Thank you for reading the article and replying to it.

Unfortunately, I have not received an answer from Intuit explaining how one can relate a job’s status in the Contractor’s Edition of QuickBooks to job cost reports in order to prepare a Work-in Process schedule for just the jobs still in progress.

If anyone has, please update my reply.

Thank you, April. Good question.

Any direction you may have is most appreciated!

Thank you,
April Gross

We are experiencing this exact issue and our only solution is a V-lookup I write each month to correlate job status with estimates vs actuals. I was curious if you found or have written any update to this article or if you ever received any feedback from Quickbooks.

Any direction you may have is most appreciated!

Thank you,
April Gross

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/196531901.html

Please see my reply to your other comment.

Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate them. I am pleased to learn that you found my article, Taxation of Construction Contractors: Tax Accounting Methods for Contractors, informative and helpful.

For methods of accounting, you may wish to indicate cash as the general method and completed contract as the long-term contract method.

The income to be reported on Schedule C would be cash receipts for work completed.

That’s it. Don’t get too fancy, even though I see you like wearing many hats…LOL!

Kindest regards,
The Barefoot Accountant

I have a question regarding filing taxes for a construction company that has work in progress. Lets say I have a client that has $100,000 income. Of the $100,000, $50,000 is work in progress that at the end of the year is not completed. They would get a 1099 for the entire $100,000.

On the Schedule C line F would I select other accounting method and specify Completed Contract Method.

Then I would enter the $100,000 on line 1 Gross Receipts. Would I then enter $50,000 in line 2 Returns and allowances and notate Work in Progress. The following year would I then record the income on line 1 as Gross Receipts.

Bill please let me know if I am going in the right direction.

Many Thanks,
Orlando Javien Jr.
have a client that reports income when the job is completed. He received a 1099 so I know I have to report that on line one of the Schedule C. Do I deduct the work in progress income on line 2 Returns and allowances. Also What method should be en

Thank you for responding so quickly. It is so nice to have an expert to seek knowledge from especially when you can never get a hold of an IRS agent.

Your article on Taxation of Construction Contractors Tax Accounting Methods for Contractors was exactly what I was looking for.

I have a client that has work in progress. This is his first year in business so I won’t have to fill out the form 3115 change of accounting method.

He received a 1099 for the payment already but the job isn’t completed yet.

From your article I can see that I can enter other methods of accounting on my clients Schedule C. I would mark line F number 3) Other and enter Completed Contract Method.

Then I would enter the 1099 income received on line 1. And then make an adjustment on line 2 Returns and allowances to adjust for the portion of income that is work in progress.

Should I just notate in the notes Work in Progress 2012.

Please let me know if I am going in the right direction.

Then the following year when he receives the income should I then include the income on line 1 and notate Work In Progress from 2012.

Thank you,
Orlando Javien Jr,
The Man of Many Hats

As husband and wife, we think we qualify for QJV. Our business is profitable, paying taxes and the rest pays tuition for our kids (that’s about its size). We are happy to have a 3rd and 4th job.

But the SEP is complicated because we contributed and rolled the funds accumulated over to an annuity that is truly locked. We are both annuitants with right of survivorship -its really a family pension and the IRS enjoys a lifetime of taxes…

The challenge is this years’ contribution is well below the limit as a whole business, but exceeds the limit if we half the income as one does on a QJV. And then every single published example states a SEP must be offered to employees. We only made one contribution to one spouse; I am not splitting the IRA income because little parts don’t add up when it comes to annuities.

What should I do to reconcile a potential excess contribution?

If this unravels into true IRS Halloween (some of these forms and instructions are ridiculous), can I re-file and characterize my business without QJV? We are just not big enough ….

Jeff

I am pleased to hear that you found my article–Renting Your Home: Feasible Tax Strategy? Thinking of renting your home because of the nondeductible loss on its sale on your tax return?–well written. Thank you for your kind words.

No, one does not have to look at the fair market value of one’s home every year: only at the date of conversion from a personal residence to rental property. If the fair market value is less than the basis of one’s home (i.e., its actual costs), then the rental property would be capitalized at that value and depreciated over twenty-seven and one-half years as residential rental property.

