QB Power Hour Podcast

Job and Project Costing: You Can Actually Do That in QuickBooks Online? [03.31.26]

• Dan DeLong

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0:00 | 1:06:02

Think job costing in QuickBooks Online is clunky, limited, or just plain confusing? You’re not alone. But here’s the real question: are you underusing what’s already there?

In this session, we’re digging into what job and project costing actually looks like inside QuickBooks Online, and where it works well (and where it doesn’t). We’ll break down practical workflows for tracking income, labor, materials, and profitability by job so you can stop guessing and start seeing real numbers.

We’ll also cover:

  • How Project tracking functions in QBO and what it can (and can’t) handle
  • Job costing strategies for contractors and field service businesses
  • Tracking equipment and assets tied to specific jobs
  • Inventory considerations for specialized trades
  • When you may need to integrate a tool like Fishbowl for more advanced inventory management


If you work with contractors, construction clients, or specialized trades that need tighter cost visibility, this session will give you clarity on what’s possible, and what requires a smarter tech stack.

Because sometimes the answer isn’t “QuickBooks can’t do that.”
It’s “You just haven’t set it up strategically.”

QB Power Hour is a free, biweekly webinar series for accountants, ProAdvisors, CPAs, bookkeepers and QuickBooks consultants presented by Dan DeLong and Sharring Fuller who are very passionate about the industry, QuickBooks and apps that integrate with QuickBooks.

Connect with Sharrin's Clone and Conquer Hub: https://snip.ly/SharrinQBPH
Get QuickAnswer with Dan's School of Bookkeeping Community: https://snip.ly/QuickAnswers

Watch or listen to all of the QB Power Hours at https://www.qbpowerhour.com/blog

Register for upcoming webinars at https://www.qbpowerhour.com/ 

Dan DeLong

Uh, right, well, we wanna also want to introduce or, or make an announcement that we do have a new spotlight sponsor, uh, fishbowl, which the inventory management solution, and they'll be joining us in June to talk about, uh, their solution. So I wanted to thank you, uh, or thank them for, uh, for believing in the QB Power Hour as well. Uh, my name's Dan DeLong owner of School Bookkeeping, and Danwidth joining you, um, uh, worked at Intuit for nearly 18 years, and Sharrin, who just came in on two wheels is joining us.

Sharrin Fuller

I don't know what's happening over here. I, I haven't been at my computer in two weeks. I've been at conferences and I just went to log on and. About 20 minutes ago and nothing was working and now I'm trying to get my earbuds on and that's not working either. So I'm gonna be here on the side.

Dan DeLong

Well, while we are introducing our guest, uh, today, you can hopefully try to figure that out. Uh, so Shanna,

Sharrin Fuller

and I'm likely, I'm gonna go mute real quick 'cause I am likely the reason people are getting an echo until I get my things back up. Sorry everybody.

Dan DeLong

All righty. Well, Shanna's joining us, uh, today. Shanna, tell us about yourself.

Shanna Quinn

Hello. Um, I am Shanna Quinn. I am owner and founder of, um, Orlando Bookkeeping, bookkeeping for Contractors. And more recently, um, I launched Bookkeeping for Contractors Group. I specialize in construction, accounting, and job costing systems utilizing the Profit First System. I have been in this space, uh, for about 20 years, and my firm is about to be 11 years. Uh, bookkeeping for Contractors is a new one for me, launched just this year. But essentially the, uh, what I was doing my own, uh, the, uh, back office work. Right now I'm teaching others how to take that skill to support our, uh, contractor and trade industry from a mentorship education standpoint.

Dan DeLong

So you're looking, I hypothetically just, just throwing this out there, you're looking to clone and conquer yourself, right? Sharrin?

Shanna Quinn

Is that, an option?

Dan DeLong

Well, that is actually Sharrin's community clone and conquer. So this is, great because that's what you're trying to do, is to teach others how to do the thing, things that. Shanna does, right? You're making more Shanna's out.

Shanna Quinn

I'm trying to make more. Shanna is yes, the, uh, contractors and, uh, trades are such a special industry and I think it kind of scares a lot of people to think about supporting them because there's so much that goes into it. But I really enjoyed it. You have OCD tendencies, which I think a lot of accounting professionals do. This is a great niche for you.

Dan DeLong

a little bit about the QB Power Hour webinar, updates. Yes, we are moving to a individual registration. You can go to our website and see the schedule as we're planning that out even further into the future. And then you can see what the topics are, uh, which I just realized now, I forgot to say the title of this of today's because I was a little unclear as to what was happening. But yes, we are talking about job costing today and earned it to nuance. And that's why Shanna's joining us here in case you're catching on to, uh, to to, to what's going on here. But we are going to individual registrations. Um, uh, we've gotten some good feedback from, the folks that have done that. And, uh, we do still have the series that we had before. Um, and part of the challenge of that series was we had to change things manually each and every week. Uh, we couldn't really do things until the prior webinar had passed in order to plan for the future. So we're in that grace period where we have a little bit of, lingering stuff with the series and then, um, but hopefully in a, in a month or so we should have for all the bugs, um. Killed. I dunno I can't, think of a, we squashed the bugs, right?

Sharrin Fuller

We got a Charlotte up in here, and Charlotte. Charlotte handle, Charlotte gets us all organized on that back end. So Dan and I could be like,

Dan DeLong

yeah, coming in two minutes late or hypothetically, I'm sorry.

Sharrin Fuller

Look, I have earbuds now though. I'm sorry guys. All right. Come on. And I was at HR conferences, three of them for two weeks, and they kind of put accounting conferences to shame, but we can talk about that later.

