One of the most common complaints we hear from contractors is they feel like they are missing out if they are not using all that QuickBooks has to offer.
Most contractors are hard driving Type "A" personalities who are concerned they are paying full price for QuickBooks and only using a fraction of what it can do and it drives them crazy.
QuickBooks has over 100 built in reports and those reports can be filtered to display over 1,000,000 combinations. In addition to the staggering number of custom and special reports that can be developed in QuickBooks.
The sheer volume of reports in QuickBooks makes it impossible to use all of them. The truth is no contractor uses 100% of the power of QuickBooks.
For Example - The simple Profit & Loss Report Can Be Shown Four Different Ways With Little EffortThe First Two Profit & Loss Reports Show Accrual Basis Vs. Cash Basis.
Accrual Basis is generally for internal use by the contractor to make decisions about operations and forecasts.
Cash Basis is generally for external use for calculating and paying taxes. Wise contractors only pay tax on the money they collected.
Editor's Note: We see many QuickBooks for contractor files where the contractor is paying tax on money they have not collected and when we ask why, the most common answer is the tax accountant wants to make sure the contractor pays their fair share of taxes. We agree with half of that statement; contractors need to pay their fair share of taxes but not until they absolutely have too for two reasons:
#1 Paying bills early hurts cash flow
#2 If someone never pays it can be tricky getting refunds from tax agencies.
The Next Two Profit & Loss Reports Show Accrual Vs. Cash And % of Income
The Percentage Of Income Is very Useful For:
#1 Comparing changes year over year
#2 Comparing your contracting company with your competitors
#3 Looking for trends to find ways to improve cash flow and profitability
The most successful high profit contractors we deal with every day in our outsourced contractors bookkeeping services who are earning over 20% net profit and paying themselves $100,000+ in annual salary have these things in common:
They use less than 5% of the power of QuickBooks.
They use less than 1% of the available reports in QuickBooks.
They focus on the critical few reports that give them 95% of what they need to take action rather than trying to glean 100% of the information from all of the available reports.
There are Five Key Performance Indicator Reports that when looked at every day can double, triple or more your construction company annual profits and cash reserves.
This may sound too good to be true and yet it is not. Because it requires discipline, effort, and it is not fun and easy. You can read about them here Five Key Performance Indicators.
One final thought, garbage in = garbage out. The main reason most contractors do not and will not ever succeed in business is they do not have accurate financial and job costing reports.
I sincerely encourage you to seek the services of a construction accounting service that you trust to setup QuickBooks correctly for your particular contracting company and if it makes sense let them handle all of your day-to-day contractor bookkeeping services. It will be one of the best decisions you will ever make. Don't take my word for it click here to read what other contractors say.
For Construction Company Owners who do not need the full power of QuickBooks for contractors and want 24/7 online access we offer Xero Accounting Online and we have custom setup for construction companies. Click Here For More.
This Is One More Example of how Fast Easy Accounting is helping construction company owners all across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii put more money in the bank to operate and grow your construction company. Construction accounting is not rocket science; it is a lot harder than that and a lot more valuable to people like you so stop missing out! Call Sharie 206-361-3950 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com and schedule your no charge one-hour consultation.
Profitable Contractors and Construction Company owners have known about the value of outsourced bookkeeping services and contractor coaching services like ours for a long time and now you know about it too!
We Scan Your Receipts And Invoices link the appropriate transactions to QuickBooks or Xero Accounting Online depending on the construction accounting service you are using and provide ongoing Cloud Based Contractors Bookkeeping Services by accountants who understand construction.
About The Author:
Our Co-Founder Randal DeHart - Is a Certified PMP (Project Management Professional) with several years of construction project management experience. His expertise is construction accounting systems engineering and process development. His exhaustive study of several leading experts including the work of Dr. W. Edward Deming, Michael Gerber, Walter A. Shewhart, James Lewis and dozens of others was the foundation upon which our Construction Bookkeeping System is based and continues to evolve and improve. Check out our Contractor Success Map Podcast on iTunes and Follow Randal on Google+