Smart Contractor can be integrated with QuickBooks. This allows you to use Smart Contractor for construction specific functions, and to use QuickBooks for general business accounting functions such as payroll, check printing, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting, without ever having to enter data twice.
Important: Please read Notes On Implementing QuickBooks Integration before proceeding with integrating Smart Contractor with QuickBooks.
How Does Smart Contractor Integrate With QuickBooks?
Smart Contractor integration with QuickBooks is very simple, and it makes using QuickBooks very easy.
You enter all job related data in Smart Contractor, and Smart Contractor automatically transfers it to QuickBooks. This data includes:
The only things you need to do in QuickBooks are:
Smart Contractor can retrieve customer, vendor, and employee information from QuickBooks. So, if you've been using QuickBooks, Smart Contractor will automatically retrieve customer, vendor, and employee information from QuickBooks. Otherwise, it is easiest to just enter everything in Smart Contractor, and let it merge the data into QuickBooks.
See below for a discussion of how each type of data is shared with QuickBooks.
Data Synchronization Modes
There are two modes in which Smart Contractor can synchronize with QuickBooks data:
In real time mode, QuickBooks data is synchronized with Smart Contractor as you enter it. Note that this only synchronizes data that originates in Smart Contractor. Data that originates in QuickBooks must be synchronized in "batch update" mode by running the Update QuickBooks Data utilities available in the Update QuickBooks Data menu. See below for information on where each type of data originates and how it is synchronized.
The QuickBooks data can be updated on command from the Update QuickBooks Data menu, or automatically from the Exit Options form when you exit Smart Contractor.
Which One To Use: Batch Update or Real Time?
Why would you use batch update when you could update in real time? One reason is that the QuickBooks data interface is considerably slow, so updating real time makes some Smart Contractor forms run slower:
Another reason is that you must use batch update to retrieve data from QuickBooks, such as customer and vendor data. You will want to do this when you first start using Smart Contractor if you have already been using QuickBooks.
The batch mode QuickBooks update process can be run from the Utilites menu, or automatically from the Exit form each time you exit Smart Contractor.
Specifically, What Data Is Shared With QuickBooks? And How?
The following table lists specific types of data and how it is shared with QuickBooks:
|
Account List |
|
Created in QuickBooks and copied to Smart Contractor. Accounts cannot be entered or altered in Smart Contractor. |
|
Customer List |
|
Created or edited in Smart Contractor or QuickBooks. Important: see notes about QuickBooks Customer and Job data below. |
|
Employee List |
|
Created in Smart Contractor or QuickBooks. Employee records are entered in the Employee entry form in Smart Contractor. |
|
Invoices |
|
Created in Smart Contractor and copied to QuickBooks. Invoices entered in QuickBooks are not copied to Smart Contractor. Do not enter or change invoices in QuickBooks. See Notes About Creating Invoices In QuickBooks below. |
|
Created in Smart Contractor and copied to QuickBooks "Items". Important: see Notes About Creating Items In QuickBooks below. |
|
Job List |
|
Created in Smart Contractor and copied to QuickBooks. Jobs entered in QuickBooks are not copied to Smart Contractor. Do not enter or change job data in QuickBooks. Important: see Notes About QuickBooks Customer and Job data below. |
|
Created in Smart Contractor and copied to QuickBooks. Do not enter Job Types in QuickBooks. |
|
Estimates |
|
Created in Smart Contractor and copied to QuickBooks. Do not enter estimates in QuickBooks. |
|
Entered in the Estimate tab of the Edit Job form in Smart Contractor, and written to Sales Receipt transactions in QuickBooks. Do not enter deposit receipt transactions in QuickBooks. Please see the "How Do I... Enter A Deposit?" topic for full information. Note: If you need to enter a deposit receipt as a credit card payment, then you will need to enter this in QuickBooks (if you have QuickBooks set up to process credit card payments). In that case, Smart Contractor will retrieve the deposit receipt transaction from QuickBooks. Deposit receipts entered in QuickBooks will be retrieved by Smart Contractor when you run the Update QuickBooks Data utility. |
|
Labor Hours (Time Tracking) Transactions |
|
Smart Contractor copies labor hours entered in the Labor Hours entry form to Time Tracking transactions in QuickBooks. Smart Contractor does not retrieve Time Tracking transactions entered in QuickBooks, nor any changes made to Time Tracking transactions in QuickBooks. Recommendation: Enter all labor hours in the Labor Hours entry form in Smart Contractor; do not make changes to time tracking transactions in QuickBooks. If you need to make changes to time tracking transactions in QuickBooks before running payroll, enter the changes in Smart Contractor. Then run the Update QuickBooks Data utility, then run QuickBooks payroll. |
|
Payment Receipt Transactions |
|
Entered in Smart Contractor or QuickBooks. Payment receipts entered in Smart Contractor will be automatically applied to invoices in Smart Contractor and QuickBooks. Note: If you need to apply payment receipts differently than how they would be applied automatically in QuickBooks, then you must enter the payment receipt in QuickBooks. If you enter payment receipts in QuickBooks, do not enter them in Smart Contractor. Payment receipts entered in QuickBooks will be retrieved by Smart Contractor when you run the Update QuickBooks Data utility. |
|
Payroll Wage Item List |
|
Created in QuickBooks and copied to Smart Contractor. Used for assigning costs to labor hours worked in the Labor Hours entry form. |
|
Purchases |
|
Purchases entered in Smart Contractor