Day old sushi at a gas station mini-mart
Rolex watches for sale on the street corner
Low cost cosmetic surgery
Diamond rings for sale out of a van
Weight loss pills, drinks and gimmicks
Get rich quick schemes
Everyone likes to save money and get a good deal; however, there are areas where it makes sense to get the best you can afford and for contractors there are three critical areas you must not buy on price alone:
Tools and equipment
Cell phones
Contractor bookkeeping services
If you cannot get the reports and information you need to operate and grow your company perhaps it is time to get a FREE second opinion on how your QuickBooks setup was done. Here are some key areas we will look at:
Accurate QuickBooks contractor reports are what profitable contractors use to help them steer their construction company through the ups and downs of the business cycle much like a large ocean liner on the high sea.
Today more than ever owning and operating your construction company is a rough and tumble game because everyone has access to so much information and now more than ever you need clear and concise actionable information to survive and thrive.
The same QuickBooks contractor reports the profitable contractors use are available to every all four types of contractors from the one-person “Dog and Pickup Truck” to the "Enterprise" level contractor. For more on this click here.
Incidentally the size of your construction company is not as important as how much money you earn from it. Our internal research has shown that a properly run construction company with annual sales of $250,000 to $5,000,000 can generate more hard dollars for the owners and employees than a company with annual sales between $5,000,000 and $20,000,000. It has to do with understanding the Expansion Isoquant and knowing the difference between maximize and optimize. For more on this click here.
The QuickBooks reports number that are available number in the thousands and with any one of the hundreds of add-on software you could generate millions reports. If you are a construction accountant like me you would love it. I love learning about construction reports and I invest a certain amount of time testing and reviewing add-on software to find more BBCR (Bigger Better Construction Reports). That's all fine and nice; however you want to know:
The reports that stand the test of time are:
The Five Key Performance Reports, (KPI) Reports. Cash Report, Receivables, Parables, Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet. For more on this click here
Job Costing Reports, Job Profitability Reports. For more on this click here
Understanding and using the information they provide to make strategic and tactical decisions to increase sales and profits in your construction company. What if I told you there is buried treasure in your backyard and all you need is a treasure map to find it and dig it up, would you be interested? Of course you are!
Correct QuickBooks Setup Is The Decoder Key
If your QuickBooks setup was done by a QuickBooks Expert in construction accounting and maintained correctly you are riding high and living well! If not, we can fix just about any QuickBooks setup by performing a QuickBooks cleanup and importing all of the transactions. The Chart of Accounts is the foundation and if your Chart of Accounts is not setup right you will not have anywhere to put the transactions.
User Permissions
Company Information Window
Chart of Accounts Direct Construction Costs
Chart of Accounts Indirect Construction Costs
Chart of Accounts Work-In-Progress For Land Developers
Chart of Accounts Work-In-Progress For Land Development Into Lots
Chart of Accounts Work-In-Progress For Spec Builders
Chart of Accounts Work-In-Progress For Spec Home Into Rentals
Chart of Accounts Over Billings For Earned Value Reports
Chart of Accounts Under Billings For Earned Value Reports
Chart of Accounts Retention From Your Customers
Chart of Accounts Retention For Your Subcontractors
Chart of Accounts Job Deposits From Your Customers
Chart of Accounts Indirect Construction Costs
Chart of Accounts Prepaid Expenses
Chart of Accounts Job Deposits
Chart of Accounts Fixed Assets
Chart of Accounts Depreciation
Chart of Accounts Intercompany Transfers
Chart of Accounts Payroll
Chart of Accounts Payroll Taxes
Chart of Accounts Payroll Tax Liabilities
Chart of Accounts Customer Discounts
Chart of Accounts Bad Debts
Chart of Accounts Customer Checks Returned From Bank
Chart of Accounts Employee Loans And Repayments
Chart of Accounts Jobsite Costs
Chart of Accounts Warranty Work
Chart of Accounts Sales Tax Errors
Chart of Accounts Mobilization
Chart of Accounts De-Mobilization
Chart of Accounts Leases
Chart of Accounts Purchases
Chart of Accounts Marketing
Chart of Accounts Advertising
Chart of Accounts Owner Loans And Repayments
Chart of Accounts Special Accounts For Sole Proprietors
Chart of Accounts Special Accounts For LLC Corporations
Chart of Accounts Special Accounts For Sub-S Corporations
Chart of Accounts Special Accounts For Partnerships
Chart of Accounts Special Accounts For LLP Limited Partnerships
Chart of Accounts Special Accounts Flipper Houses
Chart of Accounts Credit Cards
Chart of Accounts Lines Of Credit
Chart of Accounts Short Term Loans
Chart of Accounts Long Term Loans
Chart of Accounts Spec House Construction Loans
Chart of Accounts Land Development Construction Loans
Chart of Accounts General And Administrative
Chart of Accounts Occupancy Costs
Chart of Accounts Triple Net Leasing Costs
Chart of Accounts Technology
Chart of Accounts Professional Fees
Chart of Accounts Taxes
Chart of Accounts Licenses
Chart of Accounts Insurance Builders Risk.
