Looking for examples of QuickBooks Item Lists appropriate for different types of contractors, a reader writes:
Could we have some samples of Item lists for various Contractors pertaining to steel building construction, general building construction, construction design, manufacturing architectural custom moldings. Thank you.
This is a perfect opportunity for me to plug my course on QuickBooks Items and Job Costing: www.qbcontractorsecrets.com
The bad news is that I do not really have sample Item Lists. There are just too many variables and decisions you have to make before constructing your Item List.
The good news is there is a course that covers in detail what those decisions and variables are, and gives you the detailed information you need to make those decisions and apply those variables to your own personal Item List.
The even better news is that I am a nice person, and I'm going to give you a sneak preview of what I cover in the course.
First of all. review the posts in this blog in the category Job Costing with QuickBooks.
Next, see the Glossary entry on the CSI Divisions of Construction. Most contractors will find some variation or subset of this standard list will serve their construction business well. You may need to spend some time on Google, searching under CSI (or Construction Specifications Institute) and your particular type of construction.
The fundamental decision you have to make in designing your QuickBooks Item List is this: what information will be meaningful to you, and helpful in running your construction business? On one level an Item List can be thought of as a template for reporting on your financial data in a way that gives you more detail (and more meaning) than a simple Profit and Loss statement.
Another way to think about it is, how do you divide up your estimates, at least for internal use? Your QuickBooks Item List should help you answer the question: how accurate, line by line, are my estimates?
Remember that you can change the description of each Item on an Invoice. Use general, catch-all Items and avoid the data-entry effort, and possibility of errors, that may result from being too specific in your Item List. The CSI list is popular because it has a good balance of general versus specific.
If you are a trade subcontractor, you can do something as simple as one Item for materials, one for labor, etc.
At the other end of the scale, I once had a client, a large-scale cabinet maker, who used his Item List to keep track of changing prices (and vendors' competitiveness) on various hinges, pulls, etc. They didn't use Inventory Parts, but they used the Description field to keep track of the most recent price quote they had received from various suppliers, part by part. As you can imagine their list was LONG. Just remember you have a limit of 14,500 Items.
If you are particularly proud of your QuickBooks Item List, let us know in the comments.
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