Naming quickbooks jobs?

Question

Using quickbooks 2008 manufacturing premier edition.

What am I supposed to name for jobs?

We have plenty of customers - but the jobs aren't related. It's not like a remodeling business where this is for the kitchen, this is for the living room, etc.

We just get a PO, make it... might have to order something for it, and then send it and invoice it.

But there's lots of jobs for each customer - wouldn't it be hectic if it wasn't sorted in some way?

So what should we be naming our "jobs" or sorting our customer's p.o.'s with? ...?

Answer 1

At the risk of over simplifying, create customer numbers, use the customer number as the beginning of the job number. For example the first job for customer 1023 would be 1023001, the next job would be 1023002, that way you will always be able to associate the job immediately to a customer and the job numbers will be in sequential order.  

If you generally receive only one job per day from a customer you can also use the date. so customer 1023 that give you an order today would get a job number of 1023-080702

Answer 2

Generall, the QB help files are pretty good. Search for "Job Cost" in the help file. There will be a lot to read through. Be patient.

Do you prepare estimates for fixed price jobs or is it cost plus or a combination? Are you using the estimate feature of QB? You can roll estimates over to invoices when the job is done. That way, you can start keeping track of how good a job you are doing with the estimates.

How many employees? Are you using the timesheet feature to charge their hours to the jobs? I hope you use an independent payroll service and not QB for payroll.

QB is pretty powerful and can be pretty complicated if you are not careful. it's easy to get things all messed up. I put 2 kids through college by straightening out QB messes for clients.