A Few Quickbooks Questions

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bjp_ne_elec

Senior Member
Location
Southern NH
I'm new to Quickbooks (have QB Pro), so please bear with what may be some stupid quesions - but I'd like to get off to the right start.

1. Don't want to maintain inventory so intent is to purchase for the job. Typically I'll have one main purchase at the Supply House and I give the job a PO #. Can I just make an entry of each purchase (sometimes it's a list of 20 items, others it may be 4-5 as the job is winding down, and so I might end up with five invoices from the Supply House). So can I enter eacn invoice total, and then if so, under what pull down - again bear with some dumb questions.

2. Now on customer invoicing - typically I set it up so it's 50% at initial material delivery ,and then 25%/25%. I tried to do an "invoice" with the amount of the downpayment and it chocked, as it gave it a negative numberr - and then it prompted me to go to "Credit Memo" - then I was lost. Any tips on what to do here.

3. Tools - obviously, as I'm new in the business, I've been purchasing quite a few tools - so what pulldown do I go to do that.

Note - I've been working so that all my purchases are bought and paid for with my Company Debit Card - so can I just take my statements from the bank and just make appropriate entries for each purchase (when I buy tools or material) or payments (when I pay the supply houses for the monthly statments I recieve).

Trying to keep this simple - but maybe it's not. If I can get these three bigh "hurdles" worked out, I'm more than half way home!

Thanks,

BRett
 

hardworkingstiff

Senior Member
Location
Wilmington, NC
BRett,

If you do not have an accountant, you should get one. Spend a couple/three hours with them and you should have answers to all of these questions (and some you did not know you should be asking). Make sure your accountant is fluid in Quickbooks Pro. The $200 - $400 you spend here will be well worth it.


Lou
 

Oakey

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
hardworkingstiff said:
BRett,

If you do not have an accountant, you should get one. Spend a couple/three hours with them and you should have answers to all of these questions (and some you did not know you should be asking). Make sure your accountant is fluid in Quickbooks Pro. The $200 - $400 you spend here will be well worth it.


Lou

Thats what I wind up doing bjp. He sat there and listened to my questions, did the work for me and saved it to a flash drive so I could bring it home and go over it on my own slow time. Srry I couldn't be more help.
 

JohnE

Senior Member
Location
Milford, MA
Brett,

1. I don't track inventory, so I don't have advice.

2. For situations like this, I'd create an invoice for the entire job. Create a subtotal. Then create an item for 50% deposit due. Then that invoice total will be for the amount owed for the deposit. Then receive payment. I can give you this example: When I invoice for a new house or one of my regualar builders, I create an invoice approximately 2-3 pages long listing everything that will be done and showing this total as a subtotal. My next line item is a "discount" of 30% reading "amount to be billed on finish". The final line item is another "subtotal" reading "amount now due for rough wiring".

3. Talk to your accountant. I only record the expensive tools that I buy and list them as an asset.

I can e-mail you some of my invoices that I've done and try to explain them. I set up items for all of our regular tasks, and just manually enter oddball stuff. I spent lots and lots of time setting up my items so that my invoices would be quick to do and look the way I want them.
 

elect4

Member
Location
georgia
is quick books a good program to help learn how to start a elect business. I'm trying to research things before i also start one. Ive started by getting my license already. Now I need to find programs or anything that would help me get started with the business and tax part.
 

JohnE

Senior Member
Location
Milford, MA
The best advice on these subjects will come from an hour or two with an accountant. Quickbooks is great to manage your business, not to learn about your business.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
If you don't have any type of accounting background take the advice of others and sit with an accountant and let him set up your program.

Having said that, I have an older edition of QB Pro and I refuse to update it (If it ain't broke - don't fix it !!) Updating gives you many new features and eliminates some others. Once you upgrade you can't go back. For example, if you list some of your customers as "inactive" or "close" a job, once you upgrade that $$ info gets routed into a subfolder and is used by the program as a reference only. The customer info disappears forever.

Anyway, if you're really intent on accurate job administration you can post your supply house invoices with the total amount in the upper right corner and in the detail section you can split out those portions that apply to each customer as long as it adds up to the original amount of the invoice (don't forget to calculate the sales taxes for each customer). The long and short of it is that when you print out a P & L statement you'll have gross revenue less cost of sales and job materials leaving gross profit. Then it will deduct all expenses leaving you with net profit. As far as I'm concerned, unless you're the size of Exxon or are a publically owned company that has to adhere to FASB's and AICPA rulings I wouldn't be so concerned with the accuracy of accounting for each item. The program will do it for you .

As far as customer invoicing goes, when you perform a job in accordance with your estimate I would send out a bill for the entire amount. If you receive a partial payment, when you enter it into your recorde the "reminders" section will show what the balance is and when you drop down your customer's invoice it will show what the balance is. As far as re-billing you can do a "transaction by customer" report and it will show what has transpired to date. If you wish, you can get the deposit check info (jot it down), pull down your customer's invoice, insert a description showing "Deposit, check #, dated" and insert a negetive # in the $ column. Then print out the new invoice showing the payment and balance but don't save the invoice in that mode. Click "cancel" and it will bring you back to the original mode. Or, you can also send out the original invoice with a "statement" of account.

Just set up tool as an expense.

As far as I'm concerned QB Pro is a far better accounting program than Peachtree Accounting. Especially for people that have a limited knowlwdge of proper accounting practices. It's more user friendly.
 

bjp_ne_elec

Senior Member
Location
Southern NH
J_Erickson - you don't consider all your tools an expense? So you just pay out of your pocket, not throgh the business? Drill, ladders, saws - I consider expensive - so you do expense these. What about things like drill bit, sawzall blades, batteries for the flashlight, Klein's diagonals (not expensive, but not cheap), etc.

Thanks

Brett
 

JohnE

Senior Member
Location
Milford, MA
bjp_ne_elec said:
J_Erickson - you don't consider all your tools an expense? So you just pay out of your pocket, not throgh the business? Drill, ladders, saws - I consider expensive - so you do expense these. What about things like drill bit, sawzall blades, batteries for the flashlight, Klein's diagonals (not expensive, but not cheap), etc.

Thanks

Brett

Since I purchase a lot of small tools from the electrical supply store, some of these purchases are "mistakenly" considered materials, not tools.:)
 
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