quickbooks tips | QuickBooks for Contractors blog

22Jan 2014 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip: How to find “Notes” after an Upgrade

Questions from our readers, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?, QuickBooks Tips & Tricks

A reader asked how to find notes after a recent QuickBooks upgrade. In earlier versions of QuickBooks, I kept employee notes of hiring, pay raises, etc in their files , either under notes or another field in their personal files (where payroll, addresses, etc were kept). Where do i find them now? or are they lost? Many thanks - Bill ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Bill Thanks for dropping by and submitting a question :-) I have to admit that the first time that I opened a QuickBooks 2013 or 2014 file (after having used QuickBooks for years) that at first I thought all of my notes were lost as well. Any employee notes that you kept in QuickBooks 2012 or earlier - that used to appear in the employee record as…

10Jan 2014 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip: How to Calculate Over/Under Billings

Job Costing Tips, Reports

The construction industry often requires that your financial statements be based on Percentage of Completion accounting practices - where you recognize revenue progressively throughout the life of the job. The Percentage of Completion is determined by dividing the costs to date over the current budget (Estimate). The current budget is defined as the original budget (Estimate) plus any approved change orders. An adjustment to the financials for overstated/understated revenue must then happen, because customer monies are often collected in advance of the work in job costing, you’ll want to state the true revenue on the financials carefully. Accounting guidelines recommend that you make your percentage of completion calculations based on Revenue Earned = (Total Costs to Date / Current Project Budget) x Current Customer Contract Sales Price. In reality, you…

09Dec 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Sunburst’s Weekly Wrap-Up of Popular Posts 12/2 – 12/8/2013

News You Can Use

Here at Sunburst, we specialize in QuickBooks for the construction industry – and we have an incredible amount of information between our three QuickBooks related websites; so much so that sometimes people are overwhelmed – I know I am in trying to keep it all straight! Below is a list of the most popular posts and pages from the Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. family of QuickBooks related websites according to AddThis tracking stats. From the QuickBooks for Contractors blog: Q & A: QuickBooks Employee Payroll Reimbursements & Job Costing QuickBooks Tip – Job Costing Starts With A Simple Item QuickBooks Tip – Determing Cost of Goods Sold QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions QuickBooks Tip – Child Support Garnishments How To Turn On and Use Manual Payroll in…

02Dec 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Sunburst’s Weekly Wrap-Up of Popular Posts 11/24 – 12/1/2013

News You Can Use

Here at Sunburst, we specialize in QuickBooks for the construction industry – and we have an incredible amount of information between our three QuickBooks related websites; so much so that sometimes people are overwhelmed – I know I am in trying to keep it all straight! Below is a list of the most popular posts and pages from the Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. family of QuickBooks related websites according to AddThis tracking stats. From the QuickBooks for Contractors blog: QuickBooks at Year-End: Getting Ready for 1099?s QuickBooks Tip – Job Costing Starts With A Simple Item Searching For the Right Time Tracking Add-On for QuickBooks? Cleaning Up Your QuickBooks File at Year End Using Account Numbers in Your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions…

25Nov 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Sunburst’s Weekly Wrap-Up of Popular Posts 11/16-11/22/2013

News You Can Use

Here at Sunburst, we specialize in QuickBooks for the construction industry - and we have an incredible amount of information between our three QuickBooks related websites; so much so that sometimes people are overwhelmed - I know I am in trying to keep it all straight! Below is a list of the most popular posts and pages from the Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. family of QuickBooks related websites according to AddThis tracking stats. From the QuickBooks for Contractors blog: QuickBooks Year-End Tip – Tracking 1099 & W-9 Information Cleaning Up Your QuickBooks file at Year End QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions QuickBooks Payroll Tip – Tracking Employee Advances or Loans Using Account Numbers in your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts Calculating & Displaying Fringe Benefits on a Certified…

27Jun 2013 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip-How To Add a Logo and Customize Your Forms

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup, QuickBooks Tips & Tricks

A QuickBooks Tip on how to add your company logo and customize yoour Estimate, Invoice, and Purchase Order forms in QuickBooks. So you use QuickBooks for your all of you bookkeeping and accounting functions, including creating Estimates, Invoices, Purchase Orders, etc. Good for you! It sounds like you are using many of the built-in features and functions. But do the "forms" you send your clients/customers, vendors/subcontractors scream QuickBooks when they are opened? Just because you use QuickBooks doesn't mean that you can't send out professional looking forms. Spend some time working with your Form Templates and go from drab to WOW! Where do I find the Form Templates? You'll find the Form Templates from the QuickBooks List menu -> Templates. Once there if you look in the Type column you'll…

