Quick books question - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Mike Finley · 02-05-2008, 12:05 AM

I'm wondering if anybody knows if this can be done in quickbooks?

I'm guessing we all face the same delema with sub-contractors in that we are all required by our general liability insurance companies to keep up to date certificates of insurance on file. It's pretty tough, if not down right imposible to keep the growing numbers of subs certificates current.

It would be great if in quickbooks you could enter a date associated with a vendor and whenever you write a check to pay them quick books would automatically check to see if this date is valid. Essetially all you would do would be to enter the subs certificate of insurance expiration for example Feb 28th, 2008 and if you tried to write them a check on Feb 29th quickbooks would alert you and you would know that the subs cert is expired and not to cut the check until they have taken care of it by sending you a new valid cert.

firemike · 02-05-2008, 09:46 AM

If all else fails, you can do that in your date/schedule management program. I use Outlook, so I just set up a re-occuring yearly date on the anniversary of the policy date, and give it a 7 day reminder flag.

That way, when a sub's policy expiration date is coming up, I get a reminder 7 days in advance, and can shoot them a quick email reminding them that I need to have a copy of the new policy. Also, it helps them remember if it slips their mind too.

**Double-A** · 02-05-2008, 10:31 AM

Mike, I'm not sure what version of QB you're running, but in 2006 Contractor's, we can add custom fields to the "Additional Info" tab of our vendors.

We created a field there called "Work Comp Expires" (by using the "define fields" button on that tab). We put the month WC is set to expire for that sub in this field.

We run a report on the last day of every month to show us all the subs with next months data in that field. We then contact those subs and tell them they will not be working for us that month until we get a new certificate.
Usually, this is a call to their insurance agent, because they have already paid their WC for the upcoming year and its set to go into effect once current year policy expires.

I hope I haven't confused you too much.

I think in the 2006 Contractors version, these custom fields are already defined, and that there is a custom report created in the sample company, contractor.

Hope this helps.

Mitch M · 02-05-2008, 10:06 PM

I think the 2007 Premier Edition does do that automatically. At least mine does. I was about to write a check to one of my subs the other day and it popped up. I will have to ask my wife how she does it if you want to know.

Mike Finley · 02-05-2008, 10:40 PM

All good thoughts guys. Mitch, please let me know what you find out.

I'm running QB 2008 professional.

Hey Doulbe A can you increase my credit limit?

**Double-A** · 02-06-2008, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Finley

All good thoughts guys. Mitch, please let me know what you find out.

I'm running QB 2008 professional.

Hey Doulbe A can you increase my credit limit?

erm... That's our limit with you.

But sure, your have good credit with us. Just send the dog over for collateral.

Mitch M · 02-06-2008, 07:52 PM

I pulled up the help files for QB and found this.

To track the worker's comp insurance expiration date for each subcontractor

When you create a new vendor, fill out the Work Comp Expires field on the Additional Info tab of the vendor list.
Add the Work Comp Expires date to the Vendor Contact List report:
1. Go to the Reports menu, choose Vendors & Payables, and then click Vendor Contact List.
2. Click Modify Report at the top of the report.
3. Click the Display tab in the Modify Report window and select the Work Comp Expires checkbox in the Columns list, along with any other items you'd like to see on your report.
4. Click OK.

I looked at one of my subs and there are two fields at the bottom of the address portion of the vendor information. I then went to write a check for a vendor that i know had expired and after I hit the vendor a small screen popped up and said that insurance had expired, need to contact them to update it.

So it looks like it is already set up you just need to input information. I use to do it the old way and had it on spreadsheet. My wife had to check it whenever we got ready to write a check. That caused a lot of problems especially if it had not been updated in a while and also trying to keep track of it for auditing purposes.

Hope this helps.

Mike Finley · 02-06-2008, 09:29 PM

Damn thanks Mitch! That sounds exactly like what I am talking about. I searched my quick books help file for about 30 minutes trying to find the same topic and I can't find it, I finally realized you said you are using Premier. I'm using Pro and looking at Intuits site it seems like there are some features with premier that I don't get. As soon as I get some time I will look into this and see if that is the issue.

I don't have those fields available on my vendor information tab that you are seeing and I don't have those fields available on my reports either, so I think it's the version I have.

You probably just cost me another $300, thanks!

Mitch M · 02-06-2008, 09:45 PM

Mike, oooppppsssss. sorry!

It is pretty nice. It is aggravating enough to have to keep up with the insurance anyway. The more reminders that I can get the better.

