accountancy | QuickBooks for Contractors blog

29Nov 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks and the Myth of Do-It-Yourself Accounting

The "myth" of do-it-yourself accounting is a popular myth that is associated with QuickBooks and one that is presented to you from various sources. For example, you walk into the local Staples, Office Max, or what have you, and go to the software section - there they patiently sit on the shelf, those popular accounting packages (QuickBooks, Peachtree, Microsoft), just waiting for you. You look, you consider, you may even touch - can't you hear them whispering to you? They all seem to say, "You need me. You don't need a bookkeeper or accountant to use me. Just think about how much time and money I'll save you. I'm so much easier to use than (competitor)." You feel the lure of those seductive little marketing messages that they whisper to…

03Nov 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Payroll Tips – Getting Ready for W-2 Processing

Payroll Tips

A QuickBooks Payroll Subscription makes processing W-2's pretty much a piece of cake at year end; however, there are still some things that you need to do to properly prepare for W-2 processing. It's not too early to start thinking about year end payroll activities, below are some year-end payroll tips to help you out. By December 1, 2010: Ask employees to verify their name and SSN BEFORE you issue your W-2's. Remind employees that if there is a change in their filing status due to marriage, divorce or dependents (birth, adoption, child turning 21), they may want to file a new W-4 for 2010. When a name is changed, continue to use the old name until the employee presents you with an updated social security card or the SSA…

05Oct 2010 by Nancy Smyth

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

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?, Reports

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. These requirements remain unchanged from the original introduction in QuickBooks 2011.. In this 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. As we discussed in Part 2, accounting professionals and end users will need to change their procedures when creating journal entries so that they were balanced, by making sure that when creating a journal entry that Debits MUST equal Credits…

30Sep 2010 by Nancy Smyth

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

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?, Reports

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; and it gives users the option of selecting “Classes” (fund, location, profit center, or other category) as their column/class grouping. Over the last several days, I’ve been discussing and sharing some information about how we all will need to change our data entry procedures in order to utilize the Balance Sheet by Class Report available in QuickBooks 2011; little did I realize when I started delving into the specifics of this report, that making it work would be so complex. Previous QuickBooks 2011 - New Balance Sheet by Class Report articles include: Part 1, we touched…

28Sep 2010 by Nancy Smyth

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

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?, Reports

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; it gives users the option of selecting “Classes” (fund, location, profit center, or other category) as their column/class grouping. Over the last several days, I’ve been discussing and sharing some information about how we all will need to change our data entry procedures in order to utilize the Balance Sheet by Class Report available in QuickBooks 2011. In previous articles: QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 1, we touched briefly on the fact that transactions will have to be entered in a very specific manner and there are many data entry…

27Sep 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 5

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?, Reports

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. it gives users the option of selecting “Classes” (fund, location, profit center, or other category) as their column/class grouping. Over the last several days, I’ve been discussing and sharing some information about how we all will need to change our data entry procedures in order to utilize the New Balance Sheet by Class Report available in QuickBooks 2011. In previous articles: QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 1, we touched briefly on the fact that transactions will have to be entered in a very specific manner and there are many data…

24Sep 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 4

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?, Reports

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; it gives users the option of selecting “Classes” (fund, location, profit center, or other category) as their column/class grouping. Over the last several days, I've been discussing and sharing some information about the limitations of the New Balance Sheet by Class Report available in QuickBooks 2011 which may make using this report unsuitable for some users. In previous articles: QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 1, we touched briefly on the fact that transactions will have to be entered in a very specific manner and there are many data entry transactions…

21Sep 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 2011 – New Balance Sheet by Class Report – Part 2

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?, Reports

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 will enable QuickBooks users to perform divisional accounting with QuickBooks, which was previously impossible or required significant duplication of effort. While this report has been one that has been requested by many QuickBooks users and the accounting professionals who support them, it is not without limitations and drawbacks, making this a report that will be able to be used by some companies and in some instances but not all. In our previous article, QuickBooks 2011 - New Balance Sheet by Class Report - Part 1, we touched briefly on the fact that transactions will have…

14Sep 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 2011 – New Average Days to Pay Report

QuickBooks 2011 - What's New?, Reports

The Average Days to Pay report was first introduced in QuickBooks 2011, however, also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014 As the name implies, the Average Days to Pay Report shows you the average number of days that it took each customer to pay the invoices that you sent them. To find this report, from the Report menu in QuickBooks Pro and Premier 2011 and Enterprise 11.0 -> choose Customers & Receivables -> Average Days to Pay. [caption id="attachment_962" align="aligncenter" width="292" caption="Right click on the image to enlarge it."][/caption] The report lists all paid invoices and statement charges; grouped together by customer and job. For each invoice (transaction) the report shows the number of days that it took the customers to pay the invoice. QuickBooks will calculate the number…

