15Feb 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Can One Certified Payroll Report Meet Requirements in all 50 States?

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, QuickBooks Add-Ons, QuickBooks Corner
  Certified payroll reporting requirements are complex.  There is no single certified payroll form that will meet the requirements in all 50 states.  Don't be fooled! It's a common misconception that a single certified payroll report form will meet the prevailing wage requirements found in each of the 50 states.  To be fair, at one time or another a contractor in any state will work on a federally funded construction project and submit the US Department of Labor WH-347 form (or an acceptable substitute).  However, that would be the only time. 21 states follow the reporting requirements of the US Department of Labor and file a WH -347 form or an acceptable substitute for each government-funded construction project that they work on. 14 states have enacted state prevailing wage laws,…
Read More
01Feb 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Certified Payroll Reports & Bi-Weekly Paychecks

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Payroll Tips, The "Sunburst" Website
Generating weekly certified payroll reports when you issue bi-weekly paychecks to your employees can be difficult unless your accounting software will accurately accrue the wages for each week - QuickBooks doesn't have this ability and quite often this causes problems. Payroll is one of the largest expenses that a company will have.  Most companies, when they start up, will find out what the minimum requirements for paycheck frequencies are for the state that their business resides in - earlier this week we discussed paycheck/payroll frequencies by state - and they will follow those rules.  This will work fine unless you are a contractor who makes the move to Public Works/Government Construction projects and become subject to prevailing wage laws.  This is when problems can occur. Under the Federal Davis-Bacon and…
Read More
31Jan 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Choosing QuickBooks & Add-Ons for Your Construction Business

QuickBooks Add-Ons, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
QuickBooks, while a great software program, is a "generic" accounting program.  Even though there is a "Contractor version", it was designed to meet the needs of all types of contractors - from the home handyman to a general contractor.  Only through the use of QuickBooks integrated add-ons will you find that it then becomes a viable substitute for the more costly construction specific accounting programs available. Welcome to Tuesday Training! Tuesday Training is a new feature here on the QuickBooks for Contractors blog.  While everyday focuses on training of one sort or another, Tuesday’s are dedicated to more in-depth training. We’ll teach you the things you need to know about using QuickBooks, that you won’t find in the QuickBooks Help file, in order to successfully run your construction business and…
Read More
14Apr 2011 by JProfitt

Prevailing Wage Jobs and the Compensation Package

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, From Our Guest Bloggers, The "Sunburst" Website
A prevailing wage job is typically a government funded project.  The Davis-Bacon and Service Contract Acts govern federal projects.  Most states have a prevailing wage law, but there are some that do not so it is a good idea to know the rules before you bid a project. Governments, in their idea of fairness, mandate union rules and compensation packages on the jobs.  So, one of the simple ways to prepare yourself to do prevailing wage jobs is to have an action plan at the ready that will allow you to cope with the requirements.  We will briefly discuss the compensation package. All prevailing wage projects will come with wage determination schedules that detail the base rate and fringe rates for all craft and trades.  The base rate most likely…
Read More
13Apr 2011 by Nancy Smyth

New Certified Payroll Solution Support Article

The "Sunburst" Website
A new Certified Payroll Solution support article has been added to our main website - Matching Your QuickBooks Paycheck Totals With Your Certified Payroll Report Totals A guide for verifying and troubleshooting the accuracy of your final certified payroll reports before you submit them is an important step in your overall success in using Certified Payroll Solution and getting paid on time. This mini-manual focuses on the Federal WH-347 form - which everyone has access to, 99% of the time, if the WH-347 form is accurate, any other state specific form that you are required to complete will be also.  It will teach you how to: Match your QuickBooks paycheck totals with your Certified Payroll Report totals Correct the 6 most common problems, based on over 10 years worth of…
Read More
28Mar 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Are Your QuickBooks Certified Payroll Reports Accurate? How to Check

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Corner, The "Sunburst" Website
Verifying the accuracy of the certified payroll reports that you can generate from QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise versions - IF you also subscribe to Enhanced Payroll, is a must for anyone in the construction industry. I've been watching the posts on the Intuit Community Forums about the alternate, substitute U.S. Department of Labor WH-347 certified payroll reports that can be generated if you have QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise AND an Enhanced Payroll Subscription.  It seems like many people want to know how to generate the reports, if the reports are approved through the DOL (Department of Labor), why they have suddenly stopped working, how to issue "No Work Performed Reports", and how to tell if the reports they are generating are accurate. This article will focus on the requirements of…
Read More
11Mar 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Freebie Friday – AIA Billing (G-702/G-703) Training Exercise

