invoice | QuickBooks for Contractors blog

06May 2014 by Nancy Smyth

Is Managing QuickBooks Purchase Orders Driving You Insane?

Questions from our readers, Vendors & Accounts Payable

Implementing the QuickBooks Purchase Order function can speed up data entry and ensure accurate job costing, because you don’t have to worry if you are selecting the correct cost code from the QuickBooks Item List; BUT knowing which Purchase Order belongs to which Vendor Bill can be quite a task – see this question from a reader. Hi, We are a growing construction business and we have recently starting creating Purchase Orders to our Subcontractors and Materials Suppliers from our QuickBooks Estimates – this feature works great and I love it. It makes data entry so much easier and allows us to easily see if our costs are increasing without our knowledge. We have one vendor that we buy the majority of our materials from, so we have a lot…

28May 2013 by Diane Dennis

Conditional Waiver / Release Upon Final Payment – Part 4

Customers & Accounts Receivable, From Our Guest Bloggers

When it’s time to submit the invoice for the final payment you may need to include a “Conditional Waiver and Release Upon Final Payment” form (#3 release). Usually this release form does not include a “release through date” like the #1 and #2 forms do because it’s your final invoice on the project. If you have suppliers you’ll probably have to include these same forms from them. Once you’ve received payment and it has cleared the issuing financial institution then typically that Conditional Release becomes an Unconditional Release. That means you’ll never be able to file a lien on the project (which is okay as long as you’re paid in full). State Requirements For Waiver / Release Forms Each state has its own requirements for release forms. Although many are…

30Apr 2013 by Diane Dennis

Conditional Waiver/Release Form Upon Progress/Partial Payment – Part 2

Customers & Accounts Receivable, From Our Guest Bloggers

When it’s time to submit an invoice for a partial / progress payment you may need to include a “Conditional Waiver and Release Upon Progress Payment” form (#1 release). If you have suppliers you’ll probably have to include these same forms from them. Once you’ve received payment and it has cleared the issuing financial institution then typically that Conditional Release becomes an Unconditional Release (#2). That means you’ll never be able to file a lien for that time frame. State Requirements For Waiver / Release Forms Each state has its own requirements for release forms. California recently changed its mechanic’s lien laws requiring new wording on its release forms. Keep an eye out for any possible changes in the requirements for the state(s) you work in. Usually a #1 release…

21Mar 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Retainage Payable and Receivable – What’s the Difference?

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup, Vendors & Accounts Payable

Retainage or retention, in the construction industry, is an agreed upon portion of the contract price that is deliberately withheld until the work is substantially complete to assure that the contractor or subcontractor will satisfy its obligations and complete a construction project. Retainage is often confusing all by itself, and then there is also a lot of very confusing terminology as well. But there is a difference between Retainage Receivable and Retainage Payable. To put it as simply as possible: Retainage Receivable is money that is owed to you, while Retainage Payable is money that you owe to someone else Usually, if you are a General Contractor you will need to track both Retainage Receivable (for money due to your company) and Retainage Payable (money you owe to your Subcontractors).…

28Aug 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Tracking Timesheet Hours vs Hours Invoiced

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers, Reports

Tracking timesheet hours vs hours invoiced is crucial for a companies cash flow. See this question submitted by a reader. Hello Experts, I'm looking for a report so I can compare hours reported via the timesheet or really hours that have been paid out Vs. the hours that have been paid for or Invoiced. I've also noticed it is possible to add time to timesheets that have already been billed. Is there a way to prevent this? Thanks for your time and energy. Brian Hello Brian Thanks for stopping by and submitting a question. QuickBooks has some good time tracking reports, here are my recommendations for some reports for you to look at. The Time by Job Detail Report is available in all versions/flavors (Pro, Premier, Enterprise); access it from…

16Aug 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Billing Employee Time to Customers

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Customers & Accounts Receivable, Questions from our readers, Reports

Billing employee time on customer invoices is something that many business need to do - not just contractors who perform Time & Materials Billing. Making sure that you bill all of the time your employee(s) have spent working on specific jobs or tasks for customers is crucial and depends data that you've entered in QuickBooks. Here's a question from a reader. Hi Nancy- Thanks for the tips. I'm used to using the "Unbilled costs by job" report, however I am stumped when it comes to billable hours I've entered using the timesheet function. How do I tell if I need to create an invoice for a client to bill them for hours entered? Those hours do not show up on the "Unbilled costs by job report" !! Any help would…

16May 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Payroll for Work Hours & Drive Time Invoicing Problem

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

Entering payroll for normal employee work hours and drive time and passing only the work hours through to client invoices is not only important but confusing. The following question was submitted by a reader. Hello - I own a residential and commercial cleaning company. I have several employees. I pay from the start of the first job till the end of the last job of the day (not including lunch break). I have my employees fill out a time tracker sheet each day that shows the time started at the first job till the end, drive time in between jobs, so on and so forth. I enter this into QuickBooks but I can't figure out where to enter in drive time to pay the girls their hourly wage on…

30Mar 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip: How To Create a Summary Invoice for Customers

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Job Costing Tips, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

This QuickBooks tip discusses how to create a summary invoice for a customer when you need to track details for job costing purposes. This question was submitted by one of our readers. How can I print a summary invoice for an estimate that does not show all the details. Most of my jobs are Total Contract but I really have things broke down to examine my job costs. This break down is very confusing to customers who just want a basic contract description and price. Any suggestions? Thanks, Jim Hi Jim What you are experiencing is very common - a conflict between your need to good job costing an your customers need for something simple - all from the same Estimate in QuickBooks; and without having to duplicate the…

28Mar 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Estimates vs. Purchase Orders: What’s the difference?