Chart of Accounts Insurance Vehicles
Chart of Accounts Insurance Liability
Chart of Accounts Insurance Health And Dental
Chart of Accounts Financing Costs
Chart of Accounts Interest Earned
Chart of Accounts Gain And Loss On Fixed Assets
Chart of Accounts Estimates
Chart of Accounts Sales Orders
Chart of Accounts Purchase Orders
Item List Direct Construction Costs
Item List Indirect Construction Costs
Item List Construction Job Deposit
Item List Construction Labor Costs
Item List Construction Material Costs
Item List Construction Other Costs
Item List Construction Subcontractors Costs
Item List CSI Codes For Commercial Construction
Item List Bid Bond Deposits
Item List Sales Tax For Cities (Updated When It Changes)
Item List Sales Tax For Counties (Updated When It Changes)
Item List Sales Tax For State (Updated When It Changes)
Item List Land Developers Direct Costs
Item List Land Developers Indirect Costs
Item List Spec Home Builders Direct Costs
Item List Spec Home Builders Indirect Costs
Item List Retention Held By Customers
Item List Retention Holding For Subcontractors
Item List Work-In-Progress Costs For Land Developers
Item List Work-In-Progress Transfer Costs For Land Developers
Item List HUD-1 Statement Transfer Costs For Land Developers
Item List Work-In-Progress Costs For Spec Home Builders
Item List Work-In-Progress Transfer Costs For Spec Home Builders
Item List HUD-1 Statement Transfer Costs For Spec Home Builders
Item List Work-In-Process Transfer Costs For Spec Home Builders
Retention Tracking For Your Customers And Trade / Subcontractors
Payroll For Your Employees
Payroll Sick Days
Payroll Vacation Days
Payroll Loans Setup And Tracking
Payroll Loan Repayment Setup And Tracking
Payroll Reimbursement Setup And Tracking
Payroll Garnishment Setup And Tracking
Payroll Child Support Setup And Tracking
Payroll Tax Table
Owners Time To Job For Job Costing Without Affecting Financial Report
Preferences In 23 Categories Each One With Multiple Decision Points
Price Level List
Billing Rate List
Sales Tax Code List
Other Names List
Customer Profile List
Vendor Profile List
Templates List
Memorized Transaction List
Memorized Reports List
Our process for QuickBooks setup for construction is a whole lot longer than what I am showing here.
Our construction company clients offer a lot of feedback regarding what they would like their QuickBooks contractor to do and we listen to each and every request and look for ways to add those enhancements and more.
On average our QuickBooks setup template will have 50 enhancements a year. We test them on our server and when they are proven to work we manually update each and every client that has their QuickBooks contractor file on our server. And then we test each update on every client QuickBooks contractor file to make certain it will work.
Most of the time our clients do not even know when a template update happened, they just know it works a little bit better and something that was a problem no longer is a problem.
The one BIG PROBLEM we caution you about is be careful when you tell another contractor about all the reports and how Fast And Easy your QuickBooks contractor works because in most cases they will not believe you. It is the difference between QuickBooks setup the easy way and QuickBooks setup the hard way!
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