QuickBooks, while a great software program, is a “generic” accounting program. Even though there is a “Contractor version”, it was designed to meet the needs of all types of contractors – from the home handyman to a general contractor. Only through the use of QuickBooks integrated add-ons will you find that it then becomes a viable substitute for the more costly construction specific accounting programs available.
Welcome to Tuesday Training!
Tuesday Training is a new feature here on the QuickBooks for Contractors blog. While everyday focuses on training of one sort or another, Tuesday’s are dedicated to more in-depth training.
We’ll teach you the things you need to know about using QuickBooks, that you won’t find in the QuickBooks Help file, in order to successfully run your construction business and obtain accurate job costing reports; from eBooks, live webinars, and recorded training sessions.
You’ll find high-quality (budget friendly) training without having to leave the comfort of your home or office.
Choosing QuickBooks and QuickBooks Add-Ons for Your Construction Business
Whether you currently use QuickBooks or are thinking of using QuickBooks for your construction accounting package you need to be aware that QuickBooks, while a great software program, is a “generic” accounting program and will not do everything that you may need it to for your business by itself, unlike more expensive construction specific software.
If you are like most contractors, you probably do not think of yourself as a “computer hardware/software expert’. In fact, when faced with the thought of purchasing new computers and/or software to automate critical, time consuming tasks within your business, you end up feeling overwhelmed. Many contractors end up turning the project over to someone else. This unfortunately, is one of the major reasons that this type of project fails.
Download the complete article to find how you can make your project succeed!
We hope that you’ve found today’s Tuesday Training article to be helpful to your business – if so please take a moment to leave a comment or share this with others on your favorite social media network using the buttons below.
Top 10 Thursday features 10 of the most interesting articles that I found the previous week. There is so much news and information available on the web – it’s difficult to read everything and stay up to date. As I read articles on the web – I’ll share some that I feel are important.
General Business:
Bookkeeping, Accounting, Payroll & Taxes
Construction
- An Analysis of Arizona’s Prompt Payment Statutes {Private and Public Works}
- San Diego has $13.4B in construction projects in the works
- Missouri DOT works to make state bridges safer
- Rochester, NY gets $100M for Interstate 390 upgrade
- New York Construction Defects Paper
- Architecture billings up, construction materials prices down
- Department of Labor {DOL} Proposes Hiring Goal for Federal Contractors to Employe Disabled Workers
- Missouri Proposes to Eliminate Prevailing Wage Requirements
Marketing & Social Media
Well, there’s our Top 10 most interesting articles for last week – do you have some interesting news that you’d like to share?
A QuickBooks for contractors tip about receiving and applying joint checks from a general contractor to pay a lower tier subcontractor or material supplier for work completed or materials on a construction project.
Quite frequently, in the construction industry, a contractor will receive a joint check from a General Contractor to pay their lower tier subcontractors or material suppliers for work completed and/or materials delivered to the construction project’s job site.
Unlike many high-end construction accounting packages, QuickBooks doesn’t have a way to handle this automatically — or easily.
This QuickBooks for contractors tip provides what we consider to be a best practice when a situation like this arises.
Problem:
Your company, Sam Subcontracting, received a $10,000.00 joint check from Joe’s General Contracting; which is made out to both your company AND O’Fallen Gravel {your Vendor/Material Supplier} who delivered sand, gravel, and crushed rock to a jobsite. The $10,000.00 was included in your most recent invoice totaling $45,000.00 that you sent to Joe’s General Contracting AND you have a $10,000.00 invoice from O’Fallen Gravel in Accounts Payable. Amy, your bookkeeper, isn’t sure how to correctly receive this payment against your own Accounts Receivable AND correctly apply this payment to your Accounts Payable.
