Contractor Success Map With Randal Dehart | Contractor Bookkeeping And Accounting Services

This Podcast Is Episode Number This Podcast Is Episode Number 0106 And It Will Be About The Cheap Contractor Spends The Most Money  In an attempt to save money, the cheap contractor does the following and ends up spending the most money and earning a tiny profit because they believe in Maximizing over Optimizing. In the short run Maximizing can payoff; however, in the long run it never does.  This article is a bit strong and it could offend some folks. If it offends you, please accept my sincere apologies. I tend to tell it straight and not sugar coat anything because I have been involved in the construction industry most of life beginning with working in my Step Father's construction company after school in the mid 1960's. During my lifetime, I have seen too many contractors work hard, never have enough money to retire. Some of them die from exhaustion and others just wore themselves out and lived their final years in poverty and only a few, less than 5% ever made enough money from owning and operating their

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0105 And It Will Be About How QuickBooks Journal Entries Distort Construction Job Cost Reports Lately We Are Seeing An Increase In QuickBooks Journal Entries Journal Entries - Are a quick and dirty way to get transactions in without putting forth time and effort to enter each transaction. In the short run you save time; in the long run you can forget about accurate Job Cost Reports. Credit Card Statements - Are the most common example we see followed by vendor statements from lumberyards, Home Depot, Lowes, concrete suppliers, plumbing and electrical suppliers and others. The Bookkeeper - Shuffles through a pile of paperwork or electronic documents and finds a credit card statement and notices that it has a lot of transactions. Depending on how well the bookkeeper has trained the contractor is what determines whether the transactions are properly entered and the costs assigned to a job using the item codes or if there is one giant Journal Entry. Using Journal Entries - Means the

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0104 And It Will Be About QuickBooks Is Not A Professional Construction Accounting Software  But It Can Be Made Into One For Contractors With Annual Sales Volume Between $0 Start Up And $10,000,000 Did you buy QuickBooks thinking it was “Quick” at keeping the “Books” for your Contracting Company and got very frustrated with it because it was neither? You are not alone! The question a lot of contractors ask is "Does anybody out there understand how to do the bookkeeping for my Construction Company?" It is not your fault QuickBooks fault, your spouse’s fault or your bookkeeper’s fault or anyone else’s fault. QuickBooks was built upon the foundation of very simplistic single-entry bookkeeping software called “Quicken” built on DOS. Quicken was developed for regular people, not businesses, to have an electronic check register for keeping track of bank balances without having to use those tiny manual paper registries that come with every box of blank checks? When Quicken was released

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0103 And It Will Be About Contractor Cost Library A Cost Library Is Another Secret Successful Contractors Use To Generate Enormous Positive Cash Flow And Profit Money doesn't grow on trees; it grows inside your properly setup QuickBooks file that is maintained by people who understand construction accounting. All you have to do is follow the Contractors Success M.A.P. and in due time you can become wealthy. This article is going to cover one of the secrets we share with consulting clients known as The Cost Library.  A cost library is used to develop construction estimates and there are three basic types of cost libraries contractors use: Heuristics - And experience is the most common method since they are essentially shortcuts that reduce the mental energy or cognitive load of making a decision. Contractors also call them Rule of Thumb, SWAG - (Silly Wild All-Encompassing Guess), Past Experience, Intuitive Judgment or common sense. Excel Spreadsheets - Most common among contrac

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0102 And It Will Be About The Top Ten Myths Of  Construction Bookkeeping Over The Past Few Decades We Have Heard And Read Some Really Good Construction Bookkeeping Myths And Legends And Here Are A Few #10 "I thought the QuickBooks website said that QuickBooks was easy to setup and use" #09 "Since it has Quick in the name then of course QuickBooks is easy, why else would they do that?" #08 "I know how to write checks and balance my bank statement so how hard can it be to use QuickBooks" #07 "I attended a full day QuickBooks class and got this pretty paper certificate that says I know QuickBooks"  #06 "I've been doing bookkeeping for over twenty years and you can't teach me nothing I don't already know" #05 "I have worked at a bank for over ten years and seen hundreds of financial statements so I can use QuickBooks" #04 "I am a C.P.A. and I know everthing about accounting, so doing the bookkeeping for a contractor child's play" #03 "I have lots of experience because the last four