Dan DeLong

All right, now we do have, uh, series Go court. we're we're, bucketing things into, into series now. Uh, so the open tab is, is all about Intuit news and product updates. Take it to The Limit is where we talk about new applications that integrate with, QuickBooks. Beyond bookkeeping is where, you know, elevating your services to, to beyond. Just categorization or compliance stuff. Uh, so advisory type of type of topics, niche nuances, which this is one of them where we'll talk about the industry types and the unique business needs for those types of businesses. Uh, is the grass greener, evaluating other alternatives to QuickBooks. And then an app showdown, which we're, uh, gonna have our first, well, our next one probably in June-ish time timeframe, June, July, uh, where we'll be talking about practice management applications, pitting one against the other and, determining which, uh, which might be better for you. uh, our agenda today will be talking about our, our Intuit news segment, uh, will be just talking about the updates to the. Intuit Accountant Suite. That's IAS on the slide there. That the beta has been extended. So we'll talk a little bit about that and then we'll dive into our niche nuances all about constructions and the special trades. So unique business needs. What does QuickBooks Online offer for construction? We'll compare different versions, uh, plus versus advanced and now Intuit Enterprise Suite. Uh, first, my first vertical that they're attacking or, or, or going, not going after. I mean, it's sounds so violent that they are addressing. There we go. Is the construction trade. So we'll talk about that. And there is this new-ish as of February 11th a construction add-on that you can add on into advance. So we'll talk about those differences between the. So our first polling question, Sharrin, you got that,

Sharrin Fuller

which I would love to launch, but I've been, I've been messaging you on seven oh different platforms asking for cohos. This is my problem. This is my fault. You guys

Dan DeLong

alright there Now you're cohost

Sharrin Fuller

host tools. You're gonna, sorry

Dan DeLong

for Go

Sharrin Fuller

ahead. You're gonna have to launch it. They, they, they, they did weird stuff on the new Zoom. Can we talk about Zoom too?

Dan DeLong

Yeah. Where is, where is our the Right, there we

Audio Only - All Participants

go.

Sharrin Fuller

That's what I'm telling you. You find them.

Dan DeLong

There we go. I found it. There we go. You use Port the construction trade industry.

Sharrin Fuller

There they are.

Dan DeLong

There we go. Okay. That's

Sharrin Fuller

launching. I got you. Now I got you guys. Now I got q and A up. I'll answer your questions. We are good now. We're, now we're rolling. And next time I'll, you know, Dan, I gotta stop waking up at 8:00 AM when we have these

Dan DeLong

Yeah, it's, uh, it's living on the west coast. Is uh, is part of the, part of the. All right, while you're answering that, uh, that question, uh, we'll talk a little bit about the Intuit Accountant. Uh, suite Beta is extended, uh, so it was, uh, May 1st. So books closed and Intuit Accountant Suite, uh, accelerate, uh, the platform fees, which would've been starting on or which would've been 1, 1 49 for the, if you had opted into the accelerate, uh, that would've started on May 1st, but now it is July 1st, so, any thoughts about that? Uh, Sharrin, what are you, uh, what are you pontificating about why the beta got, uh, switched?

Sharrin Fuller

They need more information. I mean, we're the, we're feeding it, right? So I think two things. One they're listening to our podcast and they're probably hearing me, really hearing me having everybody pitchforks. No, I'm just kidding. Please don't come at me into it. Um, or do whatever. No, I'm just kidding. But I, I really think they need the, they need more time. They're maybe they're actually starting to listen to us now. They didn't like the feedback they got, and I think it's makes more sense. I hope they push it back even further because July plus also to start something right after tax season, knowing your clients are really heavy in tax. It should be something that happens around like October. It's where we have like the last quarter to adjust or make decisions, but even at least July is after a good portion after tax season. Yeah. So

Dan DeLong

there's never

Sharrin Fuller

a good time I'm to, I'm pro decision. There's never a good time to start charging your clients for something they've never paid for ever in their life. Got you.

Dan DeLong

But at least you get what is that, two, three months now? I'm doing the math of my hit five two, so two months. So

Sharrin Fuller

take it down. Yeah. Mean by good part you have alerted 233 people plus over 400 and something attendees that will now know the answer to this questions and they cannot. That's right.

Dan DeLong

I mean, I think you know, they still gotta. Work out some of the, the kinks, you know, maybe some of those things that are coming soon or you know, that their listing is coming soon or taking longer to, develop. Uh, I know one thing of removing an off boarded client from Books Close is still not a, a feature or function. So, uh, they gotta figure that out before start charging or offering the one option of, oh, we'll just kick off all of your clients is really not a great, uh great, option. So let's dive in 'cause we've got a lot of stuff to unpack about, uh, the niche nuances of construction and special trades. This slide was designed to be a word wall, right? Because, because it is quite quite complicated. John, I wanna kind of talk about some of the key, you know, business needs of, of a, someone in the special trades or construction.

Shanna Quinn

It is quite a bit, but, um, it doesn't all it's not all related to one business or another. It is a variety of different contract types and a different type of industry niches, right. Home builders versus remodelers. So it's overwhelming, but we wanted to make sure that we had as much listed as we could think of that were sort of, um, unique, um, in the world of construction that is already very unique and, uh, specific. I don't know where to start because I

Dan DeLong

What do you what, which of these things, and then I'll, we'll have a poll question later, but of these things from your industry expertise

Shanna Quinn

mm-hmm.

Dan DeLong

What is the most. Important of these, things for, for someone in the special trades or, or construction?

Shanna Quinn

Well, um, I feel like several of them, so I'm going to specifically point out obviously the top that what's listed up there and it's on the top for a reason. 'cause project profitability is extremely important. The job costing in itself is just is something that even I do within my firm. So just, um, part of part the project profitability though is your job costing method. Um, and then obviously part of that are estimating correctly and proper change order tracking. Um, so I feel like they all kind of are intertwined. The one offs are going to be, you know, your a i A. Um, and government trap government requirements, which will also relate to that certified payroll down at the bottom, which most government projects will require. But I think that project profitability is definitely the one at the, at the top that should have the most interest and what I see from the majority of my clients, um, as being something that they're constantly needing more detail and, and more information on.

