As an accounting professional serving contractors for over 15 years, I’ve seen firsthand the financial chaos many construction companies face. Between tracking project expenses, managing payroll, invoicing clients, and keeping the books straight, it’s no wonder the average contractor spends over 80 hours per month on administrative tasks alone.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Cloud accounting software like QuickBooks Online levels the playing field for contractors, providing easy tools to streamline financial workflows. The result? More time focused on building great projects, fewer headaches keeping the finances in check, and faster business growth.
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll show you how QuickBooks Online empowers contractors to:
- Streamline expense tracking, invoicing, and financial tasks
- Improve project and team communication
- Automate repetitive paperwork
- Access real-time data and insights
- Scale up and adapt to business growth
I’ll also address common pain points like the learning curve and data entry, along with tips to overcome them. My goal is to equip you with the knowledge and confidence to transform the way your contracting business runs with QuickBooks Online. Let’s get started!
Streamlining Financial Management for Contractors
QuickBooks Online provides contractors with an all-in-one system to simplify bookkeeping, keep finances organized, and run reports required for tax season. Here are some of the key ways it streamlines financial management:
Tracking Expenses and Revenue
Creating projects generates a lot of expenses – materials, equipment rentals, subcontractor invoices, and more. Tracking these line-by-line items is critical for understanding costs and profits.
With QuickBooks Online, you can:
- Capture expenses on-site using your phone’s camera and upload to the software
- Create expense rules to automatically categorize costs
- Sync corporate card expenses to eliminate manual entry
You can also track all project revenue and client invoices in one place, keeping totals up-to-date automatically as you bill customers.
Invoicing Clients and Receiving Payments
Creating professional invoices, sending them to clients, and getting paid quickly are critical for healthy cash flow.
QuickBooks Online makes invoicing painless with:
- Online payment links to get paid fast
- Automatic reminders to avoid late invoices
- Options for one-time or recurring invoices
- Tracking invoice status
- Support for partial and milestone payments
You’ll spend less time managing invoices and more time focused on billable work.
Generating Financial Reports and Managing Cash Flow
With a few clicks, QuickBooks Online generates real-time reports on:
- Profit and loss – understand overall profitability
- Accounts receivable – track unpaid customer balances
- Accounts payable ¬– monitor unpaid vendor bills
- Cash flow – forecast income and expenses
For contractors paid in progress payments or draws, this visibility is invaluable in managing cash flow crunches.
Budgeting for Projects and Forecasting Profits
Every construction project starts with a budget. As costs get tracked in QuickBooks Online, you can compare actuals vs. estimates to monitor budgets. Key reports include:
- Job profitability – drill into costs/revenue by project
- Budget vs. actuals – compare estimates to real expenses
- Projected cash flow – anticipate future shortfalls
With better financial visibility, you can course-correct projects early and confidently forecast profits.
Managing Projects Efficiently
Juggling multiple construction projects with various teams and moving parts is tricky. QuickBooks Online centralizes project financials and communication to prevent things from slipping through the cracks.
Creating Estimates and Establishing Budgets
QuickBooks Online offers an estimating tool to build project estimates including:
- Labor costs with hourly rates fully burdened
- Materials list with cost lookup from suppliers
- Equipment fees based on ownership/rental costs
- Overhead and margin
Once the estimate is complete, pre-fill it as a budget in QuickBooks Online. As actual job costs get tracked, you’ll stay on top of budget overages.
Scheduling Projects and Assigning Resources
The project scheduler feature lets you map out project timelines including phases, milestones, and dependencies between activities.
You can then assign staff members and contractors to specific tasks and track labor hours across all projects in one dashboard.
Tracking Labor, Materials, and Project Costs
As the project progresses, seamlessly track:
- Employee and subcontractor time entries
- Materials receipt and issues
- Change orders
All transactions auto-update project costs, keeping real-time totals.
Communicating with Clients and Teams
Keep clients and team members looped in through QuickBooks Online with:
- Status updates on project phases
- Automated notifications on milestones met
- Comment threads for collaborative discussion
This improves coordination and provides an audit trail of decisions.
Change Order Workflow
Easily accommodate change orders with a built-in approval routing workflow. Changes go through proper sign-offs before being added to the project scope and documents.
With efficient financial and project management workflows, QuickBooks Online enhances visibility across the contracting operation. Next, let’s discuss how it doubles down on efficiency with task automation.
Automating Tasks for Time Savings
Manual paperwork is the bane of most contractors’ existence. QuickBooks Online offers configurable automation so you can stop doing repetitive clerical work and focus on building.
Auto-Invoicing and Recurring Transactions
One of the biggest time sucks is translating project progress into invoices for clients. With QuickBooks Online, you can:
- Auto-convert estimates into invoices upon client approval
- Schedule recurring invoices for retainers
- Set payment reminders to go out automatically
You’ll ditch spreadsheets and repetitive data entry for more strategic initiatives.
Mobile Access for On-the-Go Management
Overseeing multiple job sites makes sitting at a desk tough. With QuickBooks Online’s iOS and Android app, contractors can:
- Snap a photo of receipts and log expenses
- Time labor hours for accurate job costing
- Generate invoices from any location
Access real-time financial data no matter where you are.
