Job Costing Tips | QuickBooks for Contractors blog

19Mar 2015 by Nancy Smyth

Tips for Effectively Using QuickBooks Purchase Orders

Job Costing Tips, Vendors & Accounts Payable

Using Purchase Orders and running the Open Purchase Orders by Job report in QuickBooks are excellent tools for General Contractors as well as Subcontractors who sub out a portion of the job to someone else. Purchase Orders can also be customized and used to record a verbal bid for materials from a supplier as well as using them to create an Invitation to Bid, which will ultimately be sent to several subcontractors at once. Using Purchase Orders in QuickBooks can help you to ensure that your Subcontractors or Material Suppliers do not charge you more than what they originally quoted you for a price and the Open Purchase Order by Job Report can help you to see how much in committed costs there are left on your jobs. Both very…

10Jan 2014 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip: How to Calculate Over/Under Billings

Job Costing Tips, Reports

The construction industry often requires that your financial statements be based on Percentage of Completion accounting practices - where you recognize revenue progressively throughout the life of the job. The Percentage of Completion is determined by dividing the costs to date over the current budget (Estimate). The current budget is defined as the original budget (Estimate) plus any approved change orders. An adjustment to the financials for overstated/understated revenue must then happen, because customer monies are often collected in advance of the work in job costing, you’ll want to state the true revenue on the financials carefully. Accounting guidelines recommend that you make your percentage of completion calculations based on Revenue Earned = (Total Costs to Date / Current Project Budget) x Current Customer Contract Sales Price. In reality, you…

04Dec 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Q & A: QuickBooks Employee Payroll Reimbursements & Job Costing

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers

Job costing employee payroll reimbursements in QuickBooks is a function that many users want to perform and they usually expect that they can - with less than desired results. Below is a question that I answered several years ago on the Intuit Community forum. How do I link a employee payroll reimbursement to a customer's job? For example: If an employee pays for something with a personal credit card and I reimburse him via payroll, how do I get that transaction to link to a customer's job so it shows up in the Job Costs Detail report? When I reimburse an employee, for example, the debit shows up on my P&L under say, Landscape Materials, but how do I get that cost over to the job so I can see…

21May 2013 by Ben Smyth

Automating Job Costing Overtime, an 800 pound gorilla with an attitude

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, From Our Guest Bloggers, Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Add-Ons

Calculating and distributing employee overtime is a burdensome process that many business owners and payroll administrators have to deal with on a weekly basis. Everyone has a different opinion on just "HOW" that overtime is to be calculated and distributed. By everyone, I mean the business owner, the payroll clerk, heck even the Federal and State government. No wonder it's just a problematic situation! At first blush this seems drop dead simple. Overtime goes to the time worked after 40 hours, or maybe over x hours per day as well. This seems reasonable, but would it be simpler if overtime were just distributed over all the jobs that the employee worked that week. That seems fairer, as each job gets a share of the overtime costs for that week. Then…

07Nov 2012 by Nancy Smyth

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…

28Aug 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Tracking Timesheet Hours vs Hours Invoiced

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers, Reports

Tracking timesheet hours vs hours invoiced is crucial for a companies cash flow. See this question submitted by a reader. Hello Experts, I'm looking for a report so I can compare hours reported via the timesheet or really hours that have been paid out Vs. the hours that have been paid for or Invoiced. I've also noticed it is possible to add time to timesheets that have already been billed. Is there a way to prevent this? Thanks for your time and energy. Brian Hello Brian Thanks for stopping by and submitting a question. QuickBooks has some good time tracking reports, here are my recommendations for some reports for you to look at. The Time by Job Detail Report is available in all versions/flavors (Pro, Premier, Enterprise); access it from…

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…

01Aug 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Breaking Down Payroll by Job, Phase and Cost Code

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Reports

Breaking down payroll by job, phase, and cost code is something that I'm often asked about by the construction clients/customers that I work with. Construction payroll is probably one of the more complex payrolls that anyone can encounter, see this question submitted by a reader. I need payroll broken down by Job, then Phase (service item), then cost code. Is there a way to enter time in QuickBooks by three categories? Thanks, Susan Hi Susan Thanks for stopping by and submitting this awesome question! Actually, I'm asked this question a lot and have been working on an entire training series (eBook and several videos) about different ways that contractors can set up QuickBooks to handle even the most complex payrolls like this - unfortunately it won't be finished until…

