Question:

In addition to needing to charge a fixed percentage (6%) of Sales Tax to each cusomer, I am also required to charge a 1 1/2% Discretionary Tax on the first $5000.00 of each invoice.  How do I accomplish this using QuickBooks?

Answer:

For the most part, QuickBooks does a good job of tracking taxable and non-taxable sales -- even taxable and non-taxable items on the same invoice.  However, when it comes to tracking sales tax with a fixed rate on a fixed dollar amount of an entire sale ---- in addition to sales tax on the entire sale --- well it fails miserably and causes a lot of frustration for QuickBooks Users who encounter a situation of this nature.

Try this workaround from the March 2010 edition of the QuickBooks for Contractors Newsletter.

A Newsletter reader wrote to ask..

Who Should I send a W-9 Form To?

1 page, PDF Format.  From the December 2008 Newsletter.

NOTE:  New Tax laws for 2011 require that you send a W-9 to everyone that you do business with.

We've compiled a list of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual bookkeeping and accounting tasks to help you stay on track.

This list is geared for contractors and include items such as certified payroll reports, billing draws, Worker's Comp, and General Liability Insurance tracking reminders.

Excel format (so you can easily add other items).  From the December 2008 Newsletter.

A newsletter subscriber wrote to ask the following question -

Do you know of a good method for indicating or tracking that a vendor bill is approved for payment?

Download this article to find 3 possible ways to accomplish this task.

1 page, PDF Format.  From the October 2008 QuickBooks for Contractors Newsletter

The end of one year/the beginning of the next year is about more than just getting ready to file your taxes, issue W-2's, and prepare year end payroll tax returns--even though those are important items.

It is the same as when you clean out your file cabinets and pack away all the paperwork for the previous year; you should be cleaning out your QuickBooks Lists!  Wonder what I mean by that?

2 pages.  From the January 2008 Newsletter.

I recommend two key tips that will reduce the time and frustration of reconciling banks statements. This solution is based on the principle that we want the bank reconciliation window to match exactly what appears on the bank statement, and that data should be input accordingly. If you use the following method it will make the challenging task of reconciling bank statements much easier.

1 page.  From the April 2007 Newsletter.

Q. What is a quick and efficient way to handle bounced checks so the bank reconciliation can show both the money in and the money out…. But not affecting income in a prior period.
A. There are three different ways in which you can handle a customer’s bounced check. Try each of these methods in a test file to see which one you like the best.

6 pages.  From the June 2006 Newsletter.

If you buy services or product from your customer – or if your vendors buy services or products from you, you might want to “trade” services instead of paying each other.  Exchanging “credits” with each other is a good way to offset your cash flow without actually exchanging money.  You will, however, need to add a few new records to QuickBooks and do a few “special” transactions to make sure that all of your reports come out accurately.

8 pages.  From the June 2006 Newsletter.

While QuickBooks does an excellent job of tracking Sales Tax, even when you have to collect Sales Tax from multiple jurisdictions, it does not automatically calculate Use Tax for you - - - but it is possible to track Use Tax using these instructions.

3 pages.  From the December 2005 Newsletter.

QuickBooks provides you with a powerful tool within your Item List, which is often under used, the Group Item.

Creating and using Group Items will allow you to quickly and easily enter several items at a time on Estimates, Invoices, Purchase Orders; reduce the risk of "leaving something out" when you are creating an Estimate; and best of all, allows you to bridge the difference in units of measure to buy and sell products or materials.

4 pages.  From the September 2005 Newsletter.

In Quickbooks Pro. Premier, and Enterprise you can set up items so that a single item can track both Income and Expenses.  This means that you can use the item on Purchase Order, Bills, or Checks to cost information to an Expense or Cost of Goods Sold Account; and then use the same item on Estimates and  Invoices to send revenue to an Income Account.

2 pages.  From the June 2005 Newsletter.

QuickBooks uses Items extensively.  Items are used on just about every form in QuickBooks, from Estimates to checks, and couple with your Chart of Accounts form the very backbone of your job costing.

The only way to set up a "good" item list is to create one that is specific to your company's needs, which means planning.  The tips in this article will help you get started.

2 pages.  From the June 2005 Newsletter.

A job deposit is money that belongs to the customer, but the customer has given it to you to hold or to use to purchase materials for their job.  In other words, it's money you have in the bank, but yu still need to earn it.

This article provides instructions for two different ways in which to record job deposits in QuickBooks.

2 pages.  From the April 2003 Newsletter.

Are you aware that if you leave that little Invoice icon found on many forms active and don't "X" it out that the information relating to that transaction line is stored within your QuickBooks file in a "waiting to be billed" status just taking up additional space and making your file larger than normal?

Learn how to clean up this "waiting to be billed" status by following these simple instructions.

2 pages.  From the October 2002 Newsletter.

These are some useful reports that have been created over the years for various contractors that I have provided bookkeeping services for.

3 pages.  From the October 2002 Newsletter.