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0100 And It Will Be About The Recession Is Going Away The Worst Is Over Which Means Now Is The Time To Get Ready To Prosper!No I Am Not Crazy - The Business Cycle is getting ready to turn. Like the ocean waves it is constantly moving and rolling up and down over and over. When you have a Business Strategy and you know the answers the questions will not bother you! Just like when you took a test in school in your favorite subject; it was fast and easy! I Am Privileged - To have been Involved with The Greatest Industry On Earth, Construction since 1965 when I was a child in grade school working in my step father's landscaping and construction business. Those Were Good Times - He had true grit and a heart as big as a mountain. He was severely handicapped and yet he manned up every morning and got the job done, every day for over 50 years, as an owner / operator of his construction business. If you are interested you can read more about him by clicking here.In The 1960's - Riding in

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0100 And It Will Be About Warning Signs You Have A Bad Bookkeeper In Your Contracting Company The Number One Warning Sign You Have A Bad Bookkeeper Is They Panic When You Say You Are Going To Ask Us Review QuickBooks It is amazing how many times over the years we have been called in by contractors to clean up a horrific QuickBooks disaster caused by the same bad bookkeepers. There is a never ending supply of bad bookkeepers, cheap bookkeepers and incompetent bookkeepers that move around the USA including Alaska and Hawaii to infect and attempt to destroy construction companies, home builders, commercial tenant improvement contractors, handyman contractors, remodel contractors, trade contractors, subcontractors, general contractors and more. Every time it happens it feels like we are all living through a bad movie script and everybody knows their lines and the bookkeeper knows the scam is over and it is time to leave. A word to the wise "If you think it may be time to fire your

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0099 And It Will Be About Contractor Strengths Weakness Opportunities And Threats SWOT Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities And Threats Analysis (S.W.O.T.) - Are among the tools we use to help construction companies like yours to evaluate your geographic and demographic target markets and develop strategic plans to increase you company sales, cash flow and bottom line profits by focusing on a few Key Strategies that require the least amount of effort and generate optimum return. Strengths - Are construction projects that your construction company does extremely well at and earns a greater than average gross margin than give it an advantage over other contractors. What are they and how can your construction contracting company expand on them? Weaknesses - Are construction projects that your construction company does poorly at and breaks even or loses money. What are they and how can your construction contracting company turn them into strengths? Opportunities - Are construction pro

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0098 And It Will Be About Strategic Contractor Bookkeeping Services Is Your Wife, Girlfriend, Partner or Bad Bookkeeper Responsible For Your Contractors Bookkeeping? Are You At The Mercy - Of your bookkeeper? Does your bookkeeper have any bad habits that annoy you?  Did You Know - That you may be able to have your construction bookkeeping done professionally for less than you are spending now! People Ask How - Can we save them $100's or even $1,000's dollar a year when they can do their own construction bookkeeping or hire a Cheap Bookkeeper? Read our article Cheap Bookkeepers The System Is The Solution - In 1991 we developed a Comprehensive Construction Strategic Bookkeeping System to add useful content to QuickBooks setup in order to make it work for construction companies. Since then we have made thousands of improvements and we continually improve, update, innovate and enhance it.  Having Worked With Contractors - And seen 100's of QuickBooks setup files, met with lots of ba

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0097 And It Will Be About Having A Business Plan For Your Construction Company Your Business Plan is one of your key Competitive Advantages that can massively increase your sales, profitability and cash flow. The reason is simple, 99% of your competition do not have one and many of the ones that do rarely look at it. In most cases when a contractor has a Business Plan it was because they needed loan, investment capital or some other external force was applied. Once the crisis or need passed they simply let it rest-in-peace on the shelf. Why Spend Time And Effort - To develop your business plan? Because contractors use business plans all the time and they most of them do not realize it until we show them: Business Plans For Construction Follow This General Format #1 Executive Summary - Reputation In construction, your reputation is vital due to the continual onslaught of competition, which is why highly profitable contractors establish and protect their reputations very carefully