William Brighenti, CPA
Accountants CPA Hartford, Connecticut, LLC

But why don’t you do what everyone else does when prompted to enter a new vendor: just select the generic vendor already set up.

Sorry, I cannot be of further help to you but a $200 program customarily cannot spit wooden nickels.

I own a small company and using Quickbooks for accounting and bookkeeping.
I am using company credit card to make online purchases and make billing payment.
The problem I am facing is when I download the credit card transaction into Quickbooks.

Below is one of the scenario I run into:

I am buying lots of office supplies from say Office Depot, Staples, etc.
When I download the transaction, they would appear as

Office Depot #1898
Office Depot #2888
Office Depot #1823
Office Depot #5689
Office Depot #896

And similar to Staples and other vendors.

Quickbooks treat each of the above as a unique Vendor and hence we end up with lots of vendors list.
I want to see if there is a way to avoid this kind of situation so that all entries can go into “Office Depot” as one vendor.

#xxxx is referring to Store # I think.

This is true for many other vendors.
You have a lunch at one McDonald and Dinner at another McDonald, then there will be 2 different vendors…basically in this case I just need to go under McDonald.

Please see if you can help.

Riz Momin

Nick bellino

Like my colleagues I spend hours trying to convince my clients of the importance to classify their clients into clusters (which generally refers to other parameters …) but this is actually very very helpful to break the ice!!

If you allow me I would like to refer to this article in our website in the section dedicated to “articles you must read”.
Thanks, it was great to read this!
Giulia

and if you can also help with portion it would really help me out…
sending checks received from clients directly to the vendor (Notes Payable) as they accept them. I have been receiving the payments, so the customer invoice will be marked PAID, and posting to a flow through acct. Is there a way to receive the payments and get them to the Note Payable.
Again, thanks for your time and help.

1) If the payment is late the interest rates changes from 8% to 10%. Is there a way to incorporate this?

2) Our Note Payable is for invoices for job materials that we received and just fell behind on so ended up doing a Note Payable. What should I do with the invoices that are out in BILL PAY that the Note Applies to?

3) Additionally, they have been sending checks received from clients directly to the vendor (Notes Payable) as they accept them. I have been receiving the payments, so the customer invoice will be marked PAID, and posting to a flow through acct. Is this correct? Is there a way to receive the payments and get them to the Note Payable?

Obama’s remark was “”I suspect that on Social Security, we’ve got a somewhat similar position,” Obama said. “Social Security is structurally sound. It’s going to have to be tweaked the way it was by Ronald Reagan and Speaker — Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill. But it is — the basic structure is sound.”

It was a straightforward remark with no waffling whatsoever and yet the Democrats chalked it up to Obama miss-speaking. They were baffled. Hilarious!

BTW–your post on FDL was just taken down as spam but I was lucky enough to read it before they scrubbed it. Thanks for that. It used to be a great site. I no longer comment their because of the immediate personal attacks by the FDL tribalist crew. Such a shame that the entire Democratic party has lost their credibility over Obama. I’ve given up on politics and probably won’t be posting here often but thanks for the invite and thanks for your commitment to ethics. You are appreciated!

Thanks, again

THANK YOU.

Oh and be aware- I got banned by Jane Hamsher herself- for saying what you did about how FDL does not allow articles on the front page that are speaking for candidates outside the duopoly.

Aas an aside- the article you posted on firedoglake- your comment about how FDL does not allow articles for opponents to Obama is what got me banned from FDL. Or more like- it was the excuse that was used to get me banned.

Hope you are not but I post at wendy davis blog, kgblogz from time to time. When the election is over- I have already started to write a book- with the aid of a local journalist about what you talk about- It will be a tell all and I will name names- including Jane Hamsher. It will be called
Censorship- A Liberal Value.

We plan to promote it all over the country.

Call the office in Farmington, CT: 860-409-9140

But I do believe Jill Stein would be an excellent President.

We saved 50% of what Allstate charged by going to Liberty Mutual.

So you were not in good hands with Allstate?

