Customers & Accounts Receivable | QuickBooks for Contractors blog

22Oct 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Recording & Tracking Employee Personal Tool Purchases

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Payroll Tips, Vendors & Accounts Payable

This question came up on a discussion list that I belong to over the weekend and I thought "hey, what a great blog post and how to tip this would make"! So here goes! I am bookkeeper for a construction company. Sometimes the workers purchase tools on the company American Express card and write TOC for "Take Out of Check" on the receipt. There are oftentimes material expenses for the company on the same receipt. How do I record this? What they did before was to subtract the amount from the gross wages when called into ADP, so it's kind of a pay advance. But don't advances require the taxes to be taken out? Should I get check breakdown and subtract from net wages instead or treat as a loan?…

27Jun 2013 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip-How To Add a Logo and Customize Your Forms

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup, QuickBooks Tips & Tricks

A QuickBooks Tip on how to add your company logo and customize yoour Estimate, Invoice, and Purchase Order forms in QuickBooks. So you use QuickBooks for your all of you bookkeeping and accounting functions, including creating Estimates, Invoices, Purchase Orders, etc. Good for you! It sounds like you are using many of the built-in features and functions. But do the "forms" you send your clients/customers, vendors/subcontractors scream QuickBooks when they are opened? Just because you use QuickBooks doesn't mean that you can't send out professional looking forms. Spend some time working with your Form Templates and go from drab to WOW! Where do I find the Form Templates? You'll find the Form Templates from the QuickBooks List menu -> Templates. Once there if you look in the Type column you'll…

11Jun 2013 by Diane Dennis

Unconditional Waiver / Release Upon Final Payment – Part 5

Customers & Accounts Receivable, From Our Guest Bloggers

Once you’ve successfully collected your final payment it’s time to give your customer an “Unconditional Waiver and Release Upon Final Payment” form (#4 release). This release form will not include a “release through date” because it’s the final payment – it releases your lien rights, stop payment rights, etc. for the entire project. If you have suppliers include the same forms from them. Never issue a #4 release form unless you have been successfully paid in full for the entire project. If you do even though you haven’t been paid and you didn’t allow for the exceptions then the courts wouldn’t side with you because unconditional is unconditional – it’s final. State Requirements For Waiver / Release Forms Each state has specific requirements for release forms, although many states do…

06Jun 2013 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – How To Handle Stored Materials and AIA® Pay Apps

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Add-Ons

QuickBooks has no built-in ability to handle stored materials, like many of the more costly construction specific software programs. This causes problems for contractors who need to generate AIA Pay Apps and need to make sure that their books (or accounting data) syncs with their AIA Applications for Payments. This question was originally asked on the Intuit Community forums. I am unsure of the proper way to handle stored materials. My General Contractor lets us bill for stored materials used in construction by way of standard AIA® Pay Apps. I am needing a way of keeping my AIA® Pay Apps and QuickBooks invoicing in sync. All invoices are done with AIA payment applications so the GC never sees the QuickBooks invoices. However, I still need to produce the estimate and progress invoicing…

28May 2013 by Diane Dennis

Conditional Waiver / Release Upon Final Payment – Part 4

Customers & Accounts Receivable, From Our Guest Bloggers

When it’s time to submit the invoice for the final payment you may need to include a “Conditional Waiver and Release Upon Final Payment” form (#3 release). Usually this release form does not include a “release through date” like the #1 and #2 forms do because it’s your final invoice on the project. If you have suppliers you’ll probably have to include these same forms from them. Once you’ve received payment and it has cleared the issuing financial institution then typically that Conditional Release becomes an Unconditional Release. That means you’ll never be able to file a lien on the project (which is okay as long as you’re paid in full). State Requirements For Waiver / Release Forms Each state has its own requirements for release forms. Although many are…

14May 2013 by Diane Dennis

Unconditional Waiver / Release Form Upon Progress/Partial Payment – Part 3

Customers & Accounts Receivable, From Our Guest Bloggers

You’ve successfully collected your progress payment and now it’s time to provide your customer with an “Unconditional Waiver and Release Upon Progress Payment” form (#2 release). If you have suppliers include the same forms from them. The #2 release is unconditional which means you’re giving up all lien rights through the “release through date”. Never issue a #2 release form unless you have been successfully paid for that time frame. If you do even though you haven’t been paid the courts may not side with you because unconditional is unconditional – it’s final. State Requirements For Waiver / Release Forms Each state has specific requirements for release forms. Some states change their laws often (California had three changes to the same lien law in 2004, and then in 2011 and…