Dan DeLong

Yeah. Yeah. And, and for, for years, right? The criticism of of QuickBooks online over desktop was it doesn't do job costing. Which one person's job costing is not necessarily another person's project profitability, right? So, there was always, you know, in, in plus billing by customer, which rudimentary, you know, job costing, as long as you could put on the expenses, the, the customer or the sub customer, uh, you could then have an income and expense by, by customer. But there's more to it than that. And I think it all boils down to, you know, for me, you know, the business owner demographics where, you know, you may have, you know, somebody who's new to the as, as a new tradesman or home builder or how did I join this meeting again? Somebody logged in as an, there's another danal long in here. How did that happen? Now that I've been totally derailed in my train of thought, but the, um, but the business owner demographics, we'll, we'll kind of guide what is most important to your client, I think at, at that point, right? Like if they're established and they have a huge team and you know, things like that you know, they may need a little bit more than than someone who's just kind of starting out and, just kind of training their gut, right? Because over, over time a lot of these people have been around in it for a long time. They just have this innate knowledge of estimation and and, billing appropriately where, you know, somebody new might not. Would you agree with that? Shanna or Sharrin? Yeah,

Shanna Quinn

absolutely. I mean, when someone's first getting started, it's probably because it was a passion or they were an employee of another bus of a business and thought I could do this, um, on my own and not work for somebody else. Um, and so someone in the beginning wants to keep it as simple as possible. And then once you get into it more and you grow as a business you realize that more is required in order for you to separate out the cost of project A from project B. Especially a lot of custom home builders will start to dabble in different and wanting to do specs. And now you've got two methods of which you should be, um, managing your accounting and the requirements for that are different, right? So absolutely owner demographics, location where they are in their BI business. And then industry specific type is, are, are huge contributing factors, right?

Dan DeLong

So we have this addendum to construction, right? There's with being in the special trades contractors or plumbing, heat, heating, air conditioning, you know, all of those people may have field service needs, like work orders or collecting payments, mobilely, uh, field service users, you know, and the dispatching of those people, which adds, you know, another layer, uh, of, of those needs specifically within their tech stack. So this is not the first time that Shanna and I have, have done something together. Uh, we did on the, at the school bookkeeping, we did a, a job costing workshop series. So we're not gonna dive in too much because we wanna make sure that we concentrate on the QuickBooks side of things. Um, but if you want to in general, just kind of hear Shanna's opinions about job costing in general. We did a whole seven week series and it's totally free. Uh, there's a link there in slides for the YouTube playlist. Uh, so we, you can hear our, our conversations, uh, over, over seven weeks about the different aspects of job costing and the way that QuickBooks can handle some of those things. But do now, we do want to go into what does QBO offer with the different versions and the different features of that. So this, this slide here really just kind of sets the stage for the features and, uh and the options that are available in the different versions of QuickBooks Online, right? So plus is where it's gonna have the main basic functionality to, to support that project profitability, right? So you're gonna get the project center and we'll, we'll talk about what is included, you know, in, in advance and in, and plus. And then we move up to advanced when they need a little bit more. So you get, they get some more reports, they get some better estimate options, uh, the granularity of, uh, user permissions, custom fields. They're gonna have those, those functions. And, and they'll also have the more AI options with the project management. AI that's in advanced Over, over Plus. Now this, uh, new CUS construction add-on that is available in advanced has some estimate creation built into the, to the ai, where you can just drag files and it will help, help generate and create, uh, the, uh, the, the estimate. Uh, there's now project phases that, that's available. Uh, more estimate options. So, so where you can estimate Es make estimates in phases or groups, uh, change orders which is a separate transaction type. Automation invoiced by completion, which is pretty cool because once something is done, then you can invoice for that and save the billing workflows and then support for a i a invoice formatting, then what's the difference between that and Intuit Enterprise Suite? You're gonna have a project management role you know, sorry, advanced customers, you don't get the role for pro for project management. You gotta go up to Intuit Enterprise Suite for that. Uh, and there's more in the AI project management enhan, there's an enhancements in there with regards to how how estimates are created and, and the projects are managed. Right. More reports and automated, uh, reminders are the core features that you're, that you're gonna get there. Shanna, any, um, any thoughts or add-ons there for the, setting the of the stage here?

Shanna Quinn

Um, no, I think that pretty much covers it. I will say that kind of confusing, that the construction add-on for advance. Is like around the same timeframe of which we're into it, is also trying to highly promote IES. But yeah no, I think we,

Dan DeLong

yeah, we'll talk about how you added on, uh, and I see a lot of questions being rolled out there. Uh, we'll get to that. So so let's start with, uh, just what's available in QBO plus, right? So you've got the project center, you've got classes, time and expense for hacking for, for customers and projects, progress, invoicing. These are some of the features that that are available. Um, what do you find Shanna, that are, that are most important? In the construction special trades?

Shanna Quinn

Um, I will say that the, I mean, the project center is where a lot of this kind of rolls up in plus, um, for like time and expense tracking, you can assign labor burdens and all of that to your OR employees to get a little bit more detail about your actual payroll expenses. Um, the markup settings are okay. Um, you know, you can't, you can't assign it more than one. A markup is just what it is. So if you have clients that markup separately on the material versus the subcontractor, that's a manual management process. Um, the reimbursement expense tracking is pretty good. Um, I've seen the purchase orders. I really don't suggest my clients in the plus version to use it. 'cause if we're gonna move into that direction, plus doesn't have the rest of the functionalities to support the remainder of what needs to occur in that process, which is more, less for job costing purposes. I see a lot of comments about whip, so I'll just throw out there real fast. Obviously it does not maintain, it does not. QuickBooks plus Advance and I, neither, none of those programs support wip, job costing. So we are specifically talking about cogs job, job costing only. And trust me, I have complained and complained and complained about it. So hopefully, soon. We're, we're, we're, it'll be something that rolls out most likely. Yes. And if you

Dan DeLong

And, then for those of you that are attending, we do have almost 250 folks. It is hard to catch questions as they go by in the chat. Uh, if you have specific questions that you want us to, uh, address, uh, live, uh, please put them in the q and a. There should be a a q and a option at the bottom of your bottom of the zoom panel. And then that will that will put 'em in uh, the holding bin so that we can make sure that we can address or.

Sharrin Fuller

Do me a favor, if you want answer live. Right live and then put it so I can leave it for them if you just need an answer. 'cause if you see me doing this in the background, I'm answering as much as I possibly can and I'm trying to make sure that I save for them what you want answered live. So if you guys could do that, we will get to as many as you can. I promise. I'll go back on mute.

Dan DeLong

And, um, and since you talked about wip I think that's in here. Yeah. So we will, we'll segue nicely into advanced, wait a minute. There is a WIP report in advanced, but you just said it doesn't support wip. Talk about. WIP is, and what the QuickBooks definition of WIP is.

