08Apr 2014 by Nancy Smyth
Technology is Changing How We Submit Certified Payroll Reports

Technology is Changing How We Submit Certified Payroll Reports

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, New Technology, QuickBooks Add-Ons, The "Sunburst" Website
Technology - computers, software, and the internet - has changed how we create and submit certified payroll reports over the last decade. For many years a paper certified payroll report - either the Federal WH-347 or a state specific form - was what you needed; and then you dug out the typewriter and typed the information onto the form - or - you painstakingly handwrote the information onto the form. Then along came computers and programs like LOTUS 1-2-3 and Excel and we would recreate the layout of the paper form using the program and fill it in each week – it was faster, neater, easier to correct typo's, and we felt that we were automating the task at hand. Then, some of the software companies created a “certified payroll…
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12Feb 2014 by Nancy Smyth
Are Your QuickBooks Payroll & Certified Payroll Processes Efficient?

Are Your QuickBooks Payroll & Certified Payroll Processes Efficient?

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Add-Ons, Webinars & Training
QuickBooks Payroll and Certified Payroll processes really need to be efficient in order for a business to be successful.  When one of your businesses largest job expenses is payroll, you need to: pay your employees correctly and on time to keep them happy, make sure that those payroll costs are part of your accounting system so those costs are included in job costing reports, and you need to submit your certified payroll reports accurately and in a timely fashion in order to be paid. Yes, it's a vicious cycle! Ask any business owner how efficient he thinks his payroll and certified payroll processes are and I'm betting he'll either say "oh they are very efficient" or "they could be better".  Ask his payroll clerk who is dealing with a lot…
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27Nov 2013 by Nancy Smyth
Searching For the Right Time Tracking Add-On for QuickBooks?

Searching For the Right Time Tracking Add-On for QuickBooks?

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Add-Ons
Are you totally overwhelmed & confused in your search for “just the right” time tracking add-on for QuickBooks? If you are, it’s not surprising. When you go to the Intuit Marketplace (https://marketplace.intuit.com/ ) and click on the option to Search by Business Need and then click on Time Tracking, you’ll find yourself with 51 different time tracking add-on programs to choose from!  Little wonder you are overwhelmed and confused.  I get that way too. You’ll find terms and icons indicating: And they all seem to be saying the exact same thing or slight variations: Track your time quickly and easily online! Track time fast and easy with the market leader in QuickBooks integration. Time tracking software your employees (and you{ will actually love The fastest way to track, manage and…
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09Oct 2013 by Nancy Smyth
New Product Announcement: QuickBooks IIF Inactive Cleanup Utility

New Product Announcement: QuickBooks IIF Inactive Cleanup Utility

QuickBooks Add-Ons, QuickBooks Corner, The "Sunburst" Website
We are very excited to announce the release of our newest software program - the QuickBooks IIF Inactive Cleanup Utility! Necessity is often the "Mother of Invention", it's why all of our software programs have been created.  We often find ourselves in a situation where we encounter a repetitive task that just screams for the need of automation. I'm fairly certain that the following story will hit home with many QuickBooks ProAdvisors and Consultants: A customer or ours recently hired me to help him start a brand new QuickBooks Enterprise file - his old one was so corrupt that even Intuit Data Repair couldn't fix it and it couldn't be opened/upgraded by the new version of QuickBooks Enterprise that he wanted to use in his company.  The file contained nearly…
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18Jun 2013 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks Automatic Updates & Critical Fixes-What’s Your Policy?

QuickBooks Automatic Updates & Critical Fixes-What’s Your Policy?

General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks Add-Ons
A QuickBooks automatic update for QuickBooks Pro 2013, Premier 2013 (all versions or flavors - Contractor, Manufacturing, Professional Services, etc), and Enterprise 13.0 (all versions or flavors) - referenced as simply QuickBooks 2013 for the balance of this article, beginning right around June 3, 2013 with the last round of the update being released today, has created more problems than it fixed for many users and 3rd party developers. The QuickBooks Automatic Update feature has been around for years, you'll find this option when you open QuickBooks -> go to the Help menu -> and choose Update QuickBooks -> and click on the Options tab.  Here you'll see the Automatic Update option.  In all the versions (Pro, Premier, Enterprise)  - EXCEPT the Premier Accountant edition if you are a Certified…
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06Jun 2013 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks Tip – How To Handle Stored Materials and AIA Pay Apps

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…
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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…
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27Sep 2012 by Nancy Smyth
QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions

QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions

General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?, QuickBooks Add-Ons, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
QuickBooks 2013 can be purchased right now directly from Inuit websites or through Authorized Intuit Affiliate links - however, it won't be in stores until the middle of October. Many companies will want to upgrade right away.  However, it seems that each year when Intuit announces a new version of QuickBooks, I'm overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from clients and customers asking a multitude of questions about the new version.  Here is a list of do's, don'ts and frequent questions. Frequently Asked Questions: Should I/Do I NEED to upgrade to QuickBooks 2013? I'm usually very conservative in regards to this question, especially the last few years with money being so tight for everyone, but typically my answer is: If you are currently using a version of QuickBooks that Intuit…
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18Sep 2012 by Nancy Smyth
EEOC Reports & Government Funded Construction Projects – Q & A

EEOC Reports & Government Funded Construction Projects – Q & A

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Construction News, The "Sunburst" Website
EEOC Reports are just another compliance requirement that must be met when you perform work on government funded/prevailing wage jobs - in addition to the submission of a weekly certified payroll report. In this Q & A we'll discuss your obligations, what types of forms you might need to file, and when you have to file them. What is the EEOC and what do they do? The U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. What is an EEOC Report? An EEOC Report is really nothing more than than a report that includes how many employees you…
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09Aug 2012 by Nancy Smyth
Reporting Fringe Benefits Paid in Cash on Certified Payroll

Reporting Fringe Benefits Paid in Cash on Certified Payroll

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers, The "Sunburst" Website, Webinars & Training
Reporting prevailing wage fringe benefits paid in cash to the employee has specific requirements when completing the Federal WH-347 Certified Payroll Report.  Here is a question from a reader who is submitting the built-in QuickBooks certified payroll report and is being told that she is not correctly reporting the cash fringe benefit amounts. Hi, I found your blog through a Google search and can't believe all the information you have here about certified payroll, prevailing wage and using QuickBooks - so far I've learned so much!  I could really use some help and couldn't find anything that I thought fit our specific situation.  We are a non-union contractor working on prevailing wage jobs and we pay the full fringe benefit amount to the employee in cash.  We use the QuickBooks…
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30May 2012 by Nancy Smyth
How to Date/Work With a QuickBooks 3rd Party Developer

How to Date/Work With a QuickBooks 3rd Party Developer

QuickBooks Add-Ons
    How to "date" a QuickBooks 3rd party developer may seem to be a silly topic for a blog post; but as I reflect on the last 12 years of being one of those "developers" the more I think that the title is appropriate - because in reality dating is a fair way to describe the relationships between Developers, ProAdvisors and QuickBooks users. First, a little history: Intuit released QuickBooks in the fall of 1991 (I've been using the program since that time). In January 1997 Intuit initially launched the ProAdvisor program and the first Certification exams were created for QuickBooks Pro 99.  To become a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor a bookkeeper, CPA, or other accounting professional could take a written multiple-choice test and if passed (initially after multiple tries…
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08May 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Penny Wise & Dollar Foolish Over QuickBooks 3rd Party Apps

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff, QuickBooks Add-Ons
  Are you being penny wise and dollar foolish over QuickBooks 3rd party apps and their price? Don't be ashamed, it happens to a lot of people. Many times a QuickBooks user will look at the cost of a 3rd party application and think - why should I spend the money on a third party application when I can just as easily do this task using Excel or some other way!  This is insane, I've already spent a lot of money just to purchase QuickBooks. Ya, I get it - money is tight and we are all looking for ways to trim unnecessary dollars from our budgets - but are we sometimes being penny wise and dollar foolish?  Many times I think that answer is "Yes".  Here is a real…
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10Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Employee Social Security Numbers on Certified Payroll Reports

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Questions from our readers, The "Sunburst" Website
  Displaying employee social security numbers and addresses on certified payroll reports, which are ultimately public documents, causes privacy and identity theft concerns for many employers and employees  - not to mention confusion over reporting requirements.  This question was submitted by a blog reader.   The instructions for the Federal WH-347 certified payroll report say - The payrolls submitted shall include the following information: Name of each employee A unique individually identifiable number for each employee, or as it was suggested, the last 4 digits of the employee social security number His/her correct classification Hourly rates of pay, including any cash fringe benefits paid Daily and weekly number of hours worked Deductions made and actual wages paid Can we accept a unique individually identifiable number on payroll and is there…
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28Feb 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 3rd Party Applications – How Integration Works

QuickBooks Add-Ons, The "Sunburst" Website
  The integration between QuickBooks and a third-party application is transparent, the communication between the two programs takes place behind the scenes leaving very little to be seen - often only the end result of a report or task done outside of QuickBooks OR a transaction created in the 3rd party program that is posted into the data file. As the QuickBooks developer I'm asked, almost on a daily basis, how our software integrates with QuickBooks.  Providing an explanation is not an easy task - integration was designed to be transparent with most of the actual communication between the programs going on behind the scenes - within the thousand of lines of software code written by the developer. Everyone says "I need to SEE how IT (the integration) works". It's…
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