27Aug 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip-Chart of Accounts, Your CPA & Your Tax Return

QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

Many companies fail to set up their charts of accounts correctly in QuickBooks. Over the years I have seen charts of accountants that look like a collage of accounts in helter skelter format without any logical order, containing duplicate if not triplicate accounts, inconsistent protocols, and even inappropriate, if not undecipherable, names. At tax time, when their CPA receives either a backup or Accountants copy of the file like OR reports that have been created from the file, it becomes an even bigger mess. The trial balance that must be created by the tax preparer requires countless hours of reclassifications and groupings to mesh and coordinate the amounts within the file to the classifications required on tax returns and financial statements. Business owners then bear the costs of needless and…

25Aug 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – The Chart of Accounts, What It Is & It’s Many Uses In Your Business

QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

The Chart of Accounts is the most important QuickBooks list. It is the backbone for a company to track how much money it has, how much money it owes, how much money is coming in, and how much money it is spending. [caption id="attachment_510" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Right click on the image to enlarge it."][/caption] It is not necessary to have a chart of accounts that provides for every conceivable transaction. Instead, the chart of accounts should include the minimum number of accounts necessary to capture the appropriate financial information and be flexible enough to allow for future growth. The chart of accounts should be designed to include the accounts necessary for both financial and income tax reporting. QuickBooks makes it easy for you to set up a chart of accounts.…

03Aug 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Payroll Services-Which Option is Right for You?

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

Figuring out which QuickBooks Payroll option is right for your business can be a pretty daunting task; especially with all of the payroll options that are now available. We all know one thing - if you have employees, you have to pay them! That's simple. Determining which QuickBooks Payroll option is the right solution for your company is a different story though - let's look at the options available: Intuit Online Payroll – internet based and totally removed from your QuickBooks desktop company data file. It comes in two versions – Basic and Plus. Basic includes the ability to process an unlimited number of payrolls each month, includes free direct deposit or allows you to print checks and check stubs on your own printer – directly from the on-line system;…

30Jul 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks for Contractors Tip – Basics of Progress Invoicing

Customers & Accounts Receivable

Progress Invoicing is a standard feature of QuickBooks® Pro, Premier, and Enterprise editions; each of these versions also offer several options for invoicing as well. In order to implement the Progress Invoicing function you must also utilize the QuickBooks Estimate function – this will eliminate repetitive data entry and help you achieve good job costing reports, such as Estimate vs. Actual reports. To activate Progress billing you MUST first log into QuickBooks as the QuickBooks Administrator and be in single-user mode. From the Edit menu -> choose Preferences -> scroll down to Jobs & Estimate -> and click on the Company Preferences tab. Once you are in the Company Preferences tab, review and set the options as follows: Do You Create Estimates – should be set to Yes Do You…

09Jul 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Handling Retainage

Customers & Accounts Receivable, The "Sunburst" Website

Retention or retainage is usually a specific percentage, for example 10%, of the total contract that is held back by the project owner in reserve to protect the owners interest. Retention is not held in a lump sum, but rather held at the stated percentage for the amount requested on each application for payment. Your contract should set the terms, including the percentage and when the hold-back will be paid. Contractors using QuickBooks often run into difficulties when handling retainage/retention; simply because the software doesn't have a means to automatically deal with it. Because QuickBooks doesn't have a built-in retention function, like many of the more expensive construction specific software program, QuickBooks users must initiate work-arounds and make QuickBooks track retainage that is held on each progress invoice. Over the…

08Jul 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Payroll Tip – Changing Hourly Wage Mid-Week

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Add-Ons, The "Sunburst" Website

A reader wrote to ask the following QuickBooks payroll question. How can I change the hourly wage for employees (and their OT rates) in the middle of a pay week when using QuickBooks? I have 54 union employees that I have to do this for due to an hourly wage pay scale increase. Oh, and I will also need to change some of the company paid union fringe benefit amounts as well. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answer: There are a couple of ways that you can accomplish this when using QuickBooks, however, because you are dealing with union hourly wage rates, it really depends on: Are you still working on contracts that will use the existing hourly rates of pay and fringe benefit amounts? Are the new hourly wage rates for contracts that…

Tag: accountancy