Top 10 Thursday features 10 of the most interesting articles that I found the previous week. There is so much news and information available on the web – it’s difficult to read everything and stay up to date. As I read articles on the web – I’ll share some that I feel are important.
General Business:
Bookkeeping, Accounting, Payroll & Taxes
Construction
- An Analysis of Arizona’s Prompt Payment Statutes {Private and Public Works}
- San Diego has $13.4B in construction projects in the works
- Missouri DOT works to make state bridges safer
- Rochester, NY gets $100M for Interstate 390 upgrade
- New York Construction Defects Paper
- Architecture billings up, construction materials prices down
- Department of Labor {DOL} Proposes Hiring Goal for Federal Contractors to Employe Disabled Workers
- Missouri Proposes to Eliminate Prevailing Wage Requirements
Marketing & Social Media
Well, there’s our Top 10 most interesting articles for last week – do you have some interesting news that you’d like to share?
We are teaming up with the Associated General Contractors {AGC} of America San Diego Chapter, Inc. for a day of QuickBooks for Contractors on Tuesday November 8, 2011; 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM .
QuickBooks is the leading small-business accounting software on the market today. But when it comes to knowing how to use QuickBooks in the commercial/government construction industry and dealing with complexities such as AIA Billing and certified payroll reporting, finding help becomes difficult. Join us {Nancy Smyth – Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.} as we team up with the Associated General Contractors {AGC} of America San Diego Chapter; for an intensive day-long training session for using QuickBooks in the commercial/government construction industry. Below are some of the highlights of the course.
Morning Session – Job Costing, Estimating, Purchases & AIA Billing using QuickBooks
- The importance of job costing
- Working with/setting up you QuickBooks Item List {aka your cost codes}
- Creating and using Estimates & Progress Invoices
- Tracking Committed costs and subcontracts with Purchase Orders
- Proper Vendor/Subcontractor invoice entry
- Getting Equipment costs into your job costing reports
- AIA Billing and automation
Afternoon Session – QuickBooks Payroll & Certified Payroll
- What is Certified Payroll? Who makes the rules and how to comply
- Working with Wage Determinations
- Determining employee labor burden – OR – the hourly cost of having employees on the jobsite
- How to include employee labor burden in payroll
- Setting up and using QuickBooks Payroll to deal with Prevailing Wages – regardless of how you pay your fringes
- How to fill out a certified payroll report – what information is needed
- Electronic certified payroll filing requirements
- Automating the certified payroll reporting process
Who should attend?
- Business owners
- Estimators
- Controllers
- CFO’s
- Payroll processors
- Office Managers
- Accounting & Consulting professionals
- Union and non-Union Contractors
This course will be held at:
AGC San Diego Chapter Inc., 6212 Ferris Square, San Diego, CA 92121
Phone: (858) 558-7444 Extension 101
When: Tuesday November 8, 2011
Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (8 hours)
Cost: $199 AGC Members OR $259 Non-Members
Register Online: https://www.agcsd.org/Calendar/Registration/registration.php?classType=educat&classID=1244
I look forward to seeing and meeting you all! Nancy Smyth, Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.
$3.5 billion mixed-use development rises along harbor in Connecticut.
The $3.5 billion Harbor Point development in Stamford, Conn., has started to take shape as towers rise near the water. One of the largest mixed-use projects in the country, Harbor Point sits on 80 acres and will include 4,000 residential units, a marina, a school and some 2 million square feet of office and retail space. The New York Times (free registration) (12/7)
New York Department of Transportation plan major bridges makeover
More than 17,000 bridges in New York are fast approaching middle age, and the state’s transportation agency plans to focus on the makeover of some of them. The state has earmarked about half of the $7 billion in its two-year capital spending plan to rehabilitate about 385 state and local bridges. The Wall Street Journal/The Associated Press (12/7)
Connecticut brownfield site could become a $750 Million mixed-use development
A 600-acre industrial brownfield site in Windsor, Conn., could become a $750 million master-planned residential and light commercial development. Named Great Pond Village, the site plan includes 3,500 single and multifamily residences, 85,000 square feet of retail and 250,000 square feet of office, research and development space. The planned development will use eco-friendly designs and technologies and provide space for walkers, cyclists and public transportation. Hartford Business Journal (Conn.) (12/7) , The Hartford Courant (Conn.) (12/7)
San Diego considers $230 million waterfront redevelopment
San Diego officials are close to approving the first stage of a $230 million redevelopment project on the north end of the Embarcadero. “It’s going to be a grand project with hotels and retail space that will attract visitors to San Diego,” said a Port District spokesman. “These are significant improvements with landscaping, wide walkways, running paths and areas for the public to gather.” SanDiegoNewsRoom.com (12/7)
A reader asked the following question:
We are a small contractor in San Diego and we are wondering how we get around having to always do an inventory adjustment to get our purchases to the correct COGS account? We have (2) departments but they are both doing construction projects: Service dept does smaller installs and Contracts dept does the bigger jobs so I have been doing a JE to move the material from the Contracts material COGS account to the service COGS account.
Is there an add-on for QB Enterprise 8 that we could use?
Thank you so much for your website/blog. I’ve been reading it faithfully every day!
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There are several inventory add-ons for QuickBooks Pro, Premier and Enterprise; check out these 3rd party add-ons at the Intuit Marketplace.
Recording costs and income with an item
Based on your comment about “always having to do an inventory adjustment in order to get your Purchases to the correct COGS account”, makes me think that perhaps your items are not correctly set up.
Make sure that your QuickBooks Inventory Items are set up so that they capture both the cost/purchase account as well as a sales account; this method is called a “double-sided” item.
When any type of QuickBooks Service, Inventory, Non-Inventory, Other Charge Item is set up this way you are able to capture the purchase price as well as the sales price.
When you enter a bill from a vendor for the inventory item (or write a check) you should be using the ITEM tab and not the Expense tab.
I’m confident that if you aren’t currently using the QuickBooks Purchase Order function that you would find that beneficial also.
Additionally, rather than using Journal Entries to classify whether it was the Service or Contracts Department – consider using “classes” to handle that.