The Barefoot Accountant

QuickBooks is limited in its ability to convert accrual to cash basis reports completely: that was the point of my article.

I would have to review your QuickBooks file in detail to understand precisely what is causing these negative balances in AR and AP since you already have re-done the entries in QuickBooks of the transactions affecting those accounts.

If you have a Certified Public Accountant servicing your company, that firm should be able to assist you on this matter. If not, I would be pleased to do so as your CPA.

Sorry, but if you have followed my recommendations in my article and still are seeing negative balances, I would really need to review your QuickBooks file.

Kindest regards,
The Barefoot Accountant

After re-doing all transactions, making sure bills are created and credits are applied correctly. I am still have this issue in my AP account. And still having the issue in my AR account even though I am applying customer payment correctly and customer retainers by a GJ enrtry from the liability account to AR and then applying the customer’s credit. Am I missing something. I have tried everywhich way. All of my transactions are handled the same way, yet some are still showing up in the cash basis totals. PLEASE HELP. I am beginning to think that there is something that is wrong with the actual software.

Sincerely,

Lisa Strother

Who is the CPA involved with that trust? Why didn’t you ask that CPA?

The Barefoot Accountant

I have a rental property that is managed by a professional real estate management company. I receive a 1099 at the end of the year for the income I receive.

The property is owned by a trust and I am the owner and manager of the trust.

My question is about receipts for repairs. Since I am not managing the properties, do I need to keep a copy of all repair receipts in case of an audit or would this be something that only the management company would keep for their records?

Thanks so much!

And again FDR’s civil rights record is atrocious. And he is given way too much credit, when his policies in reality prolonged the depression and WWII and not him got us out of the depression.

And believe me Fox News is not going to talk about the Breton Woods agreement or be critical of the federal reserve. And most of them are crooks I agree. They also would not acknowledge that Reagan was very anti-war and put a lot more value on the lives of troops than either Bush or Obama. He got into Lebanon, and very quickly realized it was a mistake and got out. Can’t say the same thing about Tweedle Dee (Obama) and Tweedle Dum (W).

But again the problem relates not to Reagan’s tax policy but monetary policy. Reagan to his credit did things like advocate for a return to some monetary policy linked to gold or something at least. That is the reason for the large budget deficits.

Attached is a historical chart detailing the budget deficits and debt over the last 100 years since the Fed was created. Under their watch we have gone from a deficit of just under 3 million dollars to a deficit of about 17 trillion. Gotta love those stable prices Fed. Great job managing the economy.

Despite their corruption, things actually were managed fairly well during the period from 1944-1971 because the monetary policy was actually somewhat sane and was actually backed by something and made it so congress had to be somewhat disciplined as far as when to cut spending and when taxes had to be raised. The deficit was very stead over 15 to 20 years and prosperity was never better, because of the fiscal discipline. Look at what has happened to the deficit since 1971, when Nixon decided he did not want to deal with fiscal responsibility and argued that under Keynesian economics, that deficits did not matter. Heck under Keynesian economics you did not have to be responsible. Or you could call it Chenyeconomics. Deficits don’t matter. Really you can blame the Vietnam War a lot more than you could blame Reagan for this deficit. It was already escalating during the 1970′s after the complete revamping of the monetary policy.

Now they can print their way out of trouble, which is a great way to steal from the middle class, without them realizing it. The rich love it. And the bankers are in paradise. The fed can secretly print money, bail out whoever they want, have no accountability, hit a tab for creating 1.5 trillion dollars. Loan the 1.5 trillion just created by the computer stroke and than charge the US government 3% on the country’s own currency. Gotta love it.

And the beauty of the monetary policy is you don’t need to raise taxes to go to war. Either print the money or give China some more treasury bills. Run the deficits and pay for the war by devaluation of the dollar, so suckers don’t realize they are actually getting taxed and paying for the war. If more people realized how much money this was costing them in regards to purchasing power, there would be a lot more anti-war advocates.

link for federal deficits which shows the damage of the 1971 shift in response to money issues because of Vietnam War.

http://home.adelphi.edu/sbloch/deficits.html

If it were not for FDR, there would never have been a middle class: there would only have been Potterville, which is where we are headed now with Presidents and Congress bought and paid for by the behemoth multinational corporations.