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Customers & Accounts Receivable, Free & Fee-Based QuickBooks eBooks, The "Sunburst" Website
Freebie Friday!  The work week is just about over (for some of us, that is). This week's item is a fee-based AIA (G-702/G-703) Billing Training exercise. Have you ever been asked to complete a G-702 and G-703 billing form and don't know where to even start?  If so, than this training exercise is just what the doctor ordered! Most anyone will tell you that completing the AIA G-702 and G-703 forms by hand is frustrating and difficult.  To fill out one correctly, you pretty much have to: forget about any basic accounting principals you've ever learned ignore change orders that have been submitted or approved, but not processed ignore money that is still outstanding from previously submitted applications for payment You need to realize that the payment applications that you submit…
Read More
23Feb 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Looking for Guest Bloggers

From Our Guest Bloggers, The "Sunburst" Website
We would like to invite our subscribers to write a guest blog article that we will post on our blog.? We know a lot of our subscribers are experts in their own fields and have tips and best practices that everyone could benefit from. What to Write About? We are looking for articles that provide valuable information to the business professionals that subscribe to our blog.? The post could pertain to business lessons you’ve learned that would be valuable for others to hear about, tips for handling certain situations more effectively, compliance issues to avoid or anything that would help business owners run their companies more efficiently.? The articles don’t have to be geared towards payroll or construction, but should relate to using QuickBooks, owning, operating or managing a business.…
Read More
16Dec 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip: User Permissions & Third Party Applications

"Stuff" that drives me insane, General QuickBooks News, New Technology, QuickBooks Add-Ons, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
User permissions  issues can occur especially when dealing with third party QuickBooks integrated applications and the Enterprise edition where user permissions can be highly customized.  In some cases, it appears that all users need to have the same administrative rights when they sign into QuickBooks as when the software was installed. Better understanding of the process may help reduce some of the frustration and allow you to assist your clients in installing the third party application satisfactorily. When a QuickBooks third party integrated application is initially installed, and sends its first request for data, the person who is the QuickBooks Administrator must be logged into the company data file in single-user mode to grant the application permission to access the company data file. Example: Larry is the QuickBooks Administrator and…
Read More
23Aug 2010 by Nancy Smyth

Quick Facts About Microsoft Office Click-to-Run

Microsoft Office, New Technology, QuickBooks Add-Ons
Microsoft Office Click-to-Run is a new way to download and install Microsoft Office Starter 2010, Home and Student 2010, and Home and Business 2010; when you purchase these versions directly from Microsoft. Office Click-to-Run products use a streaming technology (similar to watching a video on the web) to download and install the software to a “virtual” drive called “Q” (a section of the hard drive of your computer which is separate from the rest of your hard drive).   Normally your software is installed in the “C” drive of your computer in the Program Files OR Program Files (x86) folder, however, this “Q” drive is not your typical drive – it has no space that you as a user can access directly and it cannot be access by using Windows Explorer…
Read More
16Aug 2010 by Nancy Smyth

Happy 10th Birthday – Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff, The "Sunburst" Website
Back 2000 who would have thought that developing a QuickBooks integrated add-on would become a very popular trend among software developers? Heck, there wasn't even a widely known, let alone an "Intuit approved method" of accessing QuickBooks data at that time, so WHY would anyone want to form a company that would read QuickBooks data to generate certified payroll reports for construction contractors? Yet, on August 16, 2000 that is exactly what Ben & Nancy Smyth of Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. decided to do - write QuickBooks integrated software that would produce Certified Payroll Reports for government construction projects. Ten years and almost 4,000 contractors using QuickBooks later; Sunburst is still going strong. We would like to say "thank you" to all of our current and past customers for their…
Read More
09Aug 2010 by Nancy Smyth

Closing for vacation – 8/11 through 8/18/2010

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff, The "Sunburst" Website
I'm so excited.  We are closing the office at the end of business day on 8/10/2010 and taking a well deserved vacation from 8/11/2010-8/18/2010. We are going to trade in the sound of a ringing telephone and looking at a monitor all day to the sound of the ocean and looking at the "flower pots" (better known as Hopewell Rocks).  More info at https://www.thehopewellrocks.ca/English/gallery.php Cell phone service will be non-existent and internet will be sketchy at best. See you all when we get back.
Read More