These are a few tips for setting up QuickBooks for a
construction (HVAC, carpentry, plumbing, electric, etc.) business:
Tip 1: Always use items for any transaction that is job related.
Tip 2: Your job-related items should always be linked to a Cost of Goods Sold type account so that you can see your
gross margin by job.
Tip 3: If you need to track "in City" vs "out of City" work, use Customer Types, a field available in the Customer
Setup window.
Tip 4:
If you'd like to fully burden your jobs, plan on doing it at the end of the month with a journal entry, don't try to enter
the information during the month as each job occurs.
Tip 5: Link together the estimate and the invoicing by using the same numbering scheme.
Tip 6: In order to see where you are with a job you
can run an estimate-actual report or run a job costing budget report. Decide for your business model what size jobs are estimated
in QuickBooks. Typically it's jobs that are over a certain $ amount.
Tip 7: You can download Home Depot credit
card charges into a Quicken formatted file which you can then convert to a QuickBooks file format using either Synergration
or Big Red Consulting tools.