Sarah9910 · 02-09-2008, 04:04 PM

Sorry guys, I would have answered really quick if I saw this thread, I've been out of town doing training. If you ever have QB questions, I don't mind you emailing me. If you email too much, I'll let you know. I see you have it handled anyway though.

Do you know about the account prefill tab in the Vendor record on QB 2008? It's great, you can assign default GL accounts now so you don't have to deal with the prefill info from the last check you wrote or bill you entered.

Mike Finley · 02-09-2008, 04:24 PM

Yeah, I discovered that trick just this week.

One thing that would make quickbooks soooooooooooooooo much better would be if they had things set up for repetion. Nothing in quickbooks fills in by itself or even asks you if you want to.

Like this feature you are talking about, it would be so nice if the next time you open up a vendor to pay a bill to them it would promt you and ask you if you want to auto fill. Instead you have to go to each vendor and do this one at a time.

**Double-A** · 02-09-2008, 07:24 PM

Um, perhaps I don't understand what you mean, Mike, but QB is set up to save some typing.

Check your prefernces (edit, preferences, general tab)

Again, this is Premier 2006 Contractor Edition, but check you settings just in case. Hate to think you have any more typing to do besides posting here.

Mike Finley · 02-09-2008, 07:38 PM

Me too!

I'll check that and see if mine are set up the same.

I guess what I am getting at is there are no universal changes that are easy to make. Like this vendor thing. The only way I see to make all your vendors automatically prefill the account to use is to do them all one at a time.

A simple universal "Make all vendors automatically prefill" would be nice or even a simple prompt that asks you if you want to use the automatic prefill on a vendor the first time you open that vendor up with a simple check to not show this option again would make life so much easier.

Mike Finley · 02-09-2008, 07:40 PM

If any of you guys do payroll in QB do you not find it strange that QB does not remember the last check number when you go to the register to write a check?

For example let's say you make and print 3 payroll checks using checks # 1500, 1501 and 1502. If you open up the write checks to pay a bill it will start with check #1500.

Mike Finley · 02-09-2008, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah9910

Sorry guys, I would have answered really quick if I saw this thread, I've been out of town doing training. If you ever have QB questions, I don't mind you emailing me. If you email too much, I'll let you know. I see you have it handled anyway though.

So Sarah can you say for sure that QB pro is the issue? I have QB pro, can you verify that upgrading to premier would give me this feature described in the 1st post of this thread?

**Double-A** · 02-09-2008, 07:59 PM

That is because its quite common for small business to use a separate account to do payroll from. If you were only writing payroll checks, then that number would be correct each time.

But ya, its dopey. Even so, its the best thing since sliced bread for small folks like us to do our own books.

I like it.

Sarah9910 · 02-11-2008, 01:38 PM

Hi Mike: Here is a paste from the support site, I'm testing it out today.

If you hire subcontractors, you can now easily track the expiration date for their Worker's Compensation and General Liability insurance. When you add or edit a vendor, fill in the Work Comp Expires and Gen Liability Expires fields on the Additional Info tab. Then when you create a purchase order, enter a bill, or write a check for that subcontractor, QuickBooks will notify you if their insurance has expired.

Mike Finley · 02-11-2008, 02:05 PM

Thanks very much.

Sarah9910 · 02-16-2008, 11:44 PM

Mike: Sorry I haven't gottten back to you sooner but I cannot make my version of the program automatically remind me when I attempt to pay a sub who's insurance exp date is expired. If others have said it works, I'm sure it must, I've been on line with support (india) and they know less than I do. I have an email in to other prof consultants to see what I'm missing in setting this up. I also am having a problem toggleing to another edition which I usually can do. It might have something to do with Vista but it's a new problem to me with the 2008 version and Vista. I'll get back to you all as soon as I figure this one out.

hatchet · 02-17-2008, 12:32 PM

These setting might be different as I'm using QB Premier Contractor.
Under Company Preferences in Checking you can set what account is used for payroll and what account is used for paying bills. As far as getting the current check number it works perfect on mine - always getting the right check number. On the payroll side I print checks from a different account but when writing checks from my main account it comes up with the right check number. Couldn't find a setting for that though.

For another post - you can setup the pre-fill under the My Preferences under the General Tab click "Automatically remember account or transaction information" then click "Prefill accounts based on past transactions". This might not be what you were talking about though.

Anyway, not sure if any of that works for you

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Finley

If any of you guys do payroll in QB do you not find it strange that QB does not remember the last check number when you go to the register to write a check?

For example let's say you make and print 3 payroll checks using checks # 1500, 1501 and 1502. If you open up the write checks to pay a bill it will start with check #1500.