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0095 And It Will About Bookkeeper Vs Accountant Vs CPA For Your Construction Company Tax Season Is Here and this is when most construction contractors think about getting their construction bookkeeping system in order so they can file their annual tax return for the previous year. Each Branch Of Accounting serves a different function similar to how it works in construction. There are framers, rough carpenters and finish carpenters and all three works with lumber yet in most cases the skillsets to do everything are rarely found in the same person. Three Carpentry Skillsets = Three Types Of People Someone Skilled In Framing, Rough And Finish Carpentry normally costs more and produce less per man-hour than a team of people with each individual skillsets. The issue is the super-skilled person tends to work at the pace which requires the most intense thought and skill and yet they expect to be paid the same rate for all three tasks which makes sense because they are super-skilled. Th

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0095 And It Will About Bad Bookkeeping Causes Contractors To Distrust Good Bookkeepers This podcast is being recorded in January 2015 and as of now; it is good to see construction moving again. It is based upon an article Sharie wrote and I, Randal will be reading it as she wrote it. Sharie as many of you know is the co-founder of Business Consulting and Accounting and its subsidiary Fast Easy Accounting and we specialize in Contractors Bookkeeping Services, mentoring and back office support for construction contractors and related companies all across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii. Sharie is a very nice, person who is easy to talk to and actually listens to you. We met in High School and married shortly after graduation in 1973. She has extensive experience as a tax accountant, co-owner of several of our construction companies including a mid-sized Plumbing firm with over 20 employees. We opened our contractor bookkeeping firm in 1991 and kept it small until we sold our

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0094 And It Will About QuickBooks Year End Closing Tips For Your Construction Company QuickBooks Makes Some Closing Entries Automatically Several years ago the accounting departments of smaller construction companies with less than $10M in annual sales had to slog through dozens of mind numbing General Journal Entries in order to "Close The Books". With QuickBooks that process is mostly automatic. There are still a few things the accounting department needs to do. The easiest method is to open QuickBooks and go to the help menu and click on the "Year End Guide". A QuickBooks Year-End Guide will pop-up and just be aware that it may vary depending on the version of QuickBooks you are using. When you click on a task with your mouse the help screen for that task pops up and guides you through the process which normally takes several hours depending on the amount of bookkeeping data in your QuickBooks file and how complex your construction accounting system is setup. Get Ready For Th

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0093 And It Will Present Ten Keys To Hiring The Right Contractor Bookkeeping Service If You Own A Construction Company - Then you know Bookkeeping is one of those mundane, nasty, dirty, aggravating, grubby little chores somebody is going to get stuck with along with its rotten scoundrel cousin the Monthly / Quarterly Tax Returns. If You Have Employees - Whoa! Look out! Now you have to process payroll. In some cases you may decide it is better to provide cash advances to your employees if it helps them stay focused on the job and not on personal issues. Finally, there are all the quarterly payroll tax returns to be prepared and filed.Some Contractors - Decide their time is better-spent meeting prospective clients, putting together bids, managing jobsites and anything other than providing their own contractor bookkeeping services. So, they find someone else to do it and that is the subject of this article.Just Like There Are - Skilled construction workers and clowns trying to pass

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0092 And It Will Be About Reducing Your Construction Company Start Up Stress We Are QuickBooks Experts Specializing In Construction New Contractor's Have horrendous Levels of Stress Did You Quit Your Job - And start your own construction company only to discover you need a contractor’s license and bond. Suddenly you realize it costs real money? Now that can be stressful!Did You Ask A Friend Or Relative - To loan you some start-up capital and they agreed on condition you become equal partners in your construction company. The idea was you would do all the work they would get half the profits and you politely refused, or not? This is getting very stressfulDid You Go To Your Bank - And they offered to give you a line of credit. They don't want to be partners they just want everything you own used for collateral. You say O.K. and then find out the interest rate is 24% (more or less) and they can call the loan due if you ever miss a payment and take everything you own?. This is gett