Integrations with Other Software
QuickBooks Online plays well with others through 400+ third-party integrations – including many popular construction software tools.
Examples include:
- Procore – Sync project budget vs. actual costs
- Asana – Schedule tasks and track project progress
- Mailchimp – Automate customer communications
Eliminate duplicate data entry and free up time.
Growing Your Contracting Business
Starting as a solopreneur contractor is one thing. But as your business scales to multiple staff, projects, and clients, finances can become unruly fast. QuickBooks Online helps gracefully adapt.
Adapting QuickBooks for Business Growth
QuickBooks Online’s tiered pricing plans allow seamless upgrades to add:
- More users and logins as your team expands
- Higher transaction volume as project activity increases
- More accounting capabilities like managing inventory
Easily accommodate growth without infrastructure headaches.
Adding Users and Collaborators
Managing access is critical as you add employees and external partners. With QuickBooks Online, you can:
- Add multiple users with customized roles like Project Manager, Accounts Payable Clerk, etc.
- Control entity-level or granular data access for each person
- Enable customer portal access so clients can collaborate
Changes take effect instantly without affecting others.
Becoming a Data-Driven Organization
More projects and people can lead to fuzzy visibility. QuickBooks Online analyst lets you transform project data into actionable insights via:
- Custom reports and dashboards
- Metrics for labor utilization, past due receivables, etc.
- Data exports to Excel for further number crunching
Spot trends early, enabling data-driven decisions.
Tailoring QuickBooks Online for Your Industry
While QuickBooks Online works for all kinds of contractors, customizing features to your niche can boost efficiency further.
Construction Contractors
General contractors working on houses can map QuickBooks Online to their workflow needs like:
- Multi-phase project schedules tracking everything from demolition to finishing
- Compliance checklists to meet local permitting agency requirements
- Subcontractor portal for outsourced project partners
Special considerations improve oversight on complex builds.
Home Renovation Contractors
Residential renovation contractors have unique requirements like:
- Managing multiple small-scale bathroom/kitchen upgrade projects
- Timesheet tracking for in-house labor across different sites
- Progress invoicing for piecemeal work
QuickBooks Online flexes to accommodate these needs.
Specialty Contractors
No matter if it’s electrical, plumbing, landscaping, or painting & flooring – niche contractors benefit from tailored setups like:
- Creating a chart of accounts matching work structures
- Building estimates and invoices tailored to service offerings
- Tracking van inventory and asset depreciation
Overcoming Common Challenges
While QuickBooks Online drives major efficiency gains, adopting new technology has its hiccups. Here are some common pain points with solutions:
Addressing the Learning Curve
Like any software, QuickBooks Online has a bit of a learning curve. Some helpful tactics include:
- Taking advantage of the 3 months of free email support that comes with signup
- Using step-by-step guide tutorials on popular features
- Trying the online training videos at your own pace
- Joining the community forums to connect with fellow users
Investing some time upfront saves ample headache down the line
Streamlining Data Entry
Entering large amounts of historical business data or bank transactions can be tedious. You can simplify the process by:
- Using QuickBooks Online’s import tools to batch upload Excel data
- Integrating bank feeds to automatically sync daily transactions
- Enlisting bookkeeping help in the initial setup phase
With clean foundations, managing ongoing tasks is much lighter.
Maintaining Financial Compliance
Contractors must meet various compliance requirements like:
- Retaining payroll tax records
- Tracking income and expenses by project
- Reporting employee details
QuickBooks Online helps stay compliant through:
- Easy tax form filings and payments
- Project reporting by contractor ID
- Automating 1099 generation
No more tax season all-nighters!
Leveraging Ongoing Support and Resources
Mastering QuickBooks Online doesn’t happen overnight. Tap into the stellar support channels whenever you need extra help:
Accessing Training and Tutorials
Dive deeper into features by:
- Taking live online courses for all skill levels
- Exploring self-paced tutorial videos on specific functions
- Downloading step-by-step PDF guides and checklists
These resources help you unlock the full potential of the software.
Connecting with the User Community
You’re not alone on this journey! Exchange best practices and tips with over 2 million QuickBooks Online users in the community forums. Help each other problem-solve, share app recommendations, and stay motivated!
Getting Help from Intuit’s Support Center
Stuck on a feature or error message? QuickBooks offers full-service support via:
- 24/7 chat, email, and phone assistance
- Remote screen sharing for customized help
- Support agents with accounting expertise
Whether it’s a quick how-to or a complex issue, the support team has your back!
And there you have it – a blueprint for using QuickBooks Online to boost efficiency, visibility, and growth across your contracting operation. By taking advantage of its project management and automation capabilities – tailored to your specific needs – you can gain back decades worth of lost days spent number crunching.
Instead, that time goes towards where it matters most – building great projects and revenue-boosting client relationships. So don’t let bookkeeping headaches hold your contracting dreams back. With QuickBooks Online as your partner, the sky’s the limit on your success!