Solution:
When Amy is ready to receive the payment against the invoice issued to Joe’s General Contracting AND record the payment to O’Fallen Gravel, she should do the following:
- Verify that she has a special “Clearing” Account in her QuickBooks Chart of Accounts that is a “Bank” type – if one does not exist she should create it by going to the Lists menu -> Chart of Accounts -> Account -> New -> Type = Bank -> Continue -> Account Name = Clearing -> Save & Close.
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- Click the Receive Payment icon on the QuickBooks Home Page – OR – from the Customers menu -> choose Receive Payments. Received From = Joe’s General Contracting -> Amount = $10,000.00 -> Date = Current Date -> Pmt. Method = Check -> Check # = Check Number -> Memo = Joint Check issued to O’Fallen Gravel -> Deposit to = CLEARING ACCOUNT. Click Save & Close.
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- The balance in the Clearing Account should now be $10,000.00.
- Click the Pay Bills icon on the QuickBooks Home Page – OR – from the Vendors menu -> choose Pay Bills. Choose the O’Fallen Gravel bill -> Method = Check -> Select Assign check number -> Account = CLEARING ACCOUNT.
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- Click Pay Selected Bills.
- In the Assign Check Numbers window – enter the number of the check that you received from Joe’s General Contracting.
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- Click OK
- The balance in the Clearing Account should be 0.
Make sure that you also have the proper Lien Waive and Release forms.
We hope you found this QuickBooks tip to be useful — if so please take a moment to leave a comment, share it on your favorite social media site or click the +1 button below.
We are teaming up with the Associated General Contractors {AGC} of America San Diego Chapter, Inc. for a day of QuickBooks for Contractors on Tuesday November 8, 2011; 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM .
QuickBooks is the leading small-business accounting software on the market today. But when it comes to knowing how to use QuickBooks in the commercial/government construction industry and dealing with complexities such as AIA Billing and certified payroll reporting, finding help becomes difficult. Join us {Nancy Smyth – Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.} as we team up with the Associated General Contractors {AGC} of America San Diego Chapter; for an intensive day-long training session for using QuickBooks in the commercial/government construction industry. Below are some of the highlights of the course.
Morning Session – Job Costing, Estimating, Purchases & AIA Billing using QuickBooks
- The importance of job costing
- Working with/setting up you QuickBooks Item List {aka your cost codes}
- Creating and using Estimates & Progress Invoices
- Tracking Committed costs and subcontracts with Purchase Orders
- Proper Vendor/Subcontractor invoice entry
- Getting Equipment costs into your job costing reports
- AIA Billing and automation
Afternoon Session – QuickBooks Payroll & Certified Payroll
- What is Certified Payroll? Who makes the rules and how to comply
- Working with Wage Determinations
- Determining employee labor burden – OR – the hourly cost of having employees on the jobsite
- How to include employee labor burden in payroll
- Setting up and using QuickBooks Payroll to deal with Prevailing Wages – regardless of how you pay your fringes
- How to fill out a certified payroll report – what information is needed
- Electronic certified payroll filing requirements
- Automating the certified payroll reporting process
Who should attend?
- Business owners
- Estimators
- Controllers
- CFO’s
- Payroll processors
- Office Managers
- Accounting & Consulting professionals
- Union and non-Union Contractors
This course will be held at:
AGC San Diego Chapter Inc., 6212 Ferris Square, San Diego, CA 92121
Phone: (858) 558-7444 Extension 101
When: Tuesday November 8, 2011
Time: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM (8 hours)
Cost: $199 AGC Members OR $259 Non-Members
Register Online: https://www.agcsd.org/Calendar/Registration/registration.php?classType=educat&classID=1244
I look forward to seeing and meeting you all! Nancy Smyth, Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc.
If you have 100 or more employees or are a federal contractor, you likely must file the EEO-1, VETS-100, or VETS-100A forms. Find out what your obligations are and why the VETS reporting has been delayed in this article from HR Matters.
