH-347 Certified Payroll Report can be very confusing. This question was asked by a reader who recently requested our 4 Ways Contractors Pay Prevailing Wage Fringe Benefits eBook. We are a non-union shop working on prevailing wage jobs; our Company offers a 401k plan and the company contributes 4% of our employee's gross wages to the 401k. We understand that the 401k plan is considered a bona-fide plan, but how do we take an hourly credit when our contributions are based on a percentage of gross? Currently we just look at an employee's gross wages for the month and make the calculations and contributions. ------------------------------------------------ Taking a credit…

13Apr 2011 by Nancy Smyth

New Certified Payroll Solution Support Article

The "Sunburst" Website

A new Certified Payroll Solution support article has been added to our main website - Matching Your QuickBooks Paycheck Totals With Your Certified Payroll Report Totals A guide for verifying and troubleshooting the accuracy of your final certified payroll reports before you submit them is an important step in your overall success in using Certified Payroll Solution and getting paid on time. This mini-manual focuses on the Federal WH-347 form - which everyone has access to, 99% of the time, if the WH-347 form is accurate, any other state specific form that you are required to complete will be also. It will teach you how to: Match your QuickBooks paycheck totals with your Certified Payroll Report totals Correct the 6 most common problems, based on over 10 years worth of…

11Apr 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Payroll Tip-Setting Up General Liability Insurance Tracking

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

QuickBooks Payroll, when properly set up, is capable of tracking and including the cost of your General Liability Insurance; as well as many of the other things that costly construction software does automatically - with a little more effort on your part and without the big price tag. Tracking General Liability Insurance, when it is based on gross payroll, and getting those costs into Job Costing Reports is vital for many businesses, especially the construction industry. NOTE: The best time to implement this procedure is when your General Liability Insurance Policy period starts. The following instructions will allow you to track your General Liability Insurance costs when it is based on gross payroll and get those costs into your job costing reports without making complex journal entries. It will also…

28Mar 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Are Your QuickBooks Certified Payroll Reports Accurate? How to Check

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Corner, The "Sunburst" Website

Verifying the accuracy of the certified payroll reports that you can generate from QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise versions - IF you also subscribe to Enhanced Payroll, is a must for anyone in the construction industry. I've been watching the posts on the Intuit Community Forums about the alternate, substitute U.S. Department of Labor WH-347 certified payroll reports that can be generated if you have QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise AND an Enhanced Payroll Subscription. It seems like many people want to know how to generate the reports, if the reports are approved through the DOL (Department of Labor), why they have suddenly stopped working, how to issue "No Work Performed Reports", and how to tell if the reports they are generating are accurate. This article will focus on the requirements of…

14Mar 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Company Short on Cash? This is the bill to pay FIRST!

Be A Better Bookkeeper, IRS Information, Payroll Tips

Is your company short on cash and wondering which bill to pay first? That bill should be your payroll taxes! At one point or another, every business is going to be short on cash and will be faced with the challenge of figuring out which bill they should pay first. The first bill that you absolutely have to pay first is your is your payroll tax bill - otherwise it is going to cost you dearly in the long run! Below is a real example, taken from the March edition of The General Ledger, a monthly newsletter from the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers. To deal with its financial problems T Corporation decided to pay several creditors, putting off for two quarters paying employment (payroll) taxes and filing related returns. …

10Feb 2011 by Randal DeHart

The Contractor And The Black Box

From Our Guest Bloggers

A contractor's work is tangible; it's seen, touched, heard, smelled, and judged good or bad. Bookkeeping is intangible. Paperwork given to The "Keeper of the Books” is input into the “Black Box” and reports come out, eventually, someday. Ideally, these reports tell contractors how much money they made or lost and where it all went. If the reports from Black Box match the bank’s records, the suppliers unpaid bills, and money their customers owe them then the Black Box has value. However, in most cases Black Box reports do not agree with everyone else’s records the contractor becomes angry and distrustful because he is not in control of the Black Box. The Keeper of the Books is in control of the Black Box and the reports it can generate which…

26Jan 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip-Handling Employee Reimbursements for Expenses