06Jun 2013 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Tip – How To Handle Stored Materials and AIA Pay Apps

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks Add-Ons

QuickBooks has no built-in ability to handle stored materials, like many of the more costly construction specific software programs. This causes problems for contractors who need to generate AIA Pay Apps and need to make sure that their books (or accounting data) syncs with their AIA Applications for Payments. This question was originally asked on the Intuit Community forums. I am unsure of the proper way to handle stored materials. My General Contractor lets us bill for stored materials used in construction by way of standard AIA Pay Apps. I am needing a way of keeping my AIA Pay Apps and QuickBooks invoicing in sync. All invoices are done with AIA payment applications so the GC never sees the QuickBooks invoices. However, I still need to produce the estimate and…

09Oct 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 2013 – Group Item Limit Increase

Customers & Accounts Receivable, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?

In QuickBooks 2013, the Group Item limit has been increased to 50 in Pro and Premier – this means that a single QuickBooks Group Item can hold up to a total of 50 individual items! I’m a big fan of QuickBooks Group Items, I think that they are a HUGE productivity booster – but I’ve always had one gripe – they could only hold 20 items in previous versions of QuickBooks – which meant that you had to create more group items in order to accomplish what you set out to do. This has changed with the release of QuickBooks 2013. With the increased number of items that a group can hold, these item types will be even more powerful. While some of you may know, I’m not a fan…

16Jun 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 6/8-6/14/2012

News You Can Use

Weekly wrap-up of news and information from around the web – there’s so much information out there that it’s difficult (at best) to keep up! I’ve added a WordPress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday. I’ll try to be consistent and organize the information into the same categories each week. Accounting & Taxes ARTICLE: What to Look for in a Construction CPA https://t.co/UXOu0CU5 -> Planning Your Accounts Receivable Collections https://t.co/HtxlaiHg -> How the IRS Feels About Employer Provided Cell Phones https://t.co/NQ7wvv2q -> eBooks, Webinars & Videos eBook: Learn About AIA Billing & How To Fill Out an AIA G-702/G-703 https://t.co/Hc3jyNIn -> eBook: Payroll Mistakes. It's…

04May 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 4/27-5/3/2012

News You Can Use

There is so much news and information floating around the web – it’s difficult (at best) to keep up! I’ve added a WordPress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday Accounting & Taxes IRS to Step up Audits of Sole Proprietors https://t.co/yXwtWsHG -> Chimpanzees and Charity - Tax & Business Counsel Newsletter via @TaxReturnCoach https://t.co/CEpZ8ppw -> IRS releases 2013 inflation adjustments for HSAs https://t.co/i58Sjl2U -> eBooks, Webinars & Videos eBook: Learn About AIA Billing & How To Fill Out an AIA G-702/G-703 https://t.co/Hc3o6nJh -> WEBINAR: Certified Payroll Reports - Learn how to fill them out https://t.co/Dkflvo5Z -> eBook: Getting Equipment Costs into QuickBooks Job Costing…

01May 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Entering Bills or Checks in QuickBooks – Items vs. Expenses

Job Costing Tips, Vendors & Accounts Payable

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. 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. Because you do you a choice to use an Items or Expense tab when entering transactions in QuickBooks; many people…

27Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 4/20-4/26/2012

Construction News

There is so much news and information floating around the web - it's difficult (at best) to keep up! I've added a Wordpress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday. Payroll ARCHIVE:: QuickBooks Creating a More Meaningful Payroll Expenses Section https://t.co/jx9eioLw -> ARCHIVE:: QuickBooks Setting up/Creating a Scheduled Payroll Liability https://t.co/nbER1ogk -> EEOC issues update on criminal-background-check policy https://t.co/CnuxPi9Y -> ARCHIVE:: Payroll Tip - Health Insurance Tracking Requirements for 2012 https://t.co/3G1FkmAA -> Use #QuickBooks? Tired of manually calculating overtime? Check out https://t.co/8pIGV5Yo -> Use QuickBooks? Need to change rates of pay for multiple employees? Check out https://t.co/tgn397Dz -> ARCHIVE:: E-Verify Update https://t.co/lruDd54Y -> ARCHIVE:: What's…

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…

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…