The deadline is approaching for many employers to report to the federal government the ethnic, racial, gender, and veteran composition of their workforces. Specifically, if you are a covered employer, you must file the Employer Information Report, Form EEO-1, by September 30, 2011. But, thanks to a technical glitch, the VETS-100 and VETS-100A forms are not due until November 30, 2011.
Employer Information Report, Form EEO-1
As a reminder, private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees and a contract of $50,000 or more are required to submit annual EEO-1 reports to the Joint Reporting Committee (JRC), a committee of the EEOC and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). These reports track employee data by race, ethnicity, sex, and job classification. The EEOC uses the data to support enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and to analyze employment patterns. The OFCCP uses the information to target employers for compliance evaluations.
The EEO-1 must be filed each year by September 30. Employment figures from any pay period in July through September may be used. Online reporting is the preferred method of filing, though employers are permitted to file paper reports.
Currently, there are seven race/ethnicity categories: Hispanic or Latino, White, Black or African-American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. (As you may recall, the EEO-1 report got a major overhaul in 2007 as a result of findings from the 2000 census that increased the number of race/ethnicity categories from five to seven.) To obtain the information, you are directed to ask employees to self-identify voluntarily. If an employee declines to self-identify, you can rely on visual identification of the employee or post-employment records. The EEO-1 instruction booklet includes sample language, in Section 4 of the instructions’ appendix, that you can use in an employee questionnaire on race and ethnicity to explain the EEO-1 voluntary self-identification process.
The EEOC has provided helpful information on the EEO-1 Report on its Web site at http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/index.cfm, including a a copy of the EEO-1 instruction booklet, online at http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/upload/instructions_form.pdf
VETS-100 and VETS-100A
Certain federal contractors, regardless of the number of employees, also must file the VETS-100 or VETS-100A form. The VETS-100 and VETS-100A require you to report the number and job classifications of the veterans you employ, and like the EEO-1 report, normally are due September 30. This year, though, because of “technical problems” (according to the special announcement posted on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Veterans’ Employment and Training Service Web site), contractors will not be able to begin filing online until October 1, 2011, and then will have until November 30, 2011, to submit their forms.
Which contractors must file the VETS-100, versus the VETS-100 A, is a bit confusing, however, thanks to a statutory increase in the contract threshold size that was formally implemented in 2008. The contract threshold size was increased from $25,000 to $100,000 by the 2002 Jobs for Veterans Act, which initially was scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2003. The law also changed the categories of veterans covered that employers must report. However, the DOL did not issue implementing regulations until May 2008, and as a result, the $100,000 threshold and new reporting categories were not implemented until 2008.
According to the regulations, found in 29 C.F.R part 61-250, the VETS-100 form must be filed only by federal contractors with current contracts of at least $25,000 entered into before December 1, 2003. Federal contractors that entered into a contract of at least $100,000 or more on or after December 1, 2003, must file the VETS-100A according to regulations found in 29 C.F.R. part 61-300. Further, contractors that modified contracts entered into before December 1, 2003, and the modified contracts are now worth $100,000 or more also must file the new VETS-100A.
Employment figures from any one pay period ending between July 1 and August 31 of the current year may be used for the VETS forms. As with the EEO-1 report, online reporting is the preferred method of filing, though employers are permitted to file paper reports. If you have questions about either the VETS-100 or VETS-100A, you may direct them to the VETS-100 Help Desk at (866) 237-0275 or via e-mail to VETS100-customersupport@dol.gov. Information about the filing requirements and sample forms from 2010 are available online at http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/fcp/main.htm
Additional Resources provided by HR Matters:
- Download a free Equal Employment Opportunity model policy including HR best practices and legal background – you will need to create a free access account to download the information.
- Contact them TODAY to at (800) 274-6774 to order the CD of their Audio Conference being held today on the Federal Contractor’s Affirmative Action Plan: How to Prepare for New OFCCP Enforcement mention Conference Code PPSE.
This article is being republished with permission.
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