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Author: Diane Gilson, Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor

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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

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. And those who appreciate the convenience of paying bills using credit cards often ask how to properly …

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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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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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QuickBooks Account Reconciliation 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? In my experience and opinion, accounts should reconcile – right down to the penny – almost all of the time! Account reconciliation is paramount; here’s why… The account reconciliation process is just …

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Calculating Labor Burden and Profits – Introduction: An Example

Labor Burden Cost of Employees

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 to 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 …

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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

It’s that time of year again – TAX TIME! And guess what? I’ve been working with clients who have been turning in their numbers to their tax accountants starting the middle of January! If you’re someone who dreads January, February, March – and beyond – because those months seem to turn into “Franken-tax” time, you …

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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 USE YOUR INFORMATION TO PREVENT LABOR COST OVER-RUNS Know and use your true, fully burdened labor costs when estimating. Increase estimating accuracy by using costs …

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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

Is your company profitable? It’s the time of year when hundreds of thousands of U.S. business owners are looking at their prior-year financial results to determine if their business was profitable… If you’re one of those business owners, it’s worth taking a moment to evaluate your success, and ask yourself: “Am I exuberantly happy? Somewhat …

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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 …

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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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Top 5 Tips for QuickBooks Experts Know (and You Should Too)

New to QuickBooks? Feel like you’re all alone? Well, you’re not! Every new user could use tips to get them started in QuickBooks… You’ve started your new business from scratch and know you need to really get a handle on your numbers. Maybe you’ve been recruited by a family member – or hired by a business owner …

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Top 7 Reasons Business Owners Call a QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Assistance from a QuickBooks Prodvisor

Based on 20+ years of incoming requests for assistance from business owners, here are the top 7 reasons I’ve found that they call me as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. See if any of these scenarios sound like what you may be facing in your company… As a business owner, you learn through trial and error what makes …

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5 Ways To Make Your Construction Business More Profitable With QuickBooks

COGS in the business machine

Finding clients and providing products and services – that’s just the beginning! Here’s how to be more profitable with QuickBooks… Successfully managing your own company means that you need to get profitable – and stay that way. Unfortunately, many business owners don’t realize how their day-to-day financial info impacts their profits. To achieve consistent profitability, …

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

Gross profit percentage: In plain English, this is the percentage of money you’ve made from selling a good or service – after you subtract the cost of producing that good or service. You want that percentage to be as high as it can reasonably be. The higher your gross profit percentage, the healthier your business and the more profit you’ll …

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How to Squeeze More Profits Out of Every Construction Job

How to squeeze more profits out of every job

A version of this article first appeared in the Builder Partnerships newsletter. It just seems logical… …that every business owner would want to know exactly what each type of job costs (so they know how to price it). Right? And they’d want to monitor what’s going right and what’s not (financially) as the job progresses …

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QuickBooks Sunset on May 31 – What does it mean for your business?

QuickBooks Pro Premier Enterprise sunset impact

Will the QuickBooks Sunset Impact My Accounting or QuickBooks Services? Quickbooks “sunset” only applies to 2020 (and earlier) versions. Until May 31, 2023, you can get QuickBooks customer support and add-on services for Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. However, if you are still using a 2020 version of QuickBooks, you …

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15-Months in Your Business Year? How & When Will You Invest Them?

Business Planning Group

January to December… Our calendar encourages us to divide our personal and business lives into those 12-month chunks of time.  But what could happen if we decided to break out of that traditional mind-set – especially when it comes to business planning?        My “15-Month-Year” Business Planning & Coaching Session I recently sat in …

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Underbilling Calculation for Employee Labor: Free Labor Calculator

under billing calculation

How Much Are You Losing From Undercharging for Employee Time? This Free Calculator Helps You Estimate!  Underbilling for Employee Labor? Here’s what that’s costing you! Free Labor Calculator Here’s a free calculator to help you do the math. If you are underbilling for employee labor, use it to discover how much revenue you may lose …

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9 Job Shadowing Benefits

What might you be able to accomplish for your company if you create employer or employee shadowing teams for a couple of hours? Or even a couple of days? Employer or Employee Job Shadowing – Could It Work For YOUR Company? A client recently told me that she wasn’t as pleased with the performance of a couple …

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Custom Fields in QuickBooks

Custom Fields to Customize QuickBooks Desktop

5 Ways to Tailor, Tag, & Track Specialized Information QuickBooks Custom Fields Have you explored the many ways to use Custom Fields in QuickBooks?  If not, you’ll likely be surprised at how this feature can vastly expand the “trackability” of specific data that’s unique (and often, vitally important) to your company. Would it be helpful …

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A Tale of 4 Companies: A Job Cost & Gross Profit Drama (Part V)

Investigate unusual numbers to track down problems

If you haven’t already read them, you’ll probably want to visit Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV of this “Tale of 4 Companies: A Job Cost & Gross Profit Drama” before beginning the following “Part V.” We’re joining Paul (owner of Paul’s Perfect Projects LLC), Walt (Production Supervisor at Paul’s), Jenn (Estimator …

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