14Mar 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Company Short on Cash? This is the bill to pay FIRST!

Be A Better Bookkeeper, IRS Information, Payroll Tips
Is your company short on cash and wondering which bill to pay first?   That bill should be your payroll taxes! At one point or another, every business is going to be short on cash and will be faced with the challenge of figuring out which bill they should pay first.  The first bill that you absolutely have to pay first is your is your payroll tax bill - otherwise it is going to cost you dearly in the long run! Below is a real example, taken from the March edition of The General Ledger, a monthly newsletter from the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers. To deal with its financial problems T Corporation decided to pay several creditors, putting off for two quarters paying employment (payroll) taxes and filing related returns. …
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04Feb 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Freebie Friday – Project/Contract Information Worksheet

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Free & Fee-Based QuickBooks eBooks
Happy Friday!  Where has the week gone?  I think for most of us, we've spent the week "digging out" from yet more snow! This week, our Freebie Friday giveaway is a Project/Contract Information Worksheet. Using a Project/Contract Information Worksheet is one of the best ways to document key information about requirements for a specific job and will help you to keep your project paperwork organized. We've developed a basic 2-page Project Information worksheet, with the help of several contractors over the years; it summarizes important aspects of a particular job and keeps essential information handy, it's also a great thing to give to your key office staff.  When you are working on multiple projects, you do not want to have to stop to re-read a lengthy contract in orer to…
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11Nov 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Contractor Tip – Handling Negative Change Orders

Customers & Accounts Receivable
Change Orders are a fact of life that a contractor must deal with on just about every construction project that they are involved with. Construction contracts start with an original bid amount for specific cost codes, phases of work, or line items.  However, most construction contracts change as work proceeds; resulting in both increases and decreases or positive and negative change orders - which affect the original bid amount. There are many ways in which people will handle Change Orders when using QuickBooks, such as just going to the original Estimate and changing the dollar amounts of the affected items.  This is a "quick and easy fix"; however, it doesn't leave a good documentation trail for what occurred on the project and can cause a lot of confusion. Handling change…
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08Nov 2010 by Nancy Smyth

SBA to begin contracting program for women

Construction News, IRS Information
News from the National Association of Government Contractors SBA officials announced on Oct. 4 that the agency is setting up procedures to help woman-owned small businesses gain more access to the federal contracting marketplace. A final rule is forthcoming in the Federal Register. Working with the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, SBA officials will begin a four-month implementation of the Women-Owned Small Business program. They will be building infrastructure to support the certification process and allowing for ongoing oversight. Officials say that by early 2011 contracts will begin to become available to small businesses owned by women under the program. Such an initiative has been promised for years to bolster access to women-owned businesses who have been an historically under-represented segment of the government contracting community. The proposed rule states that…
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01Jun 2010 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip 10 Plus Methods of Accounting for Construction Contracts

Be A Better Bookkeeper, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
Every contractor, regardless of their business structure (sole proprietor, partnership, corporation) has to choose an overall method of accounting; before the first federal tax return is filed.  Accounting methods include: the cash method the accrual method the accrual method which excludes retentions, and (possibly) a hybrid method(s) Depending on the type, size, and length of the construction contract, there are various methods of accounting for long-term construction projects that are allowed - each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. A contractor will need to select a specific long-term contract accounting methods - possibly with different methods for it's exempt and non-exempt contracts - and also selects sub-treatments for the classification of contracts and the allocation of indirect costs. In a nutshell, accounting for long-term contracts relates to the treatment…
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12Jan 2009 by Nancy Smyth

Hawaiian rail construction bids to be up for grabs

Construction News
From the AGC SmartBrief Newsletter dated 1/12/09. Honolulu officials hope to start construction on an elevated commuter train in December of this year. The first of four contracts worth about $1 billion is expected to be awarded in February. Later this year, it will award a contract worth up to $600 million to a firm selected to design and build an elevated six-mile guideway, as well as one worth $120 million to build a maintenance storage facility. Read the entire article here.
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12Jan 2009 by Nancy Smyth

Army Announces plans for $4B in storm-protection contracts

Construction News
From the AGC SmartBrief Newsletter dated 1/12/09. Contracts worth $4 billion for levee and drainage projects in New Orleans will be offered by the Army Corps of Engineers. "The 113 contracts for the hurricane and storm-damage risk-reduction system will be the largest number we award in any given year," said Col. Gregory Gunter, operations officer for Task Force Hope. "It's going to be a huge year." Projects involve bringing structures up to 100-year flood levels, improving drainage and adding a new pumping station. The Web site, https://www.FedBizOps.gov, will advertise the contracts. Read the full article
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