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Author: Diane Gilson, Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor

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Insights About QuickBooks Project Management Apps

QuickBooks Project Management Apps - Pro, Cons, and Insights

QuickBooks Project Management Apps – Pros, Cons & Insights Managing construction projects can be complex, and finding the right tools is key to your success. Have you ever wondered if a project management app (plug-in) might be right for you? (You may have already heard of apps such as JobTread, CoConstruct, BuilderTrend, BuildTools, and ECI’s …

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Using AI to Reduce Manual Data Entry Costs and Errors – Transcript

MakersHub - Reduce time spent on accounts payable by 90%

In this interview, you will learn about an AI tool that will help companies reduce accounting costs and errors by automating the process of entering bills, approving invoices and making payments. Why this matters to you: In most companies, a large percentage of accounting efforts goes into the tedious and error-prone process of manually entering …

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Above vs. Below the Line Markups – Transcript

Above vs Below the Line Markup

In this revealing transcript of the “Above vs. Below the Line Markups” video, Diane Gilson demonstrates two scenarios for determining your markup percentage based on where you account for production overhead costs on your P&L. While neither method is wrong, the second one builds more costs directly into the bid price, resulting in a more …

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Above vs. Below the Line Markups

Above vs Below the Line Markup

Diane Gilson’s insightful video, “Above vs. Below the Line Markups,” featured on our QuickBooks Mystery Theater, delves into the critical decision of where to place production overhead costs in financial reports and its impact on pricing strategies. She poses the fundamental question: Should these costs be above or below the Gross Profit line? The video …

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How Cloud Hosting Really Works With Quickbooks Desktop – Transcript

Real life Cloud Tech with Diane and Jake

In this video, you will learn the power of cloud hosting for QuickBooks Desktop and see a demonstration of how easy and effective it is to manage QuickBooks using a cloud hosting service. Why this matters to you: If you are a QuickBooks Desktop user, cloud hosting is a powerful service that enables essential functions …

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Markup Calculator & Gross Profit Guide (+ Quick Conversion Charts)

In this article, I’ll explain gross profit percentage and markup, AND I’ll give you 2 free “Quick Conversion Charts” to print and carry with you to quickly calculate markup and gross profit percentage. To succeed in business, it’s important to understand two key concepts: gross profit (margin) and markup. Let’s start with some definitions. What …

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Job Costing is Critical for Construction Companies – Transcript

Job costing is critical in construction

In this video, Diane Gilson is asked a series of questions about job costing, its importance for construction companies, and how to implement it. Why this is important: Job costing is the foundation of effective construction projects and company management. Without effective job costing systems that provide accurate and detailed job costing information, companies will …

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Using AI to Reduce Manual Data Entry Costs and Errors

MakersHub - Reduce time spent on accounts payable by 90%

Using MakersHub AI to Reduce Accounting Costs Diane and MakersHub founders Charley Howe and Phong Ngo demonstrate how you can reduce the time your company spends on accounts payable – by 90%! This live demo with Diane, Charley and Phong reveals how you and your company can wave goodbye to detailed manual entry for Bills, Approvals, …

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Avoid the Gross Profit Rollercoaster Transcript

The Gross Profit Rollercoaster Podcast

In this interview, Diane and Dave Sullivan (host of The Roofer Show podcast) dive into what Diane calls the “Gross Profit Rollercoaster.” They explore why ‘highs and lows’ happen in a business (when the numbers aren’t lining up) and how to avoid those ups and downs. Why this matters to you: As Dave says, “You …

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Avoid the Gross Profit Rollercoaster

The Gross Profit Rollercoaster Podcast

In this interview, Diane and Dave Sullivan (host of The Roofer Show podcast) dive into what Diane calls the “Gross Profit Rollercoaster.” They explore why ‘highs and lows’ happen in a business (when the numbers aren’t lining up), and how to avoid those ups and downs. Why this matters to you: As Dave says, “You …

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QuickBooks Payroll: 5 Major Benefits

QuickBooks Payroll makes payday much easier

Yes, your initial QuickBooks payroll setup can take some time and requires attention to detail. BUT manual payroll processing requires even more work – and you have to do it over – and over – and over… Which sounds like the better choice?    QuickBooks Payroll Ask any 10 small and mid-sized business (SMB) bookkeepers and …