Shanna Quinn

I think there's a terminology difference that occurs in with this industry. And it just, like everyone, right? Like from a, within this industry, A CFO is not gonna use the same terminology to explain something that a, an accountant is going to use, and it's not gonna be the same terminology that the contractor is going to use. So when they say wip, it actually doesn't refer to as, as accountants refer to it, it would, it's, it's more or less the, um, which is odds because of the platform that it's coming from. But it is, it is not a work in progress for actual balance sheet job costing. Um, the whip in progress is considered to be your work in progress report, but it is still only going to pull from the cost of goods account. Uh. What do I wanna say? Directed, uh, cost codes. Same thing with the s smart versus actual report that we have listed here as well. A really nice feature that's come out in advance, but again, you can, you can fill it out. And then when you start job costing, you'll see if you've got all, if you job cost on the balance sheet, it's not gonna pull those over because it is still pulling only from the cost of good side, not from the balance sheet.

Dan DeLong

Yeah. And um, you had all of your, I mean, you started with desktop, right? So you know, so you, you know, when, when I first met you you had already transitioned to QuickBooks online as a firm. But talk about your, journey from QuickBooks desktop to QuickBooks Online to be able to support the people in the, in the special trades.

Shanna Quinn

Well, I had to fall in love with then Excel, and then become a master builder in an Excel document, right? And now it's converted. Now I mostly use Google Sheets, um, but for the live export in, so I try to keep things as updated as possible. But I have a template that I use with all of my wip, uh, job costing clients, my home builders semi custom home builders, that kind of stuff. The due custom but started spec or commercial. A lot of commercial trades use the balance sheet for for all of their tracking. Um, and so we use, uh, the Google Docs and we just have, uh, I've built a general template and then we customize it based off of, um, obviously the cost codes, the what kind of builder they are, where their. How they estimated is how we want a job cost, right? So, um, despite all of the builders that I have worked with over the years or trades I can honestly say that only probably five have actually used the same list of cop codes. Um, so I have, I have a lot of samples, um, of worksheets. Um, but it, it does become, it becomes a lot the more you have on the balance sheet for job costing, the more complicated it has become, especially to be able to provide the actual like from a by contract job costing. But then overall you know, because we also talk to our clients about job types, um, which is also an awesome option through the advance because you can, um, add that as a custom field and use it as a filter when you're generating financials, um, and reports. And so, you know, um. It's, I would say that I have a job costing workbook that has probably over the last 11 years of being in business for myself, has took, taken me probably 500 hours, if not more, to build out so that I can do micro and macro job costing for my WIP clients.

Dan DeLong

And, and are you, can I turn

Shanna Quinn

that back to Intuit?

Dan DeLong

I dunno that you can, but but did that have to like, because there are other applications out there that cater to, you know, this industry as well. Did you find that it was just because there was so much uniqueness to what people were needing that it just made more sense to do it? Start with whatever QuickBooks does give you on, on an output and then utilizing the. Because it's so unique and tailored, I guess to what,

Shanna Quinn

what

Dan DeLong

they're

Shanna Quinn

needed. I think everyone, almost a lot of, our clients have started in that desktop environment and so it's becomes a little difficult in that transition because now they're moving into the online platform that has a third of the capabilities that the specifically contractor version had in the desktop, um, from a true WIP job costing standpoint. But everything else also flowed better, right? So the, the desktop version just had so much more, and now they're coming into online and they're, we're like, well you, gotta move online. But you also need to add probably one, maybe three different other applications to accomplish what we accomplished in the desktop version. Um, and so there's obviously a lot of, we work with such a wide range of. What we were talking about before, where people are in their business to where it's just, um, you know, it's a dad and son business, or we've got a custom home builder that's doing, you know, a 75 to a hundred different semi-custom home builds, um, annually. Um, for somebody like that, definitely it makes sense for them to financially invest in a job costing software. But for our custom home builders that are doing maybe three to seven homes, maybe eight homes on an annual basis, because the large custom financially, they don't wanna make them move into a larger software or have all these add-ons, most of them subcontract out. So the overhead, the operational standpoint, is actually quite small despite what they're building and accomplishing. Um, and so. For, to keep it more simple for them, just makes more sense. And it, and like I said, how everyone job costs differently. It's just easier for us to utilize it. They like it. Especially now with that instant Google connection, they're almost seeing live data because we update, in my firm, we're updating the books on a, on a, you know, every other day for our whole high volume transactional clients. Mm-hmm.

Dan DeLong

And since, do you, do you find that, you know, the majority of your your, your clients are, are in the, the home builder space or, or more in the contractor? Field service type of industry? Or is it a mix?

Shanna Quinn

Um, it's a mix. It, I mean, our specialty is profit first, uh, job costing. Um, so a lot we have we have. I wanna say probably 10 different custom and semi custom home builder clients. Uh, we have about nine interior designers that do anything from, they actually are either production type, interior designers, where they are working. I actually have one that works mostly in California on sets. Um, and then we have, you know, one that just is retired and does it for fun. Um, and so a wide range of sizes, a wide range of industry types. Um, we have plumbers, we have engineers, um, electricians, hvac, all of that. Fortunately, none of, none of them live here where I live, so I can never call on them

Dan DeLong

when

Shanna Quinn

you need them. What I need for a reliable contractor.

Dan DeLong

You know, uh, you know a lot of 'em, but they're just not with you. And that, was that kind of the driving

Shanna Quinn

window,

Dan DeLong

was that kind of the driving factor to kind of wean off of desktop because of the in, you know, because of the location, the physical location of these businesses?

Shanna Quinn

Yeah, of course. I mean, I come from a firm that was starting an outsource accounting department 15 years ago, and we used Right Networks as a support platform, right. And we started using Keybox with a sum of them. So I think it used to be Coral Tree or something like that. Mm-hmm. Back in the day. Right. But for the ease of how everything needs to flow, especially when you start connecting third party applications, it becomes more essential for you to be on an online platform. It's just easier and it's less.

Dan DeLong

I actually see Sharrin agreeing.