30Apr 2013 by Diane Dennis

Conditional Waiver/Release Form Upon Progress/Partial Payment – Part 2

Customers & Accounts Receivable, From Our Guest Bloggers

When it’s time to submit an invoice for a partial / progress payment you may need to include a “Conditional Waiver and Release Upon Progress Payment” form (#1 release). If you have suppliers you’ll probably have to include these same forms from them. Once you’ve received payment and it has cleared the issuing financial institution then typically that Conditional Release becomes an Unconditional Release (#2). That means you’ll never be able to file a lien for that time frame. State Requirements For Waiver / Release Forms Each state has its own requirements for release forms. California recently changed its mechanic’s lien laws requiring new wording on its release forms. Keep an eye out for any possible changes in the requirements for the state(s) you work in. Usually a #1 release…

16Apr 2013 by Diane Dennis

Conditional and Unconditional Lien Waiver/Release Forms for Progress and Final Payments – Part 1

Customers & Accounts Receivable, From Our Guest Bloggers

Knowing which lien waiver/release form to use when on a construction project can be confusing at times. This series of articles will help to clear up some of the questions. Make Sure The Forms From Your Vendors Are Accurate Whether you’re a general or sub, it is imperative that you make sure the forms you collect from your vendors are legal and accurate – don’t and you’re risking a lien on the property and breaching your contract with your customer. Helpful Tips Photocopy checks before depositing them so that you have the information from the front. This allows you to verify that a check has cleared the issuing bank before you submit an unconditional release. Invariably papers end up misfiled or not filed. Include your internal job/account number on the…

21Mar 2013 by Nancy Smyth

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).…

09Oct 2012 by Nancy Smyth

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…

16Aug 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Billing Employee Time to Customers

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Customers & Accounts Receivable, Questions from our readers, Reports

Billing employee time on customer invoices is something that many business need to do - not just contractors who perform Time & Materials Billing. Making sure that you bill all of the time your employee(s) have spent working on specific jobs or tasks for customers is crucial and depends data that you've entered in QuickBooks. Here's a question from a reader. Hi Nancy- Thanks for the tips. I'm used to using the "Unbilled costs by job" report, however I am stumped when it comes to billable hours I've entered using the timesheet function. How do I tell if I need to create an invoice for a client to bill them for hours entered? Those hours do not show up on the "Unbilled costs by job report" !! Any help would…

13Aug 2012 by Nancy Smyth

CSI Masterformat Contractor Item List

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Job Costing Tips, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

The CSI (Construction Specifications Institute) MasterFormat contractor item list is a standard item list used for most commercial building design and construction projects in North America. It lists titles and section numbers for organizing data about construction requirements, products, and activities. The latest version, revised in April 2012, contains 48 main categories or divisions. Two readers have asked questions recently about the CSI MasterFormat list - here's what they had to say. Is there anyway that QuickBooks has the MasterFormat codes already on the system? We are looking to start using the codes, but not sure if we have to enter them all ourselves or if there is a way to just find them on QuickBooks online. Thank you. Drew Hi, I need to know how to turn on the…

07Jun 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Creating a Simple Invoice for Taxable & Non-Taxable Items

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Questions from our readers, Sales Tax Tracking

Creating a simple invoice for taxable and non-taxable items, that the customer can easily understand - while allowing you to track your Sales Tax Liability often causes a quandary for QuickBooks users. The following question, submitted by a reader, is a perfect example of just how difficult this situation can sometimes be. Hi, We are curious if there is a way to do this: We do cable Runs and would like to quote our customers $150.00/drop to include labor and materials. How do I calculate sales tax on a portion of the $150.00? Is that possible. We have been breaking it out.. but it is tedious and confusing to customers. Any Ideas? Thanks for your help. Jennifer Hi Jennifer That certainly is a dilemma - you need to be…

26Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

How to Calculate & Display Retainage on an AIA® G702/G703

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Customers & Accounts Receivable

Calculating and displaying retainage on an AIA G-702/G-703 form can be confusing - this short tutorial is designed to discuss different ways that retainage (or retention) can be held, calculated, and displayed. Retainage is a portion of the agreed upon contract price deliberately withheld until the work is substantially complete to assure that contractor or subcontractor will satisfy its obligations and complete a construction project. Retainage or retention can be: a fixed percentage of the contract - such as 10% of the value of the contract a variable rate - such as 10% of the contract until the contract is 50% complete; at which time it is then reduced to 5% a variable rate - such as retainage is held at 10% on labor and 0% on materials Retainage…

30Mar 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip: How To Create a Summary Invoice for Customers

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Job Costing Tips, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

This QuickBooks tip discusses how to create a summary invoice for a customer when you need to track details for job costing purposes. This question was submitted by one of our readers. How can I print a summary invoice for an estimate that does not show all the details. Most of my jobs are Total Contract but I really have things broke down to examine my job costs. This break down is very confusing to customers who just want a basic contract description and price. Any suggestions? Thanks, Jim Hi Jim What you are experiencing is very common - a conflict between your need to good job costing an your customers need for something simple - all from the same Estimate in QuickBooks; and without having to duplicate the…

Category: Customers & Accounts Receivable