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How To Calculate Gross Profit Margin and Net Profit Margin

Every business owner needs to know how to calculate their gross profit margin (%) and net profit margin (%). After all, it’s what shows you how much profit you’re making! As a business owner or bookkeeper, the most important numbers you’ll ever need to know may very well be your profit margins. There are two …

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Gross Profit Percentage: How To Calculate It and What It Tells You

Percentage of Completion as Efficiency indicator

Knowing how to calculate and interpret your Gross Profit percentage (margin) helps keep your profits high and your costs low. Learn how today… What is Gross Profit Percentage? Gross Profit percentage is a measure of profitability that shows your percentage of earnings AFTER you subtract the cost of “producing” those products or services. However, that …

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Broken Database Links In Your QuickBooks Data File – Part 3

Fixing Data Damage in QuickBooks Company Files to Prevent QuickBooks Crashing How to Locate and correct damaged data and transactions in your QuickBooks data file. From time to time, QuickBooks data files become damaged or corrupted, which could cause QuickBooks to crash when opening or working in the company file. We know from experience how …

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Broken Database Links In Your QuickBooks Data File – Part 2

How to verify your QuickBooks data file and rebuild your QuickBooks data file

The QuickBooks Data File Verification Feature Re-sorting Your QuickBooks List The first step in repairing QuickBooks data links in your QuickBooks Desktop or Enterprise files is to re-sort your QuickBooks list. Learn how here. Once you have re-sorted your QuickBooks list, if you are still suffering from broken database links in your QuickBooks data file, you’ll …

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Paying QuickBooks Bills with a Credit Card or Vendor Credits

Use Credit Card to Pay Bills in QuickBooks

Paying your QuickBooks Bills can be easier (even pain-free!) – when you use your software to its fullest capacity. QuickBooks Pay Bills with a Credit Card Company owners and bookkeepers often use credit cards to pay QuickBooks bills. Those who appreciate the convenience of purchasing items or paying bills using credit cards often ask how …

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Setting Up Payroll Schedules in QuickBooks

QuickBooks Payroll and Payroll Schedules

One of your early tasks as a payroll administrator or when you convert to QuickBooks Payroll will be to establish payroll schedules in QuickBooks for your employees. Here’s how. Setting Up Payroll Schedules in QuickBooks Payroll administration can be complex and time-consuming. It requires precision and tremendous attention to detail. Because your employees are counting …

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How Cloud Hosting Really Works With Quickbooks Desktop

Real life Cloud Tech with Diane and Jake

QuickBooks Desktop Cloud Hosting Jake Reeves (Director of Sales at Summit) joins Diane as she does a live (and “real-life”) demonstration of how cloud hosting REALLY works for QuickBooks desktop! Why this matters to you: See how you can set up your own cloud hosting “desktop.” Get answers about how cloud hosting can work for YOUR …

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Manufacturing Overhead: How to Calculate Labor Cost by Job

Manufacturing Overhead Costs To calculate Manufacturing Overhead by Job, be sure to include both manufacturing direct labor costs and manufacturing overhead labor costs. How To Calculate Labor Cost One key in calculating the labor cost portion of your manufacturing overhead is understanding the difference between manufacturing direct labor costs and manufacturing overhead labor. Which of …

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Job Costing is Critical for Construction Companies

Job costing is critical in construction

Diane and Bracken Anderson (from busybusy) recently had a great interview-style meeting where we explored why job costing is critical for construction companies. Why this matters to you: When you understand what job costing is and how to get started with it, you can then focus on your winning jobs. And that means more profits for …

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QuickBooks Account Reconciliations & Discrepancies

Feeling Great when you Resolve QuickBooks Account Reconciliation Discrepancies

Company owners sometimes ask me:  “Should balance adjustments arising from account reconciliation problems cause me any concern?”  Do QuickBooks Account Reconciliation Discrepancies Matter? Account reconciliation is crucial; here’s why… You want to be certain that you and your bank, credit card companies, and lenders agree on the amounts shown in your books. (If not, you …

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Calculating Labor Burden and Profits – Introduction: An Example