16May 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Payroll for Work Hours & Drive Time Invoicing Problem

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

Entering payroll for normal employee work hours and drive time and passing only the work hours through to client invoices is not only important but confusing. The following question was submitted by a reader. Hello - I own a residential and commercial cleaning company. I have several employees. I pay from the start of the first job till the end of the last job of the day (not including lunch break). I have my employees fill out a time tracker sheet each day that shows the time started at the first job till the end, drive time in between jobs, so on and so forth. I enter this into QuickBooks but I can't figure out where to enter in drive time to pay the girls their hourly wage on…

01May 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Entering Bills or Checks in QuickBooks – Items vs. Expenses

Job Costing Tips, Vendors & Accounts Payable

When entering bills, checks, or even credit card purchases in QuickBooks you have the choice to use an Items or Expenses tab - choosing the Items vs. Expenses tab will depend on what the money being spent was for. Your business spends money on a wide variety of things - employee payroll, payroll taxes, office supplies (such as paper and envelopes), utility bills, things that you purchase to resell to others, and goods or services from others are just a few examples. In essence every penny that your business spends is an expense to your business - but how you record the purchase in QuickBooks does make a difference. Because you do you a choice to use an Items or Expense tab when entering transactions in QuickBooks; many people…

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…

28Mar 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Estimates vs. Purchase Orders: What’s the difference?

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Customers & Accounts Receivable, Job Costing Tips, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup, Vendors & Accounts Payable

Estimates and Purchase Orders can be created using QuickBooks. Many people want to know what the difference between the two are and when it is appropriate to use them. I often see a lot of confusion on the QuickBooks forums about Estimates and Purchase Orders, what the differences are, and when you should use each one. An Estimate, otherwise known as a Bid, Proposal, Quote or perhaps even a Schedule of Values in the construction industry, is a detailed breakdown of work or tasks that you will perform in order to complete a project for a specific customer or a specific job and what you will charge them to do it. A Purchase Order, on the other hand is normally something that you issue for materials or the services…

16Jan 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Weekly Timesheet – Service vs. Payroll Item

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips

The QuickBooks Weekly Timesheet can cause a lot of confusion for users who are implementing employee time tracking for the first time, mainly because the timesheet contains both a Service Item and a Payroll Item. This article will explain what each column is used for and some common pitfalls that can happen. Job costing and employee time tracking are important aspects of many businesses - not just construction businesses. However, when you initially set up timetracking there are many things that can cause confusion. About Service Items: The Service Item column represents the type of work that is being performed and allows you to select/enter/choose the name of the service item/cost code from your Item List that you want to use when your charge/bill your customer for this work -…

09Jan 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Creating Estimates In Excel vs. QuickBooks – What’s the Difference?

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Job Costing Tips, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

If you use QuickBooks for your accounting and you create your Estimates in Excel instead of within QuickBooks you loose out on job costing capabilities and so much more! I often see and hear comments such as this as I browse the web or talk with potential customers for our software: Right now we are using QuickBooks Contractor. It is ok for our accounting software but we are looking for something that works as an overall system for our office - CRM, estimating, job costing, proposals, work tickets and most importantly easy for my guys to use. Right now we are using Excel for Estimates and invoices. When I see and hear comments like this I get so confused - because QuickBooks does allow you to create Estimates, Proposals, and…

20Jun 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Create a QuickBooks Job Cost Report With Hours & Payroll Costs

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Reports

A QuickBooks tip for creating a job cost report that displays hours worked and payroll/labor burden costs. Creating a job cost report displaying the hours worked by employee, on a specific job or on all jobs, for a specific week or at the end of a job which includes payroll/labor burden costs can provide a contractor with vital job costing information so you can see if you correctly bid the number of man hours and payroll costs required on a job. NOTE: It is highly recommended that you start with a single pay period AND a single paycheck to ensure that your report is correct. Once the report is correct, memorize it and you can then either finish your payroll or change the dates to better suite your needs. From…