If you’re struggling to understand or measure your labor burden and its effect on profit, let BuildYourNumbers.com help you with our job cost and accounting tutorials. Labor Burden & Profits: Connect the Dots! Got employees? If so… What’s it cost to put them “into the field”? What should you be charging for their time? Should …
Custom Fields in QuickBooks
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 …
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 …
Basic Accounting Concepts Explained
Starting or taking over your business’ accounting system can be confusing. So, let’s start by introducing some basic accounting concepts, principles & terms. First, it’s good to ask yourself, “Why is accounting an essential building block in my business?” Most people assume this is true and leave it at that. But in more concrete terms, …
Gaining Control Through Job Cost Accounting
Learn how job cost accounting can help small-business owners take control over each job and their profits through cost and profit analysis. As a small-business owner, one of the best ways you can track the real progress of your business is through job cost accounting. In other words, if you keep track of your income …
Top Five Reasons To Use Inventory Software for Your Small Business
Learn how inventory software can help your small business save time and money over the long term. Small-business owners have to keep track of their inventory just like all other businesses, but with fewer resources available to them. You could try to track inventory by keeping a list in a notebook or on a spreadsheet, …
What Does Financial and Accounting Software Offer a Small Business?
Have you ever wondered how financial & accounting software could benefit your business? Learn to manage your own finances with QuickBooks… Every business faces the challenges associated with accounting. But for mid-sized and small businesses especially, the challenges associated with managing money can mean the difference between success and failure. As a small-business owner, you …
Be More Successful Day-to-Day Through a Management Accounting System
Learn how to implement a management accounting system – so you can make informed business decisions each day! Did you know there are different types of accountants and accounting viewpoints? Many business owners don’t. There are a handful of different kinds of accounting systems, but the two main kinds are management accounting and financial accounting. …
Why Choose QuickBooks Desktop for My Small Business Accounting System?
Choosing an accounting system for your small business? Read about the flexibility, usability, and comprehensive features included in QuickBooks desktop software. As a small (or mid-sized) business owner, you’re faced with multiple options when it comes to choosing the best business accounting system for your company. You’ve probably even searched online for small-business financial accounting …
QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop – QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise – Pricing & Job Cost Features
QuickBooks Online? Desktop QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise Solutions? Pricing & Job Cost Features Which Version of QuickBooks Is Right For You? I see many opinions and questions from QuickBooks users in the forums about which version of QuickBooks their small or mid-sized companies should choose… After spending 25+ years working with job costing for …
5 Ways To Make Your Construction Business More Profitable With QuickBooks
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, …
Setting Up Payroll Schedules in QuickBooks
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 …
Types of Accountants
This article by Dan Rooks describes the various kinds of accountants and their roles. Info Plus President, Diane Gilson, contributed some thoughts and background information. Dan is co-founder and CEO of Decisive Systems, Inc., a software company that measures the operating cost of heavy equipment. Besides creating “Tools to make smart machine owners smarter”, DSI also …
An Integrated Accounting System – How Your Business Will Benefit
As a small or mid-sized business you only need one cost-effective, integrated accounting system to effectively manage your financial operations… Have you made the jump to manage your own accounting? If so, have you found yourself lost in a sea of financial software? In fact, you really don’t need those five or six manual systems …
Job Costing Increases 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 …
Raising Your Profits Through Job Cost Reporting
Job cost reporting can reveal the true costs and profits for each job as they happen, allowing you to fix issues before they cost you. Are you keeping a close eye on your materials costs, ‘shopping’ for the best deals on equipment, and managing employees so that they are making more money than they actually …
The Many Faces of Construction Job Costing
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.
Broken Database Links In Your QuickBooks Data File – Part 1
Broken database links can cause problems with your QuickBooks data file(s)… QuickBooks® Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions desktop software programs are databases that could (potentially) include broken database links. What and Why? The underlying software (database) for your company file includes your records and transaction fields that are “tied together” with various pointers and links. …
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 …
A Tale of 4 Companies: A Job Cost & Gross Profit Drama (Part V)
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 …
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 …
15-Months in Your Business Year? How & When Will You Invest Them?
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 …
Purchase Orders Are Critical – Here’s Why…
… 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 …
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 …
Gross Profit Percentage: How To Calculate It and What It Tells You
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 …
Broken Database Links In Your QuickBooks Data File – Part 2
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 …
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 …
Wrong Date On A QuickBooks Transaction?
How to change a date on a QuickBooks transaction Changing a date on a QuickBooks transaction is an easy task. Simply click the date field in the transaction, then choose the correct date from the calendar that pops up. But wait, before you change the date on a transaction, you need to consider a much …
Underbilling Calculation for Employee Labor: Free Labor Calculator
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 …
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 …
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 …
How to Use QuickBooks More Effectively: 10 Tips
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 …
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 …
Using QuickBooks as your Construction Payroll Software
Keeping tracks of hours, union wages, social security, & workers comp can be difficult. Let specific construction payroll software help. If you run a remodeling or construction company with employees, you know that those employees are an essential element of your business. How else would you get client jobs completed for clients in a timely …
Why You Need to Know Your True Cost of Labor
Calculating your true cost of labor seems straightforward: compensation plus benefits should equal how much you’re spending on labor, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, business owners don’t have it that easy. There’s much more to determining whether an employee’s time is being put to maximum benefit for a business, and without a true cost of labor that …
Accounts Payable Information – Achieving a Clean Set of Numbers
Your Accounts Payable information needs to be accurate (i.e., “clean”) if you want to use the results to help gauge the financial health of your company. “Accounts Payable” Explained… Even if you are new to business, you may have heard the term “Accounts Payable.” If you haven’t worked as a bookkeeper or accountant, here’s an …
How Can You Benefit from a Training Program About QuickBooks?
Do you ever wonder if you’re using QuickBooks to its fullest potential? Check out a training program for QuickBooks to learn how to make it work for you. Are you one of the millions of businesses using QuickBooks for in-house accounting? Do you ever find the program frustrating? Do you ever wonder if you’re using …
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’ …
9 Best Practices for QuickBooks Payments
These best practices for QuickBooks payments can improve your profitability as well as the speed and accuracy of your incoming and outgoing payments. In the case of best practices for QuickBooks payments, the rewards are clear. Pump up your cash flow. (More cash-on-hand means less-stressed owners + happier, more-responsive vendors.) Eliminate costly late fees and …
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 …
A Tale of 4 Companies: A Job Cost & Gross Profit Drama (Part I)
Can you really affect your gross profit by setting up a job costing system? Is it worth the time, energy, and effort involved to measure and track your numbers? Let’s visit with the owners of four (hypothetical) companies; then decide for yourself which owner’s shoes you’d prefer to step into… As background to the story …
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 …
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 …
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 …