Labor Burden or Payroll Burden equals employee cost in additionto gross payroll

Labor Burden: If you’re struggling to understand and measure your Labor Burden and its effect on profit, these articles by Diane Gilson will teach you how to do it. We’ll start with some quick definitions of labor burden and how to calculate it, followed by a real-life example so you can see how it’s done. …

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QuickBooks Online User Permissions and Choices

QuickBooks Online User Permissions When it’s time to set your QuickBooks Online User Permissions, here are the choices you’ll see in the Plus version. QuickBooks Online User Permissions enable you to choose what users can see (access) and do (permissions) within the program. Company Administrator Permissions In QuickBooks Online Company Administrators have all access rights …

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Choosing a QuickBooks ProAdvisor? 13 Crucial Questions to Ask

Download your Choosing a QuickBooks ProAdvisor eBook… Recently, a participant in one of the online forums that I like to ‘attend’ asked “What should I look for when I choose my next accountant?” As a QuickBooks ProAdvisor who’s worked with many different clients within the construction, manufacturing, and various other industries (and ‘in the wake’ …

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7 Reasons To Love QuickBooks Desktop Assisted Payroll

Fast easy payroll with QuickBooks Desktop Assisted Payroll-

QuickBooks Desktop Assisted Payroll is our payroll service of choice at Info Plus Accounting. Because we ‘eat our own (QuickBooks) dogfood,’ we know the quality of this product. And we nearly always recommend Assisted Payroll to our clients. Why do we typically recommend this product to our clients? Here are my top seven reasons: 1. …

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How to Use QuickBooks More Effectively: 10 Tips

How to use QuickBooks Most Effectively

How to use QuickBooks most effectively can be a challenge. But, to help you, here are a series of QuickBooks “how-to” tips from BuildYourNumbers.com! How To Use QuickBooks Do you use QuickBooks to manage your accounting? For years, mid-sized and small-business owners have found QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, and Enterprise Solutions to be the most …

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Accounting for Construction

Construction accounting is a unique type of accounting that requires specific financial management tools. Here’s what you need to know. Construction Accounting… As the owner of a remodeling or custom building company, you likely bring a huge list of abilities and talents to your daily work life! From the tangible job skills to the energy …

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How to Use QuickBooks Job Cost Features to Achieve Your Gross Profit Goals

Job Costing In QuickBooks QuickBooks is designed to help you plan, measure, and monitor company and job results. You can even use QuickBooks Job – Cost Features to Achieve Your Gross Profit Goals! Use its management reporting tools to immediately SEE operating and financial results. Proactively correct problems – before they spin out of control …

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QuickBooks Memorized Transactions + Pizza – Can They Really Improve Your Memory?

How do QuickBooks’ Memorized Transactions relate to pizza? Join Sheila as she experiences an eye-opening and rewarding “Pizza-Lunch-n-Learn” with her friend, Gail…  Overwhelmed With Bills and Emails and P.O.s and Invoicing… Sheila sat at her desk, staring at the stack of emails, Purchase Orders, and Bills she’d need to sort through and enter before she could …

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11 Ways to Take the Pain & Suffering Out of Tax Time

How To Solve the Tax Time Nightmare If you’re someone who dreads January, February, March – and beyond – because those months seem to turn into “Franken-tax” time, you may be asking yourself: “How do other companies do it? What would it be like if I was ALL DONE with tax-related chores by the middle …

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Purchase Orders Are Critical – Here’s Why…

Sample Purchase Order to clarify, document and save money

… My Canadian friend and colleague, Bryan Kaplan of Construction Consulting, recently sent an email about an experience with Purchase Orders that was so insightful I asked if I could share it with you. This quick read will provide you with a handful of Quick Wins! The Saturday Text… It was 11 pm on a …

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Job Costing Increases Profits

Use job costing to dramatically increase profits

What is Job Costing? Job costing, also known by some as job order costing, is an accounting method used to track the costs associated with a specific job or project. This method is typically used in industries where goods or services are produced based on a specific customer order, and each order or job has …

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How to Set (& Keep!) Your Hierarchical View in QuickBooks Lists

