welcome to our video course on QuickBooks for contractors this
particular video will be an introduction and overview of what contractors need
this particular video will be an introduction and overview of what contractors need contractors
should use most of QuickBooks the way every other business does however contractors have
unique challenges that these videos will address what does a contractor need to do that other
businesses do not well they have to make accurate estimates of their long term projects or jobs they
have to adjust the estimates for change orders as the project or job continues they have to invoice
the customers for partial work done as the job is in progress they have to track their income and
expenses by job to know how much money or profit each job is really making for them they have to
build the customers for related job expenses depending on what their arrangement is with
the customer and they have to track the workers time by job they also have to manage business
and non-business petty cash these are bonus videos that i have included in the course because i found
from my experience that very often contractors are sole proprietors that very often commingled
funds between the petty cash and the business bank account and their own wallet in their own
pocket but you have to make a clear distinction between the cash in those different places and
this video series will show you how to do that what does your practice file have well it has
a client list that I put in there for you it has a vendor list of companies that provide services
that enable Tom Stevens to do his business it has a basic chart of accounts all filled with things
that most construction and contracting companies need the preferences are set in the Preferences
window so the file will behave in a way that's easier to understand and there is a blank icon
bar that we will customize for our needs as we go forward in the course I found from experience
this helps students both remember and understand the material we will customize the reports that
we need as we go forward in the course if you do not know any of these six things or don't know how
to create a company file please watch our videos about these topics i have included supplementary
videos of every QuickBooks topic that you would need to be able to understand the videos that
are specific to a contractor if you're already comfortable with QuickBooks you don't have to
watch these videos but if you're moving forward in the course and you notice something is missing
regarding your knowledge of a particular topic you should stop the video and then find the
video that has the piece of knowledge that you're missing watch that video and then come back to the
contractor part of the course let's take a look at your sample file you can see the title bar in
QuickBooks says Tom Stevens plumbing and heating that tells you you're in the right company the
main menu is here and you can see I not only made the icon bar into a top icon bar but I cleared
it out so that we can put up one window at a time with everything that only a contractor would need
let's open up the chart of accounts list chart of accounts you can see these are some maybe
not all but some of the accounts that a typical contractor or construction company might need
if you don't know what the chart of accounts is you should watch the supplemental videos
notice it has Tom investment and Tom withdrawal when Tom commingled funds from his own wallet and
again we will address that in later videos it has some example expenses and notice it has only one
accounts receivable account one accounts payable account so far it only has one bank account and
you will notice it has two income accounts Tom feels it's necessary for his reports to show him
the difference between income from the heating repair service he provides compared to income
from the plumbing services that he provides he might be earning both of these separate incomes
in one project but that's the way the chart of accounts is set up the customer center you can
open by clicking customer customer center I have already put on the customer list two different
clients these are the ones that Steve will have his long-term projects with notice when you click
on a different client their name address and phone number come up and every future estimate
or transaction that you have with that customer will be listed right here and you could always
find their transactions or their estimates by opening the customer center and selecting the
customer the notes section is especially helpful for contractors and I will be showing you how to
use that in the following video the vendor Center is very similar to the customer center it behaves
the same way and I have already put up vendors that Tom will need when running his business
these are the companies that provide the products and services that Tom needs to be able to do his
jobs his item list is very interesting these are things that would normally show up on the lines of
an invoice or the lines of an estimate these are the services that Tom provides for his clients
when he does his projects and he can put them one by one line by line on the different estimates
or the different invoices and then these items will help him track the income to the different
services that he provides the Preferences window has eliminated pop-ups for advertisements but you
still might have to click some of the click past some of the one-time messages QuickBooks calls
them one time messages you can't shut them off but if you click the don't bother me box they won't
show up again so thank you for watching the first video and I wish you good luck with the video call