Other stories by Melanie Hodgdon

  • Upgrade to QuickBooks 2006?

    The latest offering from Intuit contains few new features. Instead, Intuit has focused on some structural and interface changes, with improved usability, particularly for a new user. Whether users of a previous version will find it worthwhile to upgrade to 2006 is really a personal choice: Aside...

  • Customizing your QuickBooks invoice

    One of the jobs of a QuickBooks professional adviser is to help users print invoices that both satisfy the firm's requirements for accurate record-keeping and present a clear and visually appealing document to clients.

  • Creating QuickBook estimating templates

    If you have built your own spreadsheet estimating template, then it's an easy matter to create a new worksheet specifically designed to be printed out for manual entry into QuickBooks. This new worksheet — name it “QuickBooks Summary” or something similar — will contain only the data you want to...

  • Pricing Labor-Only Jobs

    When pricing labor-only jobs, be sure to allow for labor-specific contingencies. Watch out, too, for situations like a decrease in the proportion of billable hours per employee and lost time due to startup inefficiencies if this job is a "first of its kind" for your company.

  • Pricing Labor-Only Jobs

    Presumably you already have an accurate burdened-labor figure, but make sure you're including both "hard" and "soft" costs for each employee (see "The Labor Burden"). The result is $20.34, which will cover overhead when added to the hourly labor charge.

  • Tips for Choosing an Accountant

    If you are running a business and feel you could be getting more and better advice from your current accountant, you may decide to shop around for a new one. --Melanie Hodgdon of Business Systems Management, Bristol, Maine, is a QuickBooks Professional Advisor offering organizational and business...