Both the Republicans and Democrats, including President Obama, are in the employment of these Multinational Corporations with all of the campaign moneys and lobbyists contributions paying them off: it’s legalized bribery. That’s why we have all of this corporate welfare and the erosion of the middle class.

And, yes, there is too much spending: 20% of our national budget goes to military spending. What a waste!

And what about all of those needless, never ending wars, resulting in nation rebuilding of foreign lands, costing us trillions of dollars and benefitting Haliburton and other defense industry contractors, who have contributed to the campaigns of our elected officials. What a joke.

So it’s not any particular party at fault because, in my opinion, with all of the legalized bribery in government, they are all a bunch of crooks.

Are you disputing this?! If so, then perhaps you have been overdosing on FOX.

I would argue that the tax policies are very similar over the last 30 years and that the real transfer of wealth happened as a result of actions taken by the Nixon administration on August 15, 1971 taking us out of the Breton Woods agreement. Since that point in time CEO’s salaries have escalated and the federal government has run massive budget deficits to benefit these companies.

The biggest reason why wealth has been stolen from the middle class is these budget deficits, which benefit the elite and the rich, not the middle class, which is what the Democrats would make you believe. The middle class is actually being taxed more now than they were in the 1980′s and earlier because their savings are being eroded by devaluation of their dollars. The The Democrats are fine with this. That is why the overwhelmedly support the privatization of the country’s monetary policy with almost no oversight whatsoever. They love the idea of taxing people through monetization of currency, so people are not realizing they are being taxed. And so do the Republicans as they must support their MIC.

And FDR was one of the most overrated presidents of all time. Besides being arguably the worst civil rights presidents of all time, although Bush and Obama competed heavily with him on this, he outlawed ownership of gold, he mistreated Japanese Americans, and he had complete disdain for the bill of rights and the US Constitution and had the same respect for it as he had for toilet paper.

“…I think that it is a pretty fair way to say that Obama is the lesser of two evils. And that’s really unfortunate these days, right, when you start to think about what’s actually less evil? Less evil these days is a president that chooses to execute U.S. citizens without ever giving them a day in court. Less evil is somebody who wages a very aggressive war on whistle-blowers while at the same time his administration is leaking a lot of information.

…I don’t want to have to choose between the lesser of two evils. I actually want a good leader.”

The Barefoot Accountant

Is this a homework problem? Unfortunately I am not compensated to be a tutor. Sorry, my friend.

Perhaps a fellow student can assist you on this site or elsewhere.

My very best to you,

The Barefoot Accountant

Speaking for Professor Stiglitz, the answer is obvious: reverse the process that has been occurring over the past thirty (30) years. Raise the highest marginal tax rates significantly on the wealthy, change the tax laws to end subsidies and tax loopholes for the wealthy, eliminate the capital gains tax rate for investment income, including that on the “carried interest” of investment CEOs and hedge fund managers, return the estate tax to previous levels and exemptions.

In addition, slash our imperialistic military budget, and instead of building infrastructure on foreign soils, invest in our infrastructure at home, creating jobs here in America.

Finally, reinstate and enforce both the Glass-Steagall Act as well as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, separating commercial from investment banking and breaking up the big banks.

This was the failure of President Obama, who ran in 2008 on a platform of “change”, “hope and change”, “change you can believe in”, “change the way Washington works”. President Obama surrounded himself with Wall Streeters instead of Progressive economists like Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, and Robert Reich.

William Brighenti, Certified Public Accountant, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor
Accountants CPA Hartford, Connecticut, LLC

“The principle is very simple. Those at the top don’t consume all of their income. Those at the bottom do; they have no choice. So when we take money from the bottom to the top, total demand goes down…

One of the reasons we’re having such a weak recovery is demand is so weak. And one of the reasons demand is so weak is we have so much inequality.”