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Customers & Accounts Receivable, Job Costing Tips, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup, Vendors & Accounts Payable

Estimates and Purchase Orders can be created using QuickBooks. Many people want to know what the difference between the two are and when it is appropriate to use them. I often see a lot of confusion on the QuickBooks forums about Estimates and Purchase Orders, what the differences are, and when you should use each one. An Estimate, otherwise known as a Bid, Proposal, Quote or perhaps even a Schedule of Values in the construction industry, is a detailed breakdown of work or tasks that you will perform in order to complete a project for a specific customer or a specific job and what you will charge them to do it. A Purchase Order, on the other hand is normally something that you issue for materials or the services…

27Mar 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Estimate to Purchase Order Blues

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup, Vendors & Accounts Payable

In QuickBooks it's possible to create an Estimate and then from the Estimate create a Purchase Order, Sales Order, Invoice or even a letter - but there are some drawbacks to these features as noted in the question below, submitted by a reader. Hello, I have just upgraded from Pro 2009 to Premier Contractor 2012. I did this so I could turn Estimates into Purchase Orders. I spent an hour on the phone with Intuit yesterday to have them say, "oh, it can't do that". So I am scouring the internet for someone that can help me. When you choose to create a PO from select items, the selection screen has no line descriptions. We don't have item codes for everything we sell, that is never going to happen. …

19Mar 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Cost Plus Billing: Automatic Markup of Items

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Questions from our readers

QuickBooks can do Cost Plus OR Time and Materials billing, however, Markups can only be calculated on Expenses. See this question submitted by a reader and learn about ways that you can mark-up Items. In QuickBooks Premier for Contractors is there a way to apply automatic markup on a Item when creating a time and materials invoice? In Premier, from everything I've read, asked experts, and surfed the web; a vendor purchased item that is to be applied to a job should be regarded as a non-inventory item, and applied to a COGS account. In entering the vendor's bill the bill is recorded as an Item which then can be automatically linked to the customer on a time and cost invoice. Since the columns of the invoice can not…

06Mar 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip: Prior Amount Totals for Invoicing from Estimates

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Questions from our readers, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

A QuickBooks tip for getting prior amount billed totals to appear when creating Progress Invoices from an Estimate; when you've either had to start a new QuickBooks company file or you are switching from another accounting software. I'm trying to get my JTD beginning balances to appear in the "Prior Amount" totals prior to preparing my first invoice. I used your "To enter the JTD billing for each job" information to create JTD prior invoicing amounts. When I create a new invoice there were no prior amounts or percentages shown on my progress invoice. When I create an invoice stating the percent to bill, it calculates my percentage based on the estimate amount only--No JTD amounts show up. I did create an invoice with a dollar amount and saved…

05Mar 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – Back Charges After a Job is 100% Complete

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Questions from our readers

A QuickBooks question and tip about handling back charges or other changes after a job is billed at 100%. First...I love your blog...totally! My question: I've got a client who uses estimates and prepares their progress billings from the estimates. They have had a couple of jobs in which the job is 100% billed out (but not yet 100% collected - there is outstanding A/R) and then the owner disputes something and they have to do a backcharge, therefore, reducing the total amount of the project. We change the estimate with a change order to reflect the decrease in the overall contract amount. We would like to "connect" that change to the invoicing/progress billing cycle on the job but since the job is all billed out, the only "invoice" that…

07Feb 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip: Important Facts About Items Left as Billable

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup

Many QuickBooks forms have a billable column, do you know what it's used for and are you using it correctly? Many QuickBooks forms have a billable column available for you to work with - checks, enter bills, timesheets, enter credit card charges, etc. The purpose of the billable column is to allow you to choose which expenses and/or time entries that you will be passing through to customers when you create an Invoice based on Time & Costs {also know as Time & Materials billings or Cost Plus billing in the construction industry.} 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…

16Jan 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Weekly Timesheet – Service vs. Payroll Item

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips

The QuickBooks Weekly Timesheet can cause a lot of confusion for users who are implementing employee time tracking for the first time, mainly because the timesheet contains both a Service Item and a Payroll Item. This article will explain what each column is used for and some common pitfalls that can happen. Job costing and employee time tracking are important aspects of many businesses - not just construction businesses. However, when you initially set up timetracking there are many things that can cause confusion. About Service Items: The Service Item column represents the type of work that is being performed and allows you to select/enter/choose the name of the service item/cost code from your Item List that you want to use when your charge/bill your customer for this work -…

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