Blog - Page 5 of 9 - Learn to use QuickBooks® in your construction business

25Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

eBook: Learn About AIA Billing & How To Fill Out an AIA G-702/G-703

eBooks

Learn About AIA Billing & how to fill out an AIA G-702/G-703 so that you can be paid on time! Quite frequently, in the construction industry, it is a requirement that you submit your progress billings on AIA Forms G-702/G-703. The AIA billing system is a standardized method of construction percentage of completion contract billing (IE: Progress Billing) developed by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1992. The AIA billing system was developed to provide a standardized method of submitting job related paperwork to send to architects and others by a contractor in order for the contractor to be paid for work performed on a construction project. Typically, the AIA Billing System consists of two forms or pages: G-702 Contractors Application for Payment G-703 Continuation Sheet These forms…

24Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

VIDEO: How to Calculate Equipment Costs per Hour

Business Productivity Tips & Training

How to Calculate Equipment Costs per hour. What does it cost your company, on an hourly basis, to have equipment on the jobsite? Whether you have a mower, a compact tractor, or an excavator on the jobsite, learning how to calculate the cost-per-hour for each piece of machinery that your company owns and uses on a job site is a great tool for understanding, and even eventually, recouping the actual cost of the machine itself. Most contractors have a rough idea of these costs - but these days is a rough idea good enough? We don't think so. Equipment cost-per-hour rates are calculated by adding together three (3) distinct pieces of information. Watch this YouTube video to learn how to calculate the cost of your equipment. Once…

18Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

eBook: Getting Equipment Costs into QuickBooks Job Costing Reports

eBooks

Getting equipment costs into your QuickBooks Job Costing reports is a crucial piece of your overall job costing. If you feel that getting equipment costs into your job costing was a function that only costly construction software was capable of doing. Think again, QuickBooks can track this accurately if it's set up correctly. Yes, it's a little more work - but it's accurate, effective, and a whole lot cheaper than costly construction software. Whether you own, rent, or lease equipment you need to know the hourly or daily cost to have each piece of equipment on the jobsite and you need to get these costs into your QuickBooks Actual vs. Estimate and Job Profitability Reports. Our 32-page eBook will teach you: How to determine the cost-per-hour for each piece of…

16Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

VIDEO: How to Create a QuickBooks Portable Company File

QuickBooks Training

A QuickBooks Portable company file (.qbm) is a compact version of your company data file that contains ONLY your financial data, and because it is much smaller than a backup (.qbw) it can be sent by email or saved to portable media. A QuickBooks portable company file contains only the financial data for your company. Unlike a backup file, it doesn't contain related files such as letters, logos, images, and templates. It also doesn't contain a transaction log (.tlg file), which can be used to restore transaction data with the help of Intuit Technical Support if damage or loss occurs. You can use a portable company file whenever you need to move your company financial data to another computer or location or send it to another person. Another benefit…

13Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

VIDEO: Batch Timesheet Entry in QuickBooks 2012

Videos

Need a productivity boost? Try the Batch Timesheet Entry feature in QuickBooks 2012 to enter hours for multiple employees (or Vendors) at the same time. Entering employee time in the Weekly Timesheet in QuickBooks is a painstakingly slow process, especially if you have a lot of employees - QuickBooks 2012 solves "some" of that with the new Batch Timesheet Entry feature, but it's still not perfect or very flexible. Entering timesheets for multiple employees or vendors all at the same time will be a huge productivity booster for some companies - but only in very specific situations. All employees {or Vendors} must: Work on the same Job Be costed to the same Service Item Be paid under the same Payroll Item Work the same hours each day These requirements…

11Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

eBook: Hiring a Bookkeeper for your construction biz-Test their skills

eBooks

Hiring a bookkeeper for your construction business is a big step - make sure that you are hiring the right person by testing their skills with our Construction Bookkeeper Test. As a busy owner of a construction company, your time is best spent in the field and staying on top of what's going on with your various projects rather than spending hours in the office performing bookkeeping tasks. There comes a time when it just makes sense to hire a bookkeeper to handle the day-to-day data entry tasks, but you also need to make sure that they are familiar with QuickBooks® and the construction industry and the only way to do this is by testing their skills. Hiring some one who seems to have a strong bookkeeping background from their…

10Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

WEBINAR: Certified Payroll Reports – Learn how to fill them out

Live Webinars

How to fill out a certified payroll report, is a question that I've been asked by QuickBooks users for years - so often in fact that I decided to give a live monthly webinar on this very subject. How to Fulfill Your Certified Payroll Reporting Requirements - 2 hour live webinar, $89.00 per person The current economic situation has dealt a serious blow to both homebuilders and commercial contractors and many are finding themselves making the move to Public Works construction and Prevailing Wage projects. Making the move from residential/commercial construction projects to government-funded construction projects, which have certified payroll reporting requirements, can be overwhelming for most contractors, their office staff, and the accounting professionals who support them. This often misunderstood requirement can lead to major problems; including denial…

09Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

VIDEO: QuickBooks Setting up/Creating a Scheduled Payroll Liability

QuickBooks Training

Setting up/Creating a scheduled Payroll Liability will help you keep track of when your payroll liabilities are due to be paid. However, it is often the step that we skip. Payroll taxes, child support deductions, union dues deductions, health insurance - both employee deductions and company contributions are just a few of the items that are run through the QuickBooks payroll feature. The money for these items must be sent to a 3rd party on behalf of the company or the employee and they all have a different date that they must be paid by. The QuickBooks Payroll Center provides you with a "Pay Scheduled Liabilities" section to help you keep track of these important due date - but what if it's not showing anything there? It could be that…

09Apr 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Welcome to Learn to use QuickBooks in your construction business

Announcements, eBooks, Free Stuff, Live Webinars, Videos

Welcome to the initial launch of the Learn to use QuickBooks in your construction business - QuickBooks for Contractors Bookkeeping Tips & Training website! Today is our initial launch and you won't find much here yet, but we will be rolling out content beginning today with much more to follow this week and in the coming months. Enter your email address below to be notified via email each time we add something new to this site: Email Delivered by FeedBurner If you find this post to be helpful, please take a moment to leave a comment or share it with others on your favorite social networking site(s).

30Dec 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Video: Payroll Tip-Health Insurance Tracking Requirements for 2012

Videos

The IRS will require that employer's report the cost of company paid health insurance on employee W-2's for informational purposes only - the costs of the health insurance is non-taxable. Many companies who use QuickBooks usually pay the health insurance premium bill on a monthly basis in one lump sum, which is made up of a specific amount for each employee based on the type of plan or coverage that each employee has. Often times the health insurance payment is treated just like any other bill that the company receives and when handled in this manner, the amounts paid for each employee will not flow through to the W-2 automatically and these amounts will have to be entered manually when W-2?s are prepared. Thankfully, the QuickBooks payroll module is very…