Accountants CPA Hartford, Connecticut, LLC

I read your article on the internet on the caption in thesubject above and I wish to commend your good efforts. However I like you to assistme with a situation currently on hand. Your illustration in the article presenteda situation whereby construction in progress exceed progress billing, if thissituation continue to the end of the project life, how I my suppose to closethe progress billings account. I insert below extract from the article

“To illustrate the accounting under thepercentage-of-completion method of constructing accounting, assume thefollowing:

Contract = $100,000

Total estimated costs = $80,000

Year 1 costs = $20,000

Year 1 billings = $30,000

Year 2 costs = $40,000

Year 2 billings = $50,000

During year 1, costs are accumulated in anasset account typically entitled Construction in Process (CIP):

Construction in Process

20,000

Accounts Payable (or Cash)

20,000

During year 1, billings are posted to a contraaccount to Construction in Process, often entitled Progress Billings:

Contracts Receivable

30,000

Progress Billings

30,000

To compute the percentage of completion, onedivides the costs to date by the total estimated costs:

% complete = 20,000/80,000 = 25%

Of course, total estimated gross profit ismerely the difference between the contract price less total estimated costs:

Total estimated gross profit = 100,000 -80,000 = 20,000

Gross profit to date is computed multiplyingthe percent complete by the estimated gross profit:

Gross profit to date = 25% X 20,000 = 5,000

The following journal entry is made to reflectthe gross profit, revenues and expenses on the contract for year 1:

Construction in Process

5,000

Construction Expenses

20,000

Construction Revenues

25,000

For year 2, gross profit is derived asfollows:

% complete = 60,000/80,000 = 75%

Current year’s gross profit = 75% X 20,000 -5,000 = 10,000

And the following journal entry is made toreflect the gross profit, revenues and expenses on the contract for year 2:

Construction in Process

10,000

Construction Expenses

40,000

Construction Revenues

50,000”

Best Regards

Monsur

That means George Bush targeted American citizens for assassination and got away with it.

I’d like to support you, but as long as you believe so many of the Big Lies, like 9/11 was caused by terrorists, it just isn’t working for me.

I deeply appreciate your comment. Rocky Anderson is my candidate for President in 2012. Romney and Obama are bought and paid for by Corporate America. Let’s hope more Americans become aware of this sad reality.

Thank again,
The Barefoot Accountant

The Barefoot Accountant

Connecticut Politics

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

PS: Loved your 21 reasons why I will not vote for Obama in 2012 post.

I advocate Jeffersonian democracy and Adam Smith’s economic philosophy from his Wealth of Nations. Jefferson asserted that there could be no democracy with concentrations of power (i.e., wealth) in the hands of the few. He believed that democracy could only survive in a country of small farmers; today, it would be small businesses, who, incidentally, create 80% of the jobs in our country and do not export them to Taiwan, South Korea, China, and elsewhere.

Adam Smith warned of the collusion of business and government, too, and the disastrous effect it would have on a free enterprise, capitalistic system.

Perhaps you failed to read the Federalist Papers and Wealth of Nations, and obtain all of your information from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, accounting for your misunderstanding of the economic reality currently in the United States.

The Barefoot Accountant

Aside from that about 99% of what you said either has nothing to do with governing people or simply could not be accomplished in reality

You make statements like “humane and workable set of values and principles.” but then outlines ways to underline the very morals and values of the people of the country you are proposing the change for.

I would not only not vote for you I would openly fight against you, I can see a lot of things wrong with most governments but it almost always has to do with scope and size.

Your idea of government would do away with any pretense of moral beliefs and would basically be a pointless control center taxing a populace that would not agree with its reason for being nor would they gain anything from the governing body.

Good luck selling that because not even in the most extreme socialist countries like Britian or Germany could you close that deal

Ps – “Why do nations like Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have better health care systems than the US?” They don’t their health care is a joke compared to the US, stop believing what the liberal media is selling you. Visit them first hand and see, same as Britian, Germany and just about any other country in the world that has some form of social medicine

“This would elevate voter participation to a level that would leave little time for football games and Friday nights at the local bowling alley or bar”

No actaully it would end voter particpation completely because if people wanted to run every aspect of the country they woudl do it not elect someone else