QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
Setting up a new QuickBooks® file – OR – cleaning up an existing file, so that you can view your numbers in a meaningful way in reports, can be a daunting task!
QuickBooks® provides a very basic Chart of Accounts and Item List, for both General Contractors and Specialty Trades, and it’s up to you to customize them to suit your needs.
This section will provide you with tips for making your numbers mean something when you look at reports.
How To Turn On and Use Manual Payroll in QuickBooks
QuickBooks Tip-How To Add a Logo and Customize Your Forms
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!
This QuickBooks tip provides you with 7 Steps to take you Estimate, Invoice and Purchase Orders from drab and boring to professional.
Continue readingConfused About Payroll Deductions and Payroll Liabilities?
Are you confused about payroll deductions and payroll liabilities? If so, don't feel alone! They can confuse a lot of people.
As bookkeepers we see a lot of things that we feel to be "odd" when dealing with payroll deductions. From the normal employee advance and repayments, to deductions for Fed-Ex or UPS fees, tool repayments, voluntary disability payments, you name it!
The question always seems to center around - is this really a company expense and how the heck do I record these transactions?
Continue readingEntering Historical Paychecks – Payroll Taxes and the Accounts They Post To
Setting up QuickBooks payroll and entering historical data can be quite confusing. Thankfully, there is a built in Payroll Setup Wizard that will help you through the rough spots; like creating payroll tax items and accounts and entering historical payroll data.
Still there are choices to make. Will you be processing future payrolls through QuickBooks - if so you'll need a payroll subscription. If you use an outside payroll service and just want to get that payroll data into your company file - then turning on manual payroll might be the way to go.
When it comes to entering historical data, there are a couple of ways to do it. But the method you choose should be based on how valuable job-costed payroll is.
Continue readingRetainage Payable and Receivable – What’s the Difference?
- Retainage Receivable is money that is owed to you, while
- Retainage Payable is money that you owe to someone else
Job Costing Payroll When Using a Payroll Service
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?
Continue readingQuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions
Should I/Do I NEED to upgrade to QuickBooks 2013? When should I purchase QuickBooks 2013? Will the 3rd party add-ons that I use be compatible with QuickBooks 2013? Will QuickBooks 2013 run on my current computer - OR - will I need to buy a new one?
We'll answer questions like these and more!
Continue readingCSI Masterformat Contractor Item List
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.
Continue readingPayroll for Work Hours & Drive Time Invoicing Problem
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 who pays 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 payroll but to not invoice anyone for drive time.
Continue readingMessed Up QuickBooks file, Start a New File or Fix the Old One?
QuickBooks Tip: How To Create a Summary Invoice for Customers
Estimates vs. Purchase Orders: What’s the difference?
Estimate to Purchase Order Blues
QuickBooks Tip: Prior Amount Totals for Invoicing from Estimates
How Well Does the New QuickBooks 2012 Condense Feature Work?
Nancy Smyth, Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.QuickBooks Construction & Payroll Expert
I've been using and supporting QuickBooks products since the early 1990's. I've worked with thousands of contractors, assisting them with QuickBooks setup, Certified Payroll Reporting requirements, AIA Billing and Weighted-Average Overtime.
QuickBooks is a powerful product, but learning how to use it in your construction business can be difficult. I hope you find resources available here to be helpful.
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