Tip Category: Customers & Accounts Receivable

Best Practices for Using Estimates in Contracting

All About Creating Estimates for Contract Jobs Contractors use estimates to help them project the cost of labor, materials, and profitability on job jobs they bid.  They use them to quote remodel jobs for homeowners.  They present them as proposals for the replacement of the HVAC equipment for a property management company. Without any of […]

Direct Cost and Gross Profit Sales Tax Item Tips

Tips for Using Direct and Gross Profit Sales Tax Items If you have any Sales Tax Items setup to calculate based on an Items Direct Cost or Gross Profit you will need to keep the following information in mind, as they will have an effect on your Sales Tax Calculations. Serialized Items When using Serialized […]

Bad Debt Write-off and Collection Agencies

Writing Off Bad Debt and Dealing with Collection Agencies Collection agencies are often used to collect overdue receivables.  Typically, the agency will take a percentage of any debt collected (40% is not uncommon), then forward the remaining portion of the payment to you.  There are a variety of acceptable methods of accounting for this activity. […]

Change of Property Ownership (change parent)

This topics covers what to do when there is a change of ownership with a property (like a house) or when you otherwise wish to change or remove the Parent on a Customer:Job. Changing or Removing the Parent on a Customer Job When a customer has financial history, you cannot break the financials.  In the instance […]

Retainage or Holdbacks on Construction Jobs

What is Retainage in Accounting Retainage is money withheld from the contractor until specified terms are met. At that point, the contractor can invoice the customer for the amount of retainage. Retainage: The withholding of a portion of the final payment for a defined period to assure a contractor or subcontractor has finished a construction […]

Using Discounts and Discount Items

How Discount Items Affect Accounting and How to Use Them We are often asked about how-to setup and manage discounts. The question about discounts is an age-old accounting question. It doesn’t have anything to do with accounting software but has a lot to do with how you want your reports to reflect discount activity. Example […]

Using Credits Between Customer Accounts

Scenario A credit exists within a customer’s family unit that you would like to apply this credit to another customer within the family unit. When trying to set this credit against an open invoice, you are not able to see it as available in the Credits Form. The answer is simple. You are using hierarchy […]

Customer Moves or Property Owner Changes – Copy Customer Feature

How to Handle New Property Owners or Changes in Leaseholders This topic covers how and when to use the “Copy Customer:Job” feature to deal with builders who sells homes, homeowners who sell their houses, landlords that lease a property to different tenants, commercial property changing ownership, and similar scenarios relating to changes of property ownership. […]

Job Costing Concepts Explained (an overview)

An Introduction to Job Costing Concepts Do you know how much money you make on each job? What were your costs and how many labor hours were spent doing the work? To answer these questions, and others, we use a management technique known as “Job Costing”. In its simplest form, job costing is the art […]

Creating and Using a Warranty Reserve Account in Accounting

A warranty reserve is money that is set aside to pay for warranty claims made by your customers against your products or service. The money you set aside is known as a contingent liability. It appears on your balance sheet. Each time you make a sale, you increase that liability. Every time you incur a warranty cost, you lower that liability.