Sharrin Fuller

I mean, I'm a cloud girl. I have been since 2014 when we had, it wasn't really cloud, but we had to pay like some overseas server, a hundred dollars a month to host all of our desktops so we can log in remotely. Yeah. I don't like working in an office. I wanna work from wherever I wanna work from. So I've always been a remote girl,

Dan DeLong

cloud-based,

Sharrin Fuller

cloud-based.

Dan DeLong

Now with those special trades, right, they have some field service business needs that are unique to to, to them, right? So es you know, and what's in QuickBooks currently is estimates, right? So you have this ability for electronic approvals. Uh, you can now request deposits on estimates and it actually tracks the the liability properly and applies it when you convert it to a, to an invoice. Yay for that. Progress invoicing where you can, uh, bill. Multiple, create multiple billings off of one estimate. Mobile payments when they're standing in front of their, their customer. Um, they can snap receipts, billable time and expenses. And, you know, there's a built-in mileage tracker, you know, using the mobile, mobile device. So some of these features may already, uh, be available or usable, uh, for your field service clients. Uh, but typically, as we have talked about before, those features are the shallow end of the pool. And, uh, and there's some there's some yeah. Butts, you know, to all of that because if you wanna set up a mileage tracker, uh, maybe they gotta be a cut. Uh, maybe they have, have to have access to your QuickBooks that you don't want to give them.

Sharrin Fuller

Wait, wait, wait. Didn't they just create a new login in QuickBooks for people just tracking miles? I thought I saw that You can actually customize, that's

Dan DeLong

why I said maybe, 'cause I wasn't

Sharrin Fuller

sure. Okay. I know I'm not the QuickBooks expert here, even though I know, but I

Shanna Quinn

think it was only in the

Sharrin Fuller

advanced version. How many years or whatever. Just kidding.

Dan DeLong

Oh, there's a,

Shanna Quinn

an advanced, I think they did that, but it was only in advanced.

Sharrin Fuller

Oh really? I swear. Well, maybe I'm thinking of my accountants because that's where I kind of live seeing the accountant and I remember I could, I could add So sorry if I'm your accountant.

Shanna Quinn

No, I could be wrong unless they changed things too. But I, the last I read it was it was the, it was the advanced version that had all that stuff. I,

Dan DeLong

I would imagine, I would imagine it would be the advance because

Sharrin Fuller

yeah, it's

Dan DeLong

just Right. If they need to be a user, if they need to be a user you have 25 users and if you've got field crew you, would want them to be part of your, your QuickBooks

Sharrin Fuller

online. I mean, honestly. I used to specialize in construction. Right. I loved it. I loved it because I loved working with construction owners. They don't have time to tell me how to do my job. They don't have time to nitpick me. They've got, in fact, they come in, they're like, I don't know what I'm doing. Do what I need to do. Don't get me fine. Keep me in compliance. Tell me what I owe. And I love that. And you could talk to the construction men when they're doing something stupid. You're all, Hey, dumb dumb. And they like that. 'cause that's how construction people communicate anyhow. But I use books. You have to get rude.

Shanna Quinn

Sometimes

Sharrin Fuller

you do. And that's okay. They like it. Men like it when women are mean to 'em for some reason. I don't know. It's inherent from their mothers. Um, and I specialize in being mean to people that want me to be mean to anyhow, it's a field. I'm gonna add that

Shanna Quinn

as another perk is to supporting this trade. You could take your,

Sharrin Fuller

there you go.

Shanna Quinn

And they

Sharrin Fuller

love it. Let's talk about that. But I'm just saying back in the day, we just had the QuickBooks desktop and it did pretty good. Um, I do love now that they've added all these features, but even better is like, like Dan was just saying, it's a shallow into the pool. If you're just starting, you could get in, you could use this. And as you add more and more advanced, the plugins that we can add are amazing. Like mileage tracker. There's probably so many things out there that we're like, Hey, I'm thinking rippling, right? If your payroll's on Ripley, I I don't know if they do a prevailing wage, but. They've got a mileage tracker in there. They, anyhow, so it's just, I'm just saying that they've come a long way. And I love the fact that it's not like it was how many years ago when somebody had to turn me in a piece of paper and I hadn't manually heard it. That's all. I just wanted to interject. I haven't spoken in about 15 minutes and I, I implode if I, I know

Dan DeLong

speak and we don't want, uh, sharing and quoting at all,

Sharrin Fuller

and I'm working on not interrupting after I got y'all out last week by a listener. I'm like, but dad's teaching you too much. And I have words. Okay, go ahead. I'll go back on mute.

Dan DeLong

Well, speaking of, you know, the, getting into the deeper end of the pool one of our Spotlight Sponsors Method it, one of their, uh, verticals that they, specialize in the industries is field service and they do allow, uh, or, you know, create, they have some great out of the box features. But you know, what I really appreciate about Method is. It's customizations options, right? So if you can articulate what it is that you want method to do to someone that knows how to customize it, they'll be able to make that happen, right? And some of the things that you get right out of the box is a client portal. So they'll be able to sign in see their, see their invoice, pay it make a request to add more things. Work orders is a, is a, is an option. Uh, you're gonna have, uh, dispatching and scheduling, so field crew users, right? And you don't pay as much for those field crew users because that's all they need to do is be out in the field, right? So, um, if you have a need for more field service checkout methods. So let's, uh, let's launch that second poll question of let's ask you the audience, what matter, what metric matters most to your project based clients. It is a single answer, and I know there's probably multiple answers that, that people would like. But choose the best. Choose the best option. All right, while you're answering that, let's talk, uh, we, oh, wow. We only have, uh, 20 more minutes. Uh, we'll talk about the construction, uh, edition. Uh, so this, uh, we talked a little bit about this on the, the. Open tab where, where this was released. Now there's a little bit more information available. Uh, so the advanced add-on allows for project phases, cost groups p budget, uh, project budget enhancements proposals, which is a separate transaction type. And change orders, which is a separate transaction type. A i a style invoicing and more reports. um, let's talk about proposals and, uh, change orders. Not this type of proposal on bended knee, but the second, second type of transaction. So it's, it's, these are additional transaction types. So basically proposals can be a, wishlist, and then you can create estimates based off of that wishlist. Multiple estimates can be linked to a single proposal. And then change orders, they are also segregated, whereas desktop, the change order support or feature was essentially an audit trail on the, uh, on the invoice. You deal a lot with, um, proposals and change orders with, uh, with, with your clients, Shanna.