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0091 And It Will Be About Local Vs. Cloud Based Contractor Bookkeeping Services One of the biggest concerns contractors have about outsourcing their contractors bookkeeping to a cloud based contractor accounting service like ours is they think it means sending jobs off-shore rather than keeping your dollars in America where they can help other Americans. In too many cases that is exactly what occurs. Understanding the differences between Outsourced, Offshore and Freelance Bookkeepers is the key. Outsourced Contractor Bookkeeping Services Like Us Have Pros And Cons: Pros1. We offer Flat Rate pricing, no surprises, no heartache, no regrets, no long term contracts, month to month, cancel anytime because we are paid for results not efforts 2. We specialize in construction accounting and working with contractors across the USA including Alaska and Hawaii 3. All work is done in our commercial office in Lynnwood Washington which is open to the public 4. We care about contractors who w

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0090 And It Will Be About Does QuickBooks Frustrate Your Construction Company? Does QuickBooks Frustrate You? If You Answered "Yes" You Are Not Alone! 99.99% of all QuickBooks Issues can be traced back to two root causes: 1.    How QuickBooks setup was done originally2.    How transactions are put into QuickBooks QuickBooks Makes Construction Accounting Look Simple As Microwaving Popcorn How many advertisements have you seen by Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks that makes it appear like accounting is so simple a five year old can do it. The truth is Intuit is a sales and marketing firm that sells and markets software. And QuickBooks is one of the big winners for them because it has removed a lot of the pain associated with accounting; but it is still accounting and certain principles still apply. For example "Debits" are on the left and when they are not we give them "Credit". When you write a check in QuickBooks you can impact up to 27 different tables and hundreds of reports

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0089 Interview Of Dan Perry Founder Of HandymanStartup.com The Following Is An Outline From Dan Perry's Guest Appearance On The Contractors Success M.A.P. Podcast which you can listen to below. It is on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Pocket Casts and all popular podcast directories. Dan Perry is the founder of HandymanStartup.com - a community dedicated to helping handymen, plumbers, electricians, and contractors understand business and marketing so they can get more customers, make more money, and enjoy their businesses. Connect with him at www.handymanstartup.com or on twitter @bigdhandyman. Dan, please tell us about your background and how you came to be where you are now.Originally from a small town, I went to college in Reno, NV with no idea what I wanted to do. I decided to major in Mechanical Engineering because I didn’t know any better.  I graduated, got a job in Engineering, and hated it.  I worked there for 3.5 years before I finally quit without a plan or job.  6 months late

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0088 And Will Be About How Business Process Management Strategy Can Benefit Your Construction Company Developing A Comprehensive Strategy - For your construction, company can be about as much fun as wrestling a pig in the mud because: It is a slippery and hard to get control over it It will wear you out and frustrate you to no end You will swear it is a complete waste of time Your contractor buddies barely making a living will think you're crazy In the end you will be thoroughly worn out, exhausted and mentally drained If You Are One - Of the few contractors that starts doing it your eyes will be opened to new possibilities and you will catch a glimpse of how and why some contractors become very wealthy and others never get beyond owning a job they cannot leave and nobody wants to buy. A Few Contractors - And you may be among them will do whatever it takes to rise above owning a job and develop a construction company that will provide for themselves and their families for a l

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0087 And Will Be About Which Costs Your Contracting Company More Money Bookkeeper Theft or Incompetence? Bookkeeper Incompetence - No Question About It! The Little Leaks Sink The Ship - Whenever a disaster hits your company, like Bookkeeper Theft it gets your attention real fast and you tend to jump on it with both feet and fix it! However it is the little leaks caused by bookkeeper incompetence or even worse Bad Bookkeepers that will destroy you company. The Top Ten Incompetent Bookkeeper Habits That Can Destroy Your Business:1. Not sending Invoices and Statements to your customers and clients2. Not collecting money your customers and clients in a timely fashion3. Fines and penalties when they fail to get tax reports filed on time4. Late fees, and interest charges from not paying the bills on time5. Not taking discounts from suppliers for paying by the 10th of the month6. Not tracking loans to employees and being sure the company is paid back7. Bookkeeper stretching work and