QuickBooks Online reports can assist you in monitoring the health of your business, setting goals, and achieving constant growth. But there are so many options. Where do you begin?
Building an office tower, a house, or an apartment complex is only one aspect of being a successful contractor. No matter how skilled the team is on the construction site, it will collapse if the contractor is unable to meet the financial deadline. As a result, a contractor should spend time and effort reviewing reports.
QuickBooks desktop edition includes not only the standard financial reports that every business needs, such as Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet, but also job-related data. There are various QuickBooks Online reports that you should review. But you must have these seven regularly to help you keep your project and business on solid ground.
1. Balance Sheet Summary
Every day, you should run a balance sheet summary. This will provide you with a more realistic view of your financial situation. While reviewing this report, you should keep three points in mind:
Accounts Receivable
Every day, the amount of accounts receivable should increase in proportion to completed sales. Check to see if you can still cover your variable costs if clients don’t pay.
Accounts Payable
You should also keep track of the invoices you haven’t paid yet. The amount of open invoices should remain roughly the same as you need to ensure that your suppliers are paid.
It’s also critical to avoid having too many of these open, as this can produce a cash flow problem.
Bank/Cash
With this parameter, you’ll want to ensure that there’s a match between what QuickBooks says you should have on hand and in the bank and what you actually have. Checking this frequently is a fantastic approach to find anomalies quickly.
2. Outstanding Checks Report
The Outstanding Checks Report, also known as the Missing Checks Report, will show you any checks that have been duplicated or invalidated by mistake.
Run this report every day to catch these errors as soon as possible and to be able to respond promptly to rectify any problems before they cause bigger difficulties.
3. Job Estimate vs. Actual Detail
This is the most widely used and useful report for contractors. This report could help the contractor see the differences between what was estimated and what is actually happening by providing both the estimate and the actual cost, as well as the estimate and the actual income.
Job Estimate vs. Actual Detail lists all job-related details in chronological order. This allows the contractor to study the comparison on a line-by-line basis. The data from this report is also used to calculate the WIP (Work-In-Progress) reports.
4. Job Profitability Reports
Job profitability reports are perfect for contractors who just want to check the differences between what they paid and what they were paid.
Task Profitability Reports are available in two varieties: Job Profitability Summary, which shows the profits earned by the company from servicing each construction customer during the set time period, and Job Profitability Detail, which works on the same premise but for a specific job.
In both reports, the “difference” column is the most crucial metric. According to the report, contractors now have a clear sense of where they stand financially in the larger firm.
5. Job Progress Invoices vs. Estimates
If the contractor uses Progress Invoicing, which is strongly recommended, he or she should be concerned about Job Progress Invoices vs Estimate Report. This report indicates whether the estimate is active or not.
The contractor can keep track of the total amount of the estimate, how much has been billed, and the fraction of the estimates that have already been invoiced by reviewing this report.
6. Job Detail Time
Contractors can use QuickBooks to track the amount of time spent on a job per employee. As a result, they may run the Job Detail Time report to see how much time each employee spent on a project. They could then change or improve the working hours and effectiveness as necessary.
7. Estimated vs. Actual Items
A contractor may provide a variety of services. This report can help them determine how close the company’s anticipated expenditures and income are for each item and development phase. The report can be utilized by the contractor to control, manage, and make choices in order to keep the company moving in the right direction.
Utilize These QuickBooks Reports As A Contractor
Successful contractors do not need a degree in accounting or financial management to run a successful construction business, but they must be more cautious in their financial decisions. Taking the seven job reports into consideration might assist in getting the company moving in the right path.
To make the most out of QuickBooks Online, contact the tech-savvy accountants of Today CFO. We will help you set up the software and run reports for you regularly, as well as analyze those reports for financial advice.