Shanna Quinn

Yes, of course. Um, especially, especially custom home builders, right? Um, or even the ones that are doing, no matter what kind of contract, uh, you always have the change orders or BPOs or even at the end, right? You've got the warranty ones that, that flow through. So change orders is a, is a big. Reason why I was just replying to, uh, somebody regarding why the PO process, um, and why I don't use it with plus is because there's more than just a PO that needs to be generated for true use of that, of that of the feature. Um, and the rest of it is just not available, um, in QuickBooks. Right? So the change orders is obviously a, a big one and it's important to be tracked very specifically. Um, and we probably all have the clients if we're supporting contractors that use the yellow pad. To say, you know, here's what I think it's going to be to their clients. And then as they enter, then we use that yellow pad as a guide and we're like, Ooh, we are way off. Yeah. Um, and then we have to send that to their clients to, you know, bill 'em extra. Uh, change orders is is a massive one. And if you do allowances, that's where that variance of what I was referring to starts to come into play too.

Dan DeLong

Got it. Got it. And then a i, a billing. What is, a i a and why are they so particular?

Shanna Quinn

Because it is government controlled. Ah, I mean, these are, these are documents that, um, are your AI billing, you're not gonna have for everyone. But if you are doing any kind of government job or you are working through a bank, um uh, they're gonna probably have the requirement of an ai uh, billing functionality. Um, I don't have any clients right now that we're doing that on. We ha I had a client last year, we still support him, but he was doing a project, uh, it was a commercial project that we had to do the A I I A billing for the, uh, a commercial build in the, in Key West. Um, and that was a requirement for bank funding. So I've never, I'll be honest, never, I haven't used it within QuickBooks. Um, I know that that's now a feature that's come out. Um, I saw a couple of comments if we would use that that functionality within QuickBooks, and I just haven't, I haven't, it's also new functionality that came out and I have not, um, attempted it. So, um, I'd love to hear, um, afterwards if, when I know we're, uh, approaching our time, but I'd love to get some feedback on what people are thinking about it though.

Dan DeLong

Yeah. Yeah. And it's, this is part of the challenge of, you know, part providing the information about these new features. And some of them are so specific for, a specific use case. Now you gotta talk to your client about it and then evaluate whether it's whether it's worth it, uh, which my next slide is the price of this add-on, right? And then see if it's even if it does what you need it to do. You know, because typically there's 80% of the things that, that it will typically do out of the box, and then there's that 20%, and you we're always find that we're living somewhere in that 20% of unique circumstances when we, you know, suggest something to, to our clients. So the, the construction add-on pricing, uh, it's only available in advance. So you can't be, you can't add it on in plus. So if you have a client who needs this, they need to upgrade to advanced and then add it on. In advanced, uh, which it's $75 a month which, you know, comparative to, you know, some of the other add-ons that are, that are available that's comparable or much less. Um, but

Sharrin Fuller

yeah. But how much is advanced? 200. So now you're paying, I don't know. I mean,

Dan DeLong

yeah, 2 75,

Sharrin Fuller

it just think you have to add it. I feel like when you have an add-on like that, let it start at like a, I don't know, maybe there's reasons, but honestly Dan, they're keep going. 'cause I have comments when you get down to a bullet point.

Dan DeLong

Okay. The, um, that, when I said the promo period, the typical, they're probably gonna have, you know, promos on that $75. Right? So I think now it's, uh, 50% for the first three months or something like that. So it's 37 50. But to your point, Sharrin, if you do have to go from plus to advance just to get the add-on, that's a significant jump from plus to advance. Just to get a 50% discount, which they may do some promotional period when you upgrade to advance, but that's the billing's entirely, you know, up to, up to them. I do wanna point out that if you're on a firm, build subscriptions, like if you're paying the subscription and you're managing it, you can't add it on. Um, so it's not available for, those in the wholesale billing or the ProAdvisor preferred pricing

Sharrin Fuller

or So you're saying that, wait, when you say you can't add it on, so if I'm the one billing, I can't call into it and add it for my client, my client now has to call into it No. To add it on.

Dan DeLong

No, you can't add it on at all.

Sharrin Fuller

Oh. So you have to build a whole entire thing to the client.

Dan DeLong

Exactly. You'd have to essentially

Sharrin Fuller

kick them outta your subscription. Know. Now I'm angry because now that, that pisses me off.

Shanna Quinn

Is

Audio Only - All Participants

that

Sharrin Fuller

because you get, can, they just can, they can intuit just flat out say, we are trying to remove accountants. We don't need you. We want all of our accounting. We, when you call, we're gonna say, well, what are you paying your accountant? Well, maybe you should just move everything over to Intuit and we'll do all your accounting like that. Just

Shanna Quinn

don't

Sharrin Fuller

mad

Shanna Quinn

with their, uh, bookkeeping.

Sharrin Fuller

That's what I'm saying. Like, might as well just say, accountants, we are getting rid of you whether you like it or not. We're getting rid of desktop. You can't build. Oh, now I'm angry and you got me angry again. Keep going, Dan. I don't wanna talk anymore.

Dan DeLong

Stirred up a, a hornet's nest there. I'm took, I'm looking at it in a, in terms of they, they need to figure out how to add it and if they've got the right pricing before they include this as a, as an option. Uh, but you may be right. You may be right. I feel

Shanna Quinn

like they just were trying to appease some of the complaints coming in about the IEF costs, and so they threw that out there without really thinking about the details and how it was gonna be perceived. Right.

Dan DeLong

Yeah. Yeah. They're this is not un uncommon, right?

Sharrin Fuller

We just are not a, we're not a blip on their radar anymore. We are no longer a factor in their, before we were the entire factor in the Intuit world decision making. We are no longer a factor. They remove us from it. And their whole Intuit council is just to keep us appeased until we're all off a desktop.

Shanna Quinn

Yeah.

Sharrin Fuller

That is my opinion. That is my conspiracy. And it angers me because they pretend like they play. Just be honest. Tell us the truth. So we know how to function, but don't tell us that's not what you're doing. It just, that's that the lies. The lies.