Hierarchical View in QuickBooks Do you have QuickBooks lists structured to show in a Hierarchical View? (Think “outline” with headers and sub-elements.) For instance: In your Customer:Job list, do you have a “header” as a Customer, and sub-elements as Jobs? (If not, you may want to do so…) Open your Item List. Do you have …

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The Many Faces of Construction Job Costing

happy with job costing system

Income minus expenses equals gross profit. Your gross profit is the amount you use to run your company and create profits. Job-costing is how you can track the income and the costs you incur to perform each of your jobs. It’s how you get to see the gross profit you earn on each of your projects. Your perception of what you want to see from a job-costing system may be very different than another business owner’s concepts. Why? Because there is no single prescription that fits everyone’s needs.

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Labor Profit Tip #5: The Secret to Making Better Hiring Decisions

Labor Burden Information Tip #5: Make Better Hiring Decisions by Thoroughly Understanding Potential Additional Costs Bad hiring decisions can have a devastating effect on your bottom line, so you want as much objective data at your fingertips as possible before you hire. You can use labor burden calculation information as a starting point when it’s …

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Labor Costs Profit Tip #4: How You Can Stop Over-Runs in Labor Costs

Labor Costs Are a Risky Part of Your Business. Make an Immediate Impact on Your Bottom Line by Heading off Costly Labor Over-runs Before They Get Out of Hand. 7 Ways to Reduce Labor Costs Know and use your true, fully burdened labor costs when estimating. Increase estimating accuracy by using costs based on specific employees (or averages …

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Labor Profit Tip #3: Your Gross Profit Numbers May Be Misleading

Labor Burden Information Tip #3: To See Accurate Job-Cost Reports, Assign Labor Burden Costs to Each Job. If you’re looking for ways to make your company more profitable, getting a handle on your fully burdened labor costs is a critical place to start because it can show you how to: Estimate labor costs more accurately, Price jobs to …

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Job Estimate Tip: Use Fully-Burdened Labor Rates

How fully-burdened job costs yield more accurate estimates

Labor Profit Tip #1: For More Accurate Job Estimates, Include Fully-Burdened Labor Costs for Each Employee What Will The Labor on That Job REALLY Cost? When You Don’t Include Fully-Burdened Labor Cost Info, You May Be In For A Surprise… If you’re not using fully-burdened labor costs for every employee’s work included in your estimates, …

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12 Benefits of Running a More Profitable Company

Want your company to be more profitable? Almost all business owners are constantly working to make their company more profitable. And that’s a good thing, right? It probably is, as long as you achieve it morally and ethically. But is it worth it? Here are: 12 Benefits of Running a More Profitable Company These benefits …

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9 Ways to Take the Pain & Suffering Out of Tax Time

It’s That Time of Year Again – TAX TIME! And guess what? I’ve been working with clients who have been turning their numbers over to their tax accountants starting the middle of January! Do you dread January, February, March – and beyond – because those months seem to turn into “Franken-tax” time? Are you asking …

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QuickBooks for Contractors – Using Items for Job Costing

This post about QuickBooks’ Items is excerpted from our more extensive training video that’s included in our Construction Accounting & Management Program (CAMP). QuickBooks Items: Automating Job Costing for Construction Companies QuickBooks Items enable construction companies to automatically track and report on the financial detail underlying what’s REALLY going on within the financial side of …

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The Worst Training You Can Buy (And Waste Your Time On)

You Found the Perfect Seminar… It’s the training resource you’ve been looking for to make the changes you want in your company. The main problem – your QuickBooks company file was set up wrong from day one. You’ve been making do, but haven’t been getting the job-costing information you need. Now you’ve found the solution …

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It Just Doesn’t Make Sense!

“Why aren’t we making more money? We’re busier than ever, I’m working harder than ever, but things just aren’t coming together like they should!” If this story sounds or feels familiar, you may want to sit in on this meeting to pick up some ideas on how to create Estimate vs. Actual Reports… It Just …

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Why Nick Might NOT Get His Business Loan…

Ever wondered if you could receive more useful and meaningful reports from QuickBooks? Good financial information is not just a matter of convenience! Nick is finding out that what he DOESN’T know about his financial system could pose a major setback to his business… Nick’s “Unique” Profit & Loss Statement “Wow, this is about the longest …

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