How Can I Set Up Job Costing In QuickBooks Desktop?

Job costing in QuickBooks Desktop helps in monitoring the expenses for a job and also comparing those expenses to your revenue. Although QuickBooks Desktop also provides different reports that take carer to your business needs. However, a report is a set of instructions that the program uses to display data from your company file. You can easily access reports via the QB Reports drop-down menu. The job costing feature is also available in QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, and Accountant. This blog will tell you how to set up customers and how to track profitability. If you still need any support then feel free to contact our QuickBooks Support team.

Job Costing in QuickBooks Desktop assists you in:

Job costing in QuickBooks Desktop assists you in many ways. Here is a list of some advantages given below:

• First of all, calculate the overall performance of the employees either in a group or individually.
• Easily compare budgeted costs and real costs.
• Estimating project-wise profit earned.
• Also, enhance estimates.

There is a need for job costing because:

Although there is a great urge for job costing in all the QuickBooks Editions(Desktop, Online, etc). Some of the main reasons for job costing are as follows:

• Firstly, searching for jobs could be a difficult task. So, the job costing feature allows you to find jobs faster.
• However, it is useful in generating estimates for your future projects.
• Hence, it also helps in finding profitable jobs.

All these features make it essential for the business to grow at a faster rate. That is why job costing in QuickBooks Desktop is of more importance.

Methods to set up job costing in QuickBooks Desktop

1. Set up clients

However, if you have a single job for a specific client, then first of all set up an individual job for that client. With this, you can keep records of your income & expenses on a job-by-job basis. And can also simplify your bookkeeping feature if you add another job for that client in the future. After setting up the client, moe to the next step to ensure job costing in QB desktop.

2. Allocate expenses to job

For billable time:

• Firstly, record the working hours spent on the job, with the help of a weekly timesheet or a single activity entry. 
• Then entrust the hours to either customer or job. 
• Next, each entry will be automatically verified in the Billable column on the form.
• For job-related purchases, use a bill, check, or credit card charge to record the purchase. 
• Under the Items tab, fill each item or service you purchased. 
• Visit the Customer tab, and then click on the Job column. Ensure that assign each service to the job allocated.
• For mileage: Record the mileage in the Enter Vehicle Mileage window.
• And for other expenses like freight charges, postage, etc.) then use a bill, check, or credit card charge to record the expenses. 
• At last, on the Expenses tab, type each expense.
• Fill the job column in the Customer tab.

3. Fill up estimates in QB 

• First of all, create your estimates in or outside of QB. For creating estimates within a spreadsheet or outside the program, you have to keep a track of summary estimates into QB.
• For generating estimates outside of QB, then, you can simply enter your invoice details in the Create estimates window and change your estimates into Invoices.
• You can also use some job costing reports without recording estimates in QB Desktop.
• When you fill time and expenses on estimates, timesheets, or bills, you have to select one to transfer to an invoice.

4. Generate invoices

• Ensure that you will select the right Customer that is Job when creating invoices.
• To generate invoices outside QB Desktop, then check that you have filled at least a summary of each invoice into the program. So that the revenue is included in the Job Profitability reports

5. Execute job costing reports

You can access several job reports by following the steps given below:

• Visit the Reports menu.
• Then click on Jobs, Time, and  Mileage.

If you want to search job costing reports in other QB editions, then follow these steps such as:

• From the Reports menu.
• Click on Industry Specific option.
• Next, choose Contractor Reports.

6. Advanced Reporting

Advanced reporting enables you to see how several tasks are performing such as:

• Time & Mileage.
• Estimate.
• Productivity.
• Status of the job.

Conclusion

In brief, we can say that job costing in QuickBooks desktop helps you in estimating the profitability of the business. It is also available in other QuickBooks editions like QuickBooks Online, Premier, etc. If you have any queries, then dial our QuickBooks Payroll Phone Number.