Shanna Quinn

Yeah. I agree.

Dan DeLong

Well, we live in a world where anything's possible and anything is, uh, there, there's, there's certainly. It's all in the realm of possibility. but the, it's ideal for a single entity, right? Because, uh, Intuit Enterprise Suite is better suited for those with multiple entities. Uh, so why go all the way up for, that, right? Uh, owner led or a lighter staff you know, where they don't have so many project managers and, and, and people in, charge of this or, and they're reliant on Excel to do a lot of these things or light applications that, that, that feed into that. They wanna feed into QuickBooks. You know, someone who's already on Nullify or Buildertrend or some other, you know, software that they've already imp implemented will likely find that this is not worth that, you know, transitioning all of that back into, back into QuickBooks or someone that's just hitting the limits of plus or advanced.

Shanna Quinn

Even like, you know, sometimes less is more in our accounting. So when you have a third party product that works for your client, that does the pos, that does the the estimates and from a job costing standpoint can manage that whole process from A to Z that makes more sense and then just have less come into your accounting, right? That's, your micro report and then you used QuickBooks and the accounting side as your overall, how is everything performing.

Dan DeLong

All right. And then as far as Intuit Enterprise Suite, what's available just in Intuit Enterprise Suite? Um, there's more enhancements with the project management ai, so creating budgets project planning, profitability recommendations, cost allocations a clothing summary. Those are available in Intuit Enterprise Suite that aren't available in the advanced. Or the advanced construction add-on. There is a project manager role, uh, which is a specific I was butting up against, uh, this because, uh, I had a client in the construction and they wanted their project managers to have access to certain areas. And even in advance, you couldn't give them the specific access that they needed without giving them all of the access they didn't want to give them. So there is a a, a project manager role, uh, available for, that. But if that's the only thing that's driving them up there there might be a better alternative, uh, to go to. Then going to Intuit Enterprise Suite, uh, there are more reports and it's gonna be augmented by the additional features that are core in Intuit Enterprise Suite, like the DI dimensions, right? So you'll be able to have, uh, a little bit more. Customizations on, on those things by using the, core features of Intuit Enterprise Suite, which is, uh, dimensions, which is a big thing. So multiple entities of course is going to be you know, a core feature that is gonna be a, when you have multiple entities those workflows will be, uh, also streamlined and then you'll be able to manage those milestones and tasks along the way. Do you have clients on Intuit Enterprise Suite or you're getting into that that realm now that they're, I,

Shanna Quinn

I'll be interested in having my clients spend that much money on a product once they add in that balance sheet, job costing. Um, that's just a big, you know, it's a big. A, big need for a lot of the, the clients that we are supporting that could afford and would need such a robust system you know, to, to put a small client on even if they need project, job costing to be on a balance sheet. But if they're doing for custom homes a year, I don't, I just can't foresee them spending or would I suggest them to spend that kind of money on an accounting software, I would suggest that we find an alternative or exterior product, like you mentioned, OFI, which I think is one of the only job costing platforms that is, uh, syncing with IES right now. I've also used Buildertrend and Job Tread obviously is a, um, are ones that are, are great out there and they connect just fine with QuickBooks Online and they're affordable.

Dan DeLong

And that's the thing that we don't know as you know. External folks from on Intuit, right? We don't know what the cost of Intuit Enterprise Suite is because there's this whole sales process that is currently owned by Intuit of scoping out what it is that they need, how many entities, and what other, uh, services, uh that are, included. And then, so we don't know if that, if that cost is worth it. So you just end up having to have them a demonstration and go through that process and to find out whether or not that is, um, that is even worth it or not. Uh, but we want to we talk about, we're gonna talk, well, I mean, we did talk about the balance sheet WIP report, right? Because these are the Yeah. Buts, uh, when it comes to, yeah, these features are, are there but. So the sales form customization limitations, right? You only have so much that you can do with the way that your sales forms look and feel. So estimates, proposals, right? So you, you don't get the granularity like you do in, in QuickBooks Desktop with the, the layout designer. There's no custom columns that you can add on invoices for line items. So that's a, that's a limitation, right? So, uh if if, they need an, an additional custom field that's on a line, line item level, just not gonna have those options. And then just reliant on the online ecosystem. Uh, as far as other limitations like, uh, the user permissions, right? So the, if you're needing, you know, someone to be able to do these things like that project manager management role, um. Sometimes, especially in plus where it's the, user permissions are a light switch, they're on or off. The no dimmer, uh, involved. Um, any other, uh, thoughts about, uh, the the, glass ceiling of QuickBooks online when it comes to construction?

Shanna Quinn

Yeah, I'll just say that I think we all have a love hate relationship with the program itself. Um, and we have to understand that there are capabilities. So I see comments about finding alternatives and you just have to go based off of what's best for what you're doing, the, how many clients you're supporting. Um, obviously when I mentioned the job reports, that's not conducive for everybody. Um, depending on how current know, or how frequently you're providing the reports back to your client. For my large custom home builders. Um, it works, it works well for, us, and it works well for them. Um, and you know, for if you've got field services or you have other, you know, home builders or custom home builders, there are so many good third party products where all that information can lay. Provide that, you know, that, um, information from a per job standpoint, that doesn't need to make it into the accounting. Not we can keep accounting simple, the book simple, but have the details within those individual programs. Um, as long as they are small enough for us to do it that way. Um, the robust systems, when they come out, like the contractor version, once they update maybe that IES program and add w accounting, those will be the pro, those will home builders are going to do great in that right or commercial, uh, subs are going to do great in that because they're gonna need all of that. And most likely companies that size have more complicated financials. Anyways, now I'm always in my voice.

Dan DeLong

No. So you have a 59 minute, uh, window on, uh, on the speaking voice. so, uh, we'll talk a little bit about the beef or cg, which is book, uh, your new, your new endeavor. Bookkeepers for construction or contractor group, which would,

Shanna Quinn

I don't feel like is that complicated, but I guess I say it over and over and over again. The bookkeeping for contractors group

Dan DeLong

just rolls off your We

Shanna Quinn

cg

Sharrin Fuller

I would

Shanna Quinn

wanna, so we heat acronyms, everything. Right. So that's why I like

Sharrin Fuller

it.

