Continuing Eduaction

I do accounting and budgeting for an Adult Education program where we are pushing students to take classes and take the GED test before the new, harder version comes out in January 2014.  In my personal life, I began studying for the QuickBooks Advanced Certification late fall/early winter.  If I don't complete the test before mid-September, I will have to first pass the current year test and then begin studying for the new version of the advanced test.  Guess you know what I am doing this week-end?

Learning new facts/programs/skills should be an ongoing process until the day you die.  It keeps the mind active, helps you to understand at least some of the things going on in the world (politics not among them), and provides topics of conversation that are less argumentative than the aforementioned politics.

I am also learning a new software program called Buildium.  My property management client has doubled in size over the past year and needed a more pro-active method of tracking information on properties, tenants and owners.  The new program is web based, so the Property Manager can actually have some time off and other staff members will be able to access information to engage vendors to take care of problems tenants have called in.  While it has taken quite a bit of time to front load all of the information in the new system (thanks goodness for technology which let me copy and paste from one program to another), it will make my life easier as well.

Isn't that another reason to learn new things?

Items – Part II

Today I will discuss the other items types that are not used as often but could be very helpful to you in your business.  Remember, one of the main functions of Items is to make it easy for you to invoice your clients/customers for the items or services they buy from you.

Do you offer delivery services at a fee?  Perhaps the fee is dependent on where the customer lives in relation to where your business is located.  For this circumstance, you will create an Other Charge.  You can also use this item type to charge a flat service charge – for example, a plumber charges $60 to go to a customer’s home to assess the situation.

As a building contractor, you may not stock supplies but purchase them as needed.  To show a charge on the customer’s invoice, you will create a Non-Inventory Item for each item you supply.

Want to total the cost of inventory or non-inventory parts separate from service or hourly labor charges?  Then set up a Subtotal in between the two types of charges.  This will also be helpful for your customers to check taxes if you are only required to charge tax on parts but not labor.

Contractors often require a down payment prior to beginning work.  Use the Payment Item to create a separate line item showing the amount the customer will be paying upon acceptance of the contract/estimate.