purchasing

Entering Bills or Checks in QuickBooks – Items vs. Expenses

Published May 1, 2012 | By Nancy Smyth

Your business spends money on a wide variety of things - employee payroll, payroll taxes, office supplies (such as paper and envelopes), utility bills, things that you purchase to resell to others, and goods or services from others are just a few examples. In essence every penny that your business spends is an expense to your business - but how you record the purchase in QuickBooks does make a difference. When entering bills, checks, or even credit card purchases in QuickBooks you have the choice to use an Items or Expenses tab - choosing the Items vs. Expenses tab will depend on what the money being spent was for.

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

Published March 28, 2012 | By Nancy Smyth

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.

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Estimate to Purchase Order Blues

Published March 27, 2012 | By Nancy Smyth

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.

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QuickBooks Tip – Understanding QuickBooks Inventory Cost

Published March 10, 2011 | By Charlie Russell

If you are using QuickBooks to manage your inventory, you need to understand how QuickBooks deals with the cost of inventory items. Guest blogger, Charlie Russell explains how QuickBooks handles these costs.

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QuickBooks Tip-Tracking Retainage Payable to Subcontractors

Published March 9, 2011 | By Nancy Smyth

There are two possible ways to track retainage that you owe to your subcontractors; one method utilizes a Sub-Account of Accounts Payable, called Retainage Payable, and the other method utilizes an Other Liability Account, called Retainage Due to Subcontractors. Please review the setup and use of both methods, and choose whichever one seems more appropriate for your use.

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QuickBooks 2011 New & Improved Purchase Order Reporting

Published September 16, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

First introduced in QuickBooks 2011, however, also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014. Intuit has finally fixed the Purchase Order Reporting to ACCURATELY display open balances, without a lot of additional manipulation by the user. My overall opinion is that for any company that issues Purchase Orders, this is a marked improvement in the overall functionality of QuickBooks.

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QuickBooks 2011 Available Beginning September 27, 2010

Published September 7, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

The news we have all been waiting for – QuickBooks 2011 announced.

According to a press release from Inuit, QuickBooks 2011 will be available to purchase beginning on September 27th 2011 directly from Intuit and Authorized QuickBooks Affiliates (such… Continue reading →

QuickBooks Question – Inventory for Contractors

Published July 6, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

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… Continue reading →

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QuickBooks Tip – Construction Accounts Payable

Published June 24, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

If you think that job costing is all it takes to have a good construction accounting system – think again! You need a firm handle on your costs and QuickBooks when properly setup and used does a very good job, however, you also need to be able to control those costs.

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QuickBooks Tip – Job Costing Starts With A Simple Item

Published June 10, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

Job costing in QuickBooks starts with the Item List. When you tell this to most contractors they respond with “Items --- I don’t sell ITEMS --- what does Items have to do with construction?????

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QuickBooks Tip – Determing Cost of Goods Sold

Published June 8, 2010 | By Nancy Smyth

I tell my clients that Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is any cost incurred that directly relates to getting the sold goods out the door. I have them ask the question "Would you have this expense if you hadn't made the sale?"

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