now we will learn how contractors would manage the quickbooks online items list of products
and services if you have any questions about this topic you can leave them in the comments
section below and I'll do my best to help you and of course if you feel the video helped you
I hope you will click like and don't forget to subscribe to get updates on new videos
that come out all the time what is the items list well QuickBooks Online does not actually
call it the items list it actually calls it the list of products and services that you offer to
your clients the purpose of this list is to be able to list these items on an estimate or
an invoice to clarify each service or product that your client is being charged for you can
track the income by the category of the item by connecting it to an income type of account
in the chart of accounts for example we have a service called steam cleaning that we list
with the other services when we make an estimate or an invoice and send out that document to the
client we want the income that we earn from steam cleaning to be recorded in the income
account called income from heating repair so when we create this item on the items list we
will connect it to the income account called income from heating repair and these are the
items that we will put on our estimates and our invoices notice on the left you have the item
name exactly as it will appear when you list it on an invoice or an estimate for the client and
exactly to the right on the same row is the income in the chart of accounts that we put
in the chart of accounts in the previous video that will track and categorize all of the items
that we put on an invoice or estimate now you may notice that these three items D winterizing
replacement pipes and winterizing will have their income tracked and categorized into the income
account called income from plumbing services and that means every time we list them on an invoice
and record the invoice the money amounts for these items will get recorded into those income
accounts now let's add to our list of products and services these items with the names on the
Left connected to the income accounts on the right actually before we start putting in the items on
the items list we have to make a quick correction in the chart of accounts from the previous video
we're going to quickly reopen the income account called income from electrical work and we're going
to rename it income from heating repair and I do regret the inconvenience but it's a nice little
review click accounting chart of accounts find the income account income from electrical work
come across the road to the arrow and choose edit change it to income from heating repair
and that will remind us of how we change the names of the income accounts now here are the items that
we're going to add to the items list and now we have the correct names in the income accounts
which will summarize and categorize the income from the items on the Left that in the future
we will place on invoices to clients so this is how we actually add these items to the product
and service list we go to the top right click the cogwheel and come across to where it says lists
in the second column the second choice down is products and services click it and now we have the
products and service list where we can add items to our items list that we can build the customer
for later notice quickbooks online already gave you two items on the items list that you
can explore and experiment with later but for now click new and then click service and then we have
the new service window and the name of the first one will be d winterizing and it will be connected
to income from plumbing services in order to do that we go to the bottom right where it
says income account click the pulldown scroll up a little and choose income from plumbing work which
is the same as plumbing services click Save and new and now we have the items on the items list
and this will be available to choose when we make our first invoice what's the next item electrical
work which goes under income from heating repair so we click new service electrical work
and in the bottom right choose income from heating repair the account that we just renamed save and
close good what's next what about Mason work also goes under income from heating repair so
we click new we click service give it the name and it goes under income from heating
repair now instead of saving close you could pull the arrow and click Save and new and you
can see on the left that's being added what's next replacement parts that goes under income
from heating repair so we go replacement parts and it goes under income from heating repair
save and new what's next replace pipes and that goes under income from plumbing so we
come here replace pipes and that goes under income from plumbing click Save and new see
we're almost finished steam cleaning goes under income from heating repair like we talked about
okay and winterizing which goes under income from plumbing service winterizing
now click Save and close and this is what your items list would look like in QuickBooks Online
and now you have many choices to choose from when you create an estimate or an invoice for
your customer now we are finished with the topic and finished with the video however I would like
to add something from my own personal experience when giving services to contractors I know from
experience it's difficult to sometimes fit what's in a contract with several agreed upon services
into the rigid items list the way QuickBooks expects if you think about the way a contract
looks when your client signs it it does not look like an items list simply listing the
services and showing the prices so sometimes that's hard to bridge that gap and fit that in
for those people who have difficulty with that I have a very simple suggestion in your actual
company you could just make one item on the items list for each income account that you
have for example for anything that would fall under income from plumbing services you could
just make one item called plumbing service and for anything that would fall under income from
heating repairs you could just make one item on the items list called heating repairs then
when it's time to make your estimate you can just put into the products and service fields the name
of the items that represent the entire category then you can put in the description field all the
details you like that you can bring over from the contract that the client signed so the client can
see but you're charging for heating repairs and the description will explain all the things that
you will do for that income service item that's just a little helpful hint for those contractors
out there who have a very messy and detailed contract and might have difficulty fitting it
into their items list however for the course we will use the items list that we just put in