QuickBooks for Contractors blog

by Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.

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Reports

This section discusses various reports that are available in QuickBooks as well as instructions for creating reports that do not automatically come within the software.

QuickBooks Tip: How to Calculate Over/Under Billings

Published January 10, 2014 | By Nancy Smyth

You can easily calculate Over/Under Billings and Percent Complete from QuickBooks data IF:

You create an Estimate for EVERY job/project
You've modified the QuickBooks Estimate Template to include Cost and Markup columns and you utilize those columns when building your Estimate
All of your "Items" have been set-up to capture BOTH revenue and costs (double-sided items)
You enter ALL job related employee time and vendor costs using double-sided items
You create Job Types for Over/Under and Completed (with sub-types for years) and assign them correctly to your jobs

IF all of these things are currently in place in your QuickBooks file, this is how you can create a simple Over/Under Billing Report with Percent Complete WITHOUT hours of manual calculations. To learn how, read the full blog post.

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QuickBooks at Year-End: Getting Ready for 1099’s

Published November 26, 2013 | By Nancy Smyth

The end of the year is fast approaching and we are all getting geared up to issued 1099's to Vendors and W-2's to employees. Making sure that we issue 1099's to the appropriate Vendors is a task that we all need to pay attention to. This article talks about several reports that you can create in QuickBooks that will help you to make sure that your 1099 information is up to date by performing a self-audit of your records.

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QuickBooks Year-End Tip – Tracking 1099 & W-9 Information

Published November 21, 2013 | By Nancy Smyth

With the end of the year quickly coming – I thought it might be a good time to discuss how you can track Vendor/Subcontractor 1099 information in QuickBooks. While actually issuing 1099’s is only a once a year event – if you plan and prepare all year long you’ll be in good shape. Thankfully QuickBooks provides with the tools and ability to track 1099 payments to subcontractors as well as the ability to generate these forms at year end - but if you don't know about (or use) these tools; well you are in for a tough time.

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Tracking Timesheet Hours vs Hours Invoiced

Published August 28, 2012 | By Nancy Smyth

A reader asks - 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.

See what reports we've suggested.

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Billing Employee Time to Customers

Published August 16, 2012 | By Nancy Smyth

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.

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Breaking Down Payroll by Job, Phase and Cost Code

Published August 1, 2012 | By Nancy Smyth

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 - and my suggestion on how to resolve this.

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Payroll Tip – Report for hours worked before creating paychecks

Published August 24, 2011 | By Nancy Smyth

This payroll tip discusses how to create reports for hours worked before creating paychecks-ensure employees are paid correctly & your job costing is accurate.

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Create a QuickBooks Job Cost Report With Hours & Payroll Costs

Published June 20, 2011 | By Nancy Smyth

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

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Creating a Job Cost Report With Hours Worked – QuickBooks Tip

Published June 15, 2011 | By Nancy Smyth

Creating a job cost report displaying the hours worked by employee, on a specific job or on all jobs, can provide a contractor with vital job costing information.

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QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 11

Published October 5, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

The Balance Sheet by Class Report was first introduced with QuickBooks 2011, however, it is also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014; has specific requirements for handling many or our normal day-to-day transactions. This is the last installment of our 11-part series on the Balance Sheet by Class Report, we'll discuss how you cannot use the Funds Transfer window to transfer funds between classes - instead you will have to make a journal entry to transfer funds between classes.

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QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 10

Published October 4, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

The Balance Sheet by Class Report was first introduced with QuickBooks 2011, however, it is also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014; has specific requirements for handling many or our normal day-to-day transactions. Currently there is a "bug" that effects the Profit & Loss by Class report when it displays the final vendor payments, which then also adversely affects the Balance Sheet by Class Report.

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QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 9

Published October 1, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

The Balance Sheet by Class Report was first introduced with QuickBooks 2011, however, it is also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014; has specific requirements for handling many or our normal day-to-day transactions. The QuickBooks Help file says that the Balance Sheet by Class Report doesn't support multiple currencies, and that you shouldn't attempt to run or use this report if you use multicurrency in QuickBooks.

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QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 8

Published September 30, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

The Balance Sheet by Class Report was first introduced with QuickBooks 2011, however, it is also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014; has specific requirements for handling many or our normal day-to-day transactions. Paying and taking an early payment discount for a vendor bill that has multiple classes causes a difference in net income between the Balance Sheet by Class and the Profit & Loss by Class reports because only a single class can be assigned to the discount.

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QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 7

Published September 29, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

The Balance Sheet by Class Report was first introduced with QuickBooks 2011, however, it is also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014; has specific requirements for handling many or our normal day-to-day transactions. A net income difference between the Balance Sheet by Class and the Profit & Loss by Class reports occurs when the customer pays you and you use the Receive Payments window to record an early payment discount, because you can only assign a single class to the discount.

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QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 6

Published September 28, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

The Balance Sheet by Class Report was first introduced with QuickBooks 2011, however, it is also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014; has specific requirements for handling many or our normal day-to-day transactions. There is some good news about Receiving Customer Prepayments, and that is -- this problem corrects itself; when you create and apply an invoice to the payment at a later date; because the invoice will have a class assigned to it.

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About Your Host:

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.