Payroll Tips

Handling employee reimbursements for business related expenses, including mileage, should not be run through payroll in QuickBooks. When an employee uses his/her own money to pay for a business related expense it is money that they have loaned the company, and the company should account for those expenditures in the same manner in which they would if the company had made the expenditures themselves - in other words - those reimbursements should be correctly assigned to the appropriate expense or cost of goods sold accounts in QuickBooks. As a bookkeeper handling reimbursement requests, not only do you need to make sure that the expenses are correctly recorded; you also need to make sure that the manner in which expense reimbursement requests from employees meet accountability standards by the IRS. Every…

25Jan 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Payroll Tip – Tracking Union Fringe Benefits

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Payroll Tips

Setting up and tracking Union Fringe Benefits in QuickBooks can be a fairly straightforward task, after all Union Fringes are just a specified hourly dollar amount that the company pays to the Union on behalf of the employee. Union fringes often consist of contributions to Vacation/Holiday, Health & Welfare, Pension, Training, and sometimes Travel & Subsistence, Savings, or Fund Administration. Depending upon the Union that you are dealing with, some of the fringe benefits could be subject to payroll taxes, while others are not. Most of the time fringes are calculated and paid based on the number of hours the employee works on the jobsite, occasionally, however, they are a based on a percentage of gross pay. Regardless of how they are paid (based on an hourly amount or a…

17Dec 2010 by Nancy Smyth

Straight from the IRS – Social Security Tax Reduced to 4.2%

IRS Information, Payroll Tips

12/17/2010 I just received the following email which is of interest to ALL employers and payroll personnel. Payroll Tax Cut to Boots Take-Home Pay for Most Workers; New Withholding Details Now Available on IRS.gov WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service today released instruction to help employers implement the 2011 cut in payroll taxes, along with the new income-tax withholding tables that employers will use during 2011. Millions of workers will see their take-home pay rise during 2011 because the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 provides a two (2) percentage point payroll tax cut for employees, reducing their Social Security (FICA) tax withholding rate from 6.2% to 4.2% of wages paid. This reduced Social Security withholding will have no effect on the employee's future Social…

13Dec 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Bookkeeping Tips – Why Do I Need to Keep “Books”?

Be A Better Bookkeeper, General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

The primary purpose of using QuickBooks to keep books is to provide financial and management information in order for you to run your business, make sound business decisions, and to prepare your taxes. Most business owners are very worried about generating income; however, running a business involves a lot of other tasks. You will need to invoice customers, record payments from customers, pay your own bills to outside vendors, perhaps manage inventory, and analyze your financial data to see where you need to focus your efforts next. QuickBooks is a tool that you can use to automate the tasks you are already performing as a business owner or to set up a new business. Financial Management is the process of: Running your business Recording money coming in Recording money going…

01Dec 2010 by Nancy Smyth

Starting a New QuickBooks File? Benefits of the EasyStep Interview

QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

When you use the EasyStep Interview to create a new QuickBooks company file, you will be asked questions about the type of business you own as it walks you through the process of setting up your business in QuickBooks. Your answers will be used to help you get started quickly , by setting up the appropriate accounts and lists. It will take you about 30 minutes to go through the EasyStep Interview. Creating a new company file in QuickBooks is easy and you can access the new file wizard in many ways. From the File menu, choose New Company If you have been working in a sample company file, click the Start your new company file now button on the upper right corner of the Home page. From the No…

30Nov 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Understanding Your Chart of Accounts

QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

The QuickBooks Chart of Accounts is the backbone of your entire accounting system, and it’s important that you understand how it works. Think of your Chart of Accounts as a filing cabinet with individual files for each type of accounting information that you wish to track. For example, if you need to know how much money you spend on small tools that cost under $50.00, you would create a file (Expense account in the Chart of Accounts) for Tools Under $50 and post (file) all your purchase receipts (checks, cash expenses, credit card receipts, etc.) to that account. [caption id="attachment_1306" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Right click on the image to enlarge it."][/caption] The Chart of Accounts is a complete list of a businesses accounts and their balances. You will use it to…

Tag: accountancy