Shanna Quinn

Yeah.

Sharrin Fuller

cause if you throw it on a shirt, people are like, Ooh, that seems really important. You're all Yeah, it is. Right? It's nobody knows. And then when they ask you, you get to promote your company. I need to, I really need to start helping people tell people how to market. 'cause I'm better at telling

Shanna Quinn

people

Sharrin Fuller

doing yay shirts, good shirts, polyline.

Shanna Quinn

Yeah. Comfortable soft shirts.

Dan DeLong

Uh, so what is, uh, B for CG and how can people get involved?

Shanna Quinn

So B four CG is essentially a platform doing it myself for so long. Um, I kind of were seeing too many clients coming to me or prospects at the time, right, that their books, um, were a total train wreck. Or they might've even been close, um, a handful of 'em to bankruptcy thinking that somebody had their back with the accounting side. Um, and so I just was seeing a lot of that and realized that there was a need for someone to come in and specifically walk through someone who's already an accounting professional, who understands the basic on how to properly provide you know, job costing services to these trades. Um, I just, I think that there's already this. Massive reduction in accounting professionals coming into the world. Uh, there was less and less graduates in the program. Um, but then specifically this industry has exploded since COVID. So I think that everyone's investing back in their home and they need someone like us to be able to help keep them successful and show them how to build, um, what was a dream or a hobby into something that can maintain life, um, and, and grow. So I just was seeing that and that's why I came up with the, this. So there's, uh, two ecosystems within the platform. Obviously that accounting professional side, but I also do one-on-one projects and uh, trainings with contractor and trade business owners, um, directly on how to understand their financials, how to read a financial statement, what are the right questions to ask, um, whether they are hiring an accounting professional. Um, and in some cases, our accounting professionals will receive, uh, referrals to, uh, work with a contractor or trade business. The owner that's come to us looking for support

Dan DeLong

as, um, a member of the, of the accounting professionals. You could potentially get more clients after you've, uh, been vetted, right? You, you would kind of come, they would come into you like, uh, you could refer a client to Shanna, and Shanna may say, well, this is not. For me, but I have a group of people that can already, that I know would be confident to, to refer to, right?

Shanna Quinn

Yeah, absolutely. We, I mean, we've got all of the accounting professionals that are coming in, like you mentioned. So, uh, you're taking a test that is handwritten, not all q and a, so we can't just ask Google everything, um, you have to hand write some answers. Um, but we also look at, uh, we ask for degrees and do a small background with some references. Um, I don't wanna send you a referral, um, and you not be the right qualification for, to handle that size of business or that specific industry of what they're looking for. So I wanna make sure we're, we're guiding you into the right hands of somebody that's gonna provide you that support and clarity.

Dan DeLong

And if you didn't notice, you do, uh, access access to school, bookkeeping.

Shanna Quinn

Yeah.

Dan DeLong

Which is how we kind of tie in. So. I'll handle the QuickBooks stuff. Uh, you handle the contractor stuff, which is the way that we're, we're kind of partnering

Sharrin Fuller

with, wait, wait, can I get thrown in here too? And I can help people. You know, you're doing contractor, you're doing bookkeeping, and I'll do systems operations, automations. I mean, I feel like we're really good solution here for everybody. Here we go together. Think

Shanna Quinn

so. I think you're onto something.

Sharrin Fuller

The trifecta. We just, I just decided I, I fix it. I had to start coming up with an elevator pitch. What do you do? I fixed businesses and I get owners unstuck. I don't know. For some reason people, they like that.

Dan DeLong

They, so I did, I did launch the last poll question while you were, while you were talking there. Was this information useful? If you wanna learn more about the B four CG group and then of course you can always, uh, stay connected with, uh, Sharrin or myself, uh, by. Joining our community, our respective communities as well. But I think we do need to have a, you know a, consolidated

Sharrin Fuller

yeah,

Dan DeLong

like a, a vol, a Voltron,

Sharrin Fuller

an umbrella. Or we can all join each other communities. Oh, sorry. I was gonna say we can join each other's communities when certain questions are asked. We're all, Hey, I answer that, but here.

Shanna Quinn

Yeah.

Dan DeLong

Right. Exactly.

Shanna Quinn

I'm gonna share my email too, uh, just in case anyone missed the QR on the front. So if you guys had questions for me, I saw my name a handful of times, but I was. More focused on this. So

Sharrin Fuller

we do send out the slides. I'll drop it in one more time. I have posted it a few times. So, um, and then everything does go out after, so we will have, just so you know, we will have a follow up email to all of the 400 plus registrants, which is, I think one of the highest amount of registrants we've ever had. Yep. So. Awesome.

Dan DeLong

Exactly. So next time Sharrin's not gonna be here. Um,

Sharrin Fuller

I'm not, oh, I'm gonna be rippling on the road. Sorry guys. I'll be teaching a round table in New York, rippling on the road.

Dan DeLong

So we will have a surprise guest host. So we're not saying who, um, but we are going to be talking is gonna be our first, well, our, our first in the new series of, uh, app Showdowns, uh, where we will be talking about Shopify connections and, uh, what is the best Shopify connection for X, right. So we'll, we'll, go through the myriad of options that are available for. Customers or clients that want to get Shopify transactions into QuickBooks and what might be the best one, uh, to choose for, you know, choosing the right tool. Hey, we segue back into construction, uh, because, you know, you don't wanna use a hammer to put in a bolt, right? So thank you again for joining us and, uh, appreciate push putting through, putting up with, uh, our shenanigans here. Um, Shanna, thank you again and thank you to

Sharrin Fuller

Intuit for pissing me off to where my adrenaline is pumping and I'm ready to solve some stuff today. I am so angry right now. I can't even talk.

Dan DeLong

All right, well, we have a, we have a clip to share, uh, later Sharrin of, uh, Sharrin Brand.

Sharrin Fuller

Oh, into, it's gonna love that one.

Dan DeLong

All right. Thank you again, uh, for everyone joining us today. Shanna, appreciate you, uh, giving your lending your expertise here. Thank you. And, uh, we will see you next time on the QB Power Hour.