I'm an electrician, not a bookeeper and need some help

QuickBooks Discussion board - Discussions about the popular financial software by Intuit 

Yahoo!   Google   Windows Live   del.icio.us   digg   Netscape

Subject Author Date I'm an electrician, not a bookeeper and need some help Grover 08-30-2008  Re: I'm an electrician, not a bookeeper and need s... Gary Charpentier 08-31-2008  Re: I'm an electrician, not a bookeeper and need s... QBConsultant 08-31-2008  Re: I'm an electrician, not a bookeeper and need s... Grover 08-31-2008
Posted by Grover on August 30, 2008, 4:35 pm Please log in for more thread options I love Quickbooks Pro 2008, but...... I maintain an inventory - usually non inventory items ( I buy for the job, and usually include additional items to have "on-hand") - and like the way Quickbooks lets me input my supplier invoices to set the cost and markup of individual items. What I don't like is that I have to select each item individually as a line item on my invoice to the customer - they get to see my charge for each individual outlet box, receptacle and switch. They usually come back with "I could have gotten it cheaper at Home Depot"- forgetting about my overhead - van, insurance, tools, liability insurance, and expected "on-hand" items like connectors, staples, and sundry bits of hardware. Is there any way to "pick" items from my items list (which would include quantity and marked up cost), and be able to enter the total of that list as an item on my invoice to my customer? Presently, I work up a materials list in Excel, total it, add my markup, and add it as a line item on my invoice. I have even tried creating a "dummy" invoice to account for all the material, and manually entering the total from that invoice to my "real customer invoice", but that fouls up my open invoices........ Thanks for comments and suggestions! Grov Posted by Gary Charpentier on August 31, 2008, 12:57 am Please log in for more thread options Grover wrote: > I love Quickbooks Pro 2008, but...... > > I maintain an inventory - usually non inventory items ( I buy for the > job, and usually include additional items to have "on-hand") - and > like the way Quickbooks lets me input my supplier invoices to set the > cost and markup of individual items. > > What I don't like is that I have to select each item individually as a > line item on my invoice to the customer - they get to see my charge > for each individual outlet box, receptacle and switch. They usually > come back with "I could have gotten it cheaper at Home Depot"- > forgetting about my overhead - van, insurance, tools, liability > insurance, and expected "on-hand" items like connectors, staples, and > sundry bits of hardware. > > Is there any way to "pick" items from my items list (which would > include quantity and marked up cost), and be able to enter the total > of that list as an item on my invoice to my customer? > > Presently, I work up a materials list in Excel, total it, add my > markup, and add it as a line item on my invoice. I have even tried > creating a "dummy" invoice to account for all the material, and > manually entering the total from that invoice to my "real customer > invoice", but that fouls up my open invoices........ > > Thanks for comments and suggestions! > > Grov A group is your friend. Set one up, doesn't matter what's in it as you are going to change it every time. Put it up on the invoice, add lines to it for everything sold. Have it selected not to print detail. Enter the text you want on the invoice on the last line. Happness. Oh, as for your problem. Boss used a contractor who used the Boss' home depot credit card for the job. That way the contractor didn't have any finance issues to deal with. I think he charged labor for the time shopping. Might be a solution for those customers who want to nickel and dime. Perhaps a sundry items line that is a percent of the total labor to cover those little things. Posted by QBConsultant on August 31, 2008, 10:32 am Please log in for more thread options I agree that you need to create a group. Go to the items list, add new, Group. This should work for you! Good luck! Michelle L. Long, CPA, MBA Author of: Successful QuickBooks Consulting: The Complete Guide to Starting and Growing a QuickBooks Consulting Business http://www.SuccessfulQuickBooksConsulting.com http://www.amazon.com/Successful-QuickBooks-Consulting-Comprehensive-starting/dp/14348106 Posted by Grover on August 31, 2008, 10:48 am Please log in for more thread options Many thanks Gary! I had tried a group before, but it always showed up on the screen version of the invoice - never did try to print/email it to see that the individual items do not show up..... Grov On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:57:17 -0700, Gary Charpentier >Grover wrote: >> I love Quickbooks Pro 2008, but...... >> >> I maintain an inventory - usually non inventory items ( I buy for the >> job, and usually include additional items to have "on-hand") - and >> like the way Quickbooks lets me input my supplier invoices to set the >> cost and markup of individual items. >> >> What I don't like is that I have to select each item individually as a >> line item on my invoice to the customer - they get to see my charge >> for each individual outlet box, receptacle and switch. They usually >> come back with "I could have gotten it cheaper at Home Depot"- >> forgetting about my overhead - van, insurance, tools, liability >> insurance, and expected "on-hand" items like connectors, staples, and >> sundry bits of hardware. >> >> Is there any way to "pick" items from my items list (which would >> include quantity and marked up cost), and be able to enter the total >> of that list as an item on my invoice to my customer? >> >> Presently, I work up a materials list in Excel, total it, add my >> markup, and add it as a line item on my invoice. I have even tried >> creating a "dummy" invoice to account for all the material, and >> manually entering the total from that invoice to my "real customer >> invoice", but that fouls up my open invoices........ >> >> Thanks for comments and suggestions! >> >> Grov > >A group is your friend. > >Set one up, doesn't matter what's in it as you are going to change it every >time. Put it up on the invoice, add lines to it for everything sold. Have it >selected not to print detail. Enter the text you want on the invoice on the >last line. > >Happness. > > >Oh, as for your problem. Boss used a contractor who used the Boss' home depot >credit card for the job. That way the contractor didn't have any finance issues >to deal with. I think he charged labor for the time shopping. Might be a >solution for those customers who want to nickel and dime. Perhaps a sundry >items line that is a percent of the total labor to cover those little things.