What can't you filter job profit & loss report by "status of job"? I inputted the status of job as "In progress"; however, when I selected that value for the filter, "status of job" under modify the report for Profit & Loss by Job, it does not show the jobs profit and loss with that status. What's the sense of having a status?
This is another great deficiency QuikBooks has :
#1 If you have a predeterminded field then you should be able to filter that field
#2 Given the job status option you should be able to customize the fields according to your industry
QuickBooks Sucks on this
Well, that is one way to put it...LOL! And I cannot say that I disagree...LOL!
Intuit needs to not only ask for feedback, but listen to and act on it. I suspect that it does little with the feedback obtained.
Edit a customer or job name and look at the data on the Job Info tab. This data is reportable on a List report. It is not a part of a sale nor expense. It is a part of Job management. List reports for this info are provided to your managers, for scheduling and status reporting.
Yes, we know that. But why wasn't it incorporated as part of revenue and expense since percentage-of-completion reports are crucial for construction accounting and QuickBooks sells a Contractors Edition. If it's a contractor's edition but cannot generate a POC report, then how can QuickBooks call it a Contractors Edition? QuickBooks Contractors Edition could have been very robust if it allowed the generation of reports of jobs in progress separate from those completed during the year.
I don't work for Intuit and have nothing to do with the programming. Those are questions to ask Intuit.
Also, please don't put links in your Replies. You can create a sign off, and fill in your profile, but personal links in replies are removed.
There was posted a work-around way of generating WIP (work in process) or POC (percentage of completion) reports in QuickBooks Contractor Edition; it can be found at QuickBooks Contractor Edition: How to Generate WIP (Work in Process) and POC (Percentage of Completion) Reports. If anyone knows a better way of doing such, please share.
Thank you,
William Brighenti, CPA
I see your photo is the same as the originator of this topic but the username isn't the same now?
Based on what you now ask, I don't see how Job Status (the term) relates to POC for your discussion here.
Doing WIP or CIP accounting in QB doesn't need to rely on the Job Status. Job Status is a notation: In progress, Not Awarded, Closed. Or whatever you renamed them to be.
You can use the Items to document where you are in a project; this would be Phases. Then Progress Invoicing allows you to see, for instance, 30% through Design, 25% engineering, 5% site work, or whatever.
Or, progress for POC is based on tracking and using CSI cost codes.
But none of this relies on the designation of Job Status. This all is easily tracked and reported by using the Job reports and financial reports.
As various examples, I know of a file where the five status indicators were used for tracking grants as Submitted for, Awarded, Not awarded, Reimbursement or Matching. For a driver ed teacher, she used it to track the students by various High Schools. It is a notation field not for financial reports but related to the "header" data for customer and job name and address data. Think of the Job tab as a self-contained mini "Project Management" screen. All of the data here works together on reports for managing the job.
What is the status, when things are expected to happen or did happen, and a description. Job Type is a filter available for financial reporting.
Perhaps you thought it meant something it doesn't mean at all.
So how would you print reports showing only the jobs in progress, not including the jobs completed during the year?
If the job status was linked to revenue and expense accounts, then all one would need to do is select the filter "in progress".
The point that I have been attempting to make is that Intuit is selling a Contractors Edition of QuickBooks, which does not support the generation of a Work in Process report, even though that is an essential financial and tax report. Contractors would be well advised not to spend the extra money for the Contractors edition since it fails to provide that essential report and save a few hundred dollars by just purchasing QuickBooks Pro.
WIP report is seen by running the report Estimates Vs Actuals; also Job Profitability and P&L by Job. Each of these reports gives different info on the job. The first two are Item-based, for example.
Since there are three to six ways to do WIP accounting in QB, the specifics for any file really depends on how that file is used for WIP accounting.
"So how would you print reports showing only the jobs in progress, not including the jobs completed during the year?"
Well, I used QB for ten years to do all the financial management of a highend custom architectural firm. When a job was completed, the estimate was made inactive. So, that makes for something you can use to filter a financial report. The Estimate is part of the Job transaction functions and therefore is part of the performance reporting. Job Status is part of the info reporting.
Again, it would depend on how you use QB to track Progress.
By making the job "inactive", then you cannot run the completed contracts reports. And you need both the POC and CC reports. A simple linking of job status to revenues and expenses would have allowed the generation of these very useful reports for constractors, required by bonding companies, banks, and other users. QB Contractor Edition costs much more than QB Pro but fails to distinguish between CC and POC projects in its financial reporting. This is why I would never recommend the Contractor Edition for contractors desiring such reporting.
I did not make the job Inactive. I made the Estimate Inactive.
I did not make the job inactive until all data flow had completed and reports were created. Also, you need to change the status to the final one, no matter what you entered for the text. Later, when you run the Clean Up (or condense) Utility, it won't touch any job status other than Closed.
I wasn't comparing years of experience with anyone, although it appears you edited your reply. I was explaining my years of using QB (since 1997) with application of QB (architectural firm and development partnerships). That is why I am comfortable discussing Job Costing and Reporting. And I started out using Pro, not Premier Contractors. You are correct: you don't need the Premier Contractor Edition to do good job tracking and reporting. It can be done with Pro.
Thank you for your many replies. I appreciate and value your comments.
And thank you for acknowledging that contractors can purchase QuickBooks Pro and save hundreds of dollars by not buying QuickBooks Contractor Edition, which fails to provide POC or CC financial reports.
Hopefully someone on Intuit's staff will read your eloquent replies and improve the Contractor's Edition.
Again, I sincerely thank you for your generous contributions and patience.
Hi There - in reading this very common thread, I noticed something that qbteachmt said that I thought might help; It was noted that "Job Type is a filter available for financial reporting."
Well, 'Job type' is a field that we do not use in our company (it is also located in the Job Info tab) so I thought I'd try an experiment. I created a couple new job types specifically to track WIP. I used different terminology to have less confusion - 'Waiting' and 'Complete.'
Tested it out on a few projects that I knew had costs aginst them and, voila, it worked. I can filter my 'P&L by class' for all the 'Waiting' projects to have my WIP report.
Now, I'm not sure what else I may [removed] up by changing that 'Job Type' field, but I didn't use it anyway. If you currently use the Job Type field, it might be worth finding out what other fields are tied to the financial reporting and testing them out.
Good Luck!
Contractor123, that is a great solution and you haven't impacted anything. Job Type and Customer Type simply are reporting and categorization tools. You can even have subtypes.
