23Jan 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Working With Taxable & Non-taxable Items and Customers

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Free & Fee-Based QuickBooks eBooks, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup, Webinars & Training
Working with taxable and non-taxable items and customers in QuickBooks sometimes just freaks people out and causes them to over think the entire situation.  I'm frequently asked how to do this by people who are setting up our AIA billing program - here's a question that I received recently. I am getting ready to set the AIA billing program {Construction Application for Payment Solution} up tomorrow and just have a few questions. Should the income items each be posted to an income general ledger account?  Or will I use the subtotal line to point to an income account?  If I have to post each income item to an income account - I will have to do 2 sets of them, one for wholesale (no tax) and one for retail (taxable)…
Read More
04Jan 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Prevailing Wage Jobs – Fringe Benefits Question

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Questions from our readers
Payment of fringe benefits on prevailing wage jobs frequently cause a lot of confusion - such as the question submitted below from a reader. My boyfriend is being told that the company he works for will be taking half his pay each week to put in a 401k HALF!!!  I wanted to know if this is legal---they say if he doesnt sign the paper he will be fired so it is mandatory.  Is this legal?  He is in construction and works for a prevailing rate.   Thank you very much - Janelle Hi Janelle There may be some confusion and/or miscommunication going on here and NOT knowing the full details I can only provide you with basic information. When an employee works on a prevailing wage job {rate job}, he has…
Read More
07Dec 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Payroll Tip-Worker’s Comp Tracking on Vacation, Holiday & Overtime Pay

Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers
Payroll can be one of the most complex duties of any bookkeeper's job - especially when you need to OR want to track your Worker's Compensation costs for job costing purposes and pay your employees Vacation, Holiday and Overtime wages.  Just take a look at this question, submitted by one of our blog subscribers! I have set up the Workers Compensation tracking in QuickBooks for a construction company with no problem, it seems to be working fine.  My question is - how do you keep track of Holiday, Vacation, and Overtime pay?  Do I set up each payroll item with the Workers Comp {WC} rate for each class?  For example Carpenter-Holiday and Carpenter-Vacation?  Thanks, Kathleen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: Hi Kathleen; That's an excellent question! One of the first things that you…
Read More
15Nov 2011 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Dealing With Special Invoicing Requirements

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Questions from our readers
Dealing with special customer invoicing requirements can be a royal pain!  Sometimes it feel like each customer you deal with says "if you don't invoice me like THIS you aren't going to get paid".  While QuickBooks is a very flexible software program, sometimes it's very difficult to meet the requirements of specific customers or clients.  Below is a perfect example, submitted by a reader of just how difficult billing requirements can be. I use QuickBooks Contractor version as a self-employed contractor with a hospital.  The problem is I get the job on a P.O. from the hospital, say it's for $80,000. As I do different stages of the job I bill the hospital for that stage and they send me a check.  When I do the next stage the hospital…
Read More
07Jul 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Paying Employees Using Different Frequencies

Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers
A reader asked the following question regarding paying employees using different frequencies: We are new to QuickBooks payroll and would like to set up different pay frequencies for our employees, as follows: Company officers - monthly salary Clerical staff - hourly basis, bi-weekly Field Workers - hourly basis, weekly How do we accomplish this when using QuickBooks? _______________________________________________________ Answer: Yes, you can accomplish this when using QuickBooks Basic, Enhanced, or Assisted Payroll. QuickBooks allows you to create a "Pay Frequency"  and a "Payroll Schedule" to meet your various payroll needs. Begin by going to the QuickBooks Employee Center and clicking on the Employees tab. Pick an employee and choose the Edit Employee button, switch to the Payroll & Compensation Info tab.  In the upper right corn you will see a…
Read More
06Jul 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Question – Inventory for Contractors

Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Add-Ons
A reader asked the following question: We are a small contractor in San Diego and we are wondering how we get around having to always do an inventory adjustment to get our purchases to the correct COGS account?  We have (2) departments but they are both doing construction projects:  Service dept does smaller installs and Contracts dept does the bigger jobs so I have been doing a JE to move the material from the Contracts material COGS account to the service COGS account. Is there an add-on for QB Enterprise 8 that we could use? Thank you so much for your website/blog. I've been reading it faithfully every day! ____________________________________________________________________ There are several inventory add-ons for QuickBooks Pro, Premier and Enterprise; check out these 3rd party add-ons at the Intuit…
Read More
01Jul 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Question – Tracking Prevailing Wage Fringe Benefits

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Questions from our readers, The "Sunburst" Website
A reader wrote to ask the following question: We were just awarded a contract with the Department of Defense and have to pay our employees "prevailing wage" and submit certified payroll reports.  I called Intuit Support to ask them about prevailing wage, certified payroll, and how to track the fringe benefits; they weren't very helpful - they just told me that QuickBooks can produce the certified payroll report.......can you help me understand all this? Answer: Ok, let's start with some basics: The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 (a Federal Law) set wage rate requirements on government funded construction projects. All contractors & subcontractors who perform work on these public works projects, that have a value of $2,000.00 or more, are required to submit a certified payroll report on a weekly basis.…
Read More
29Jun 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Construction A/P – Tracking Subcontractor Insurance

Free & Fee-Based QuickBooks eBooks, Questions from our readers, Vendors & Accounts Payable
A reader wrote to ask the following question: I have a vendor (subcontractor) whose general liability insurance expired.  In QuickBooks I was able to produce a check for them.  How do I QuickBooks to notify me that their insurance has expired? Answer: Unlike some of the more costly construction specific software programs out there, QuickBooks wasn't designed to prevent us from generating a check to a Vendor/Subcontractor whose General Liability or Worker's Compensation insurance has expired. The QuickBooks Premier (or Enterprise) Contractor edition does have a "section" in the Additional Info tab of the Vendor Record where you can enter an expiration date for both Worker's Comp and General Liability insurance - and if you enter dates in these fields you will get a warning when using a vendor whose…
Read More
28Jun 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Accounts Payable – Vendor Bill Approvals

Questions from our readers, Vendors & Accounts Payable
A reader asked the following question: Do you know of a good method for indicating or tracking that a vendor bill is approved for payment? Answer: Technically, the bill should be approved before it is input into QuickBooks; and generally indicating on the front or face of the document/purchase order/voucher/vendor invoice or whatever you happen to call it, is usually the relied upon method. 1.  Purchasing inexpensive “custom printed stamps” is probably one of the easiest ways in which to start the process. When ordering custom made stamps you can include lines with places for accounting to approve the document signifying that the invoice had all pertinent documentation attached, that the dollar amounts matched, and the date that the invoice was received. Be sure that there is another line or…
Read More
23Jun 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Employees With Multiple Rates of Pay

Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers, The "Sunburst" Website
A customer called with the following question: We have 25 employees on the payroll at all times - more in the summer when things are busier.  My employees can earn multiple rates of pay in one week (sometimes even in the same day) on the same or multiple jobs.  How do I handle this in QuickBooks without always having to manually change the pay rate when I create their paychecks?  To be more specific, let's talk about "Joe".  Joe can work as: a laborer making $12.00 per hour a dozer trax operator making $17.00 per hour a skid steer operator making $18.00 per hour a supervisor making $25.00 per hour _____________________________________________________________________ Answer: This is indeed a complex situation, as well as a very common one, and having to manually change…
Read More