At this point, I have 3 fulltime guys and hopefullyyyyyyyyyy seem to have a steady stream of work. I can se that my “book keeping” is…not great, and I’m gonna get bogged down. What do you guys use, and especially anyone using payroll software? I’ve used payroll services in the past, but it seems to me that it’d be worthwhile to integrate everything in house eg: Quickbooks for something like that…
Whatdya say?
PaulB
Replies
Never used anything else, but Quickbooks works well for me. Pretty easy to get used to.
http://grantlogan.net/
Sometimes, when I lie in bed at night and look up at the stars, I think to myself, "Man! I really need to fix that roof."
I have hired an outside bookkeeper who inputs all the quickbooks data and she does our payroll as well. Money well spent in my opinion. She knows what the IRS and the State want and when they want it. She just sends me the completed paperwork with a sign here sticker and a stamped envelope with an note when I need to mail it by.
As far as payroll, I fax her weekly timesheets and she cuts checks every other Thursday and pay the state and the feds at the same time. We do direct deposit so I do not have to sign any checks and the crews get the money on time everytime.
Frankly it is one less thing to worry about and with eight employees, it would consume too much time.
We set up a virtual quickbooks for me to check out when I want to and I do not have to buy the latest version.
Bruce
Edited 6/23/2007 8:27 pm by Hiker
Thanks guys...sounds like Quick Books is the way to go regardless of who does the keypunching. Appreciate the input!PaulB
I would check with your acountant. I have met a few who hate quickbooks and if you have to export your year end financials to someone who won't except them your SOL. I also use quikbooks though.
Jason
My accountant likes Quickbooks. I can just email him my year end report. He only does my taxes, but I'm sure that system would work for weekly and monthly stuff as well.http://grantlogan.net/
Sometimes, when I lie in bed at night and look up at the stars, I think to myself, "Man! I really need to fix that roof."
My accountants like QB Pro. We've got a file sharing setup so I can't screw anything up<G> Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
you're just not trying hard enough.............:)Live by the sword, die by the sword....choose your sword wisely.
ha, you should have seen them trying to deal with a mac<G> Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
Quickbooks Pro - will meet most needs.
Bill (CPA)
Thanks everyone...my CPA concurs... QB it is.PaulB
Another vote for QB. Masterbuilder or CHS or Goldenseal may have more power and capability, but QB has worked well for us. It's relatively cost effective and very universal so you should have no problem finding an accountant that can work with your company file.
Jon Blakemore
RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
Thanks Jon... now all I have to do is either slog through the manual, or find a consultant to configure it for me. Neither of which has proven easy so far ;)
PaulB
I forgot to add, definetely get this book. The downside to QB is that it's built for all manner of small business owners. To use it effectively as a contractor, some modification is in order.
Getting set up can be a bit daunting until you realize how it all works together. If you have any knowledge of double entry accounting that will help with some aspects.
I don't know if you frequent JLC's forums at all, but they have an "Accounting & Finance" section that has a lot of QB information.
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
Thanks Jon... Looks like it might be a timesaver!PaulB
just to throw in my 2 cents after years of bookeeping construction on mac .. the QB Pro will seem to be the same on the mac version but will eventually be frustrating because it does not give the same reporting features on the Mac version as it does in the PC versions..good luck
arthurhttp://www.thesmallbuildingcompany.com
Thanks Arthur... I'm using PC (that's frustrating enough on it's own) ;)PaulB
I'm looking for software myself to organize, track, etc., and was wondering if you are using Pro for contactors and if the book you were refrencing addresses that paticular product....Do not want to try to build a system from my Office soft ware as I can hardly figure out this forum much less Excel and Access, spread sheets and data bases. Just looking for something I can write bids on, turn them into cost tracking form, track o.h., labor, materials...oops, cramping up, damn keyboard!
Ryder,I do use the Contractor's Edition. I don't know if the book speaks specifically to that edition, but if it doesn't I never noticed it to be a problem.I do not use QB for estimates, just accounting for all funds that flow in and out of the company and job costing. I think that it would work for you. Customizing programs to meet your specific demands can be mentally rewarding to the right person and sometimes you get a better finished product.A lot of times, though, my feeling is that a guy such as yourself would be much better off with just learning a system that is already put together. I'm assuming you don't have aspirations to be a shade tree computer programmer so buy QB, spend the time to learn it, and get back to doing what it is that you do best (and can make money at).
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
Just curious. Why don't you use the estimating feature? It saves me tons of time. I've even got it set up so I can generate contracts from estimates as well as invoices.http://grantlogan.net/
Sometimes, when I lie in bed at night and look up at the stars, I think to myself, "Man! I really need to fix that roof."
Grant,I've toyed with it but my excel estimating template works pretty well for me. The biggest obstacle I see is that, in order to cover all the different things we do my item list would be huge (probably over 1,000 items) and I don't want to take the time to input and maintain all of that data.
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
I've been doing the books here at my business for 10 years. QB software is the easiest software to embezzle. You can delete information or create new at anytime.
I use Master Builder (was owned until recently by Intuit, the same company that owned QB).
Whatever you choose will be a long time commitment. Changing later is very time consuming and frustrating.
The better you know your books the more chance you have at making money. Learn to do your own.
I'm sure you're right about embezzlement. Fortunately, that's not really a concern for me because I do all my own books and no employees have access. Even if someone were to break in to my company file, I have daily backups stored in a secure location where I would be able to put the pieces back together from the legacy data.
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
The last time I did anything serious to one of my vehicles was a decade ago and it took me all of a three day weekend and still had to take it to the shop and pay 800 bones. If I had gone to work and done my job while the mech did his I would have been way ahead. Thanks for the input as I'm definitely keeping the day job with no secret aspirations for software design.
Paul go to myob.com and look real hard at Accountedge. I have used it for years and it beats Quickbooks in almost all the reviews.
Edited 6/30/2007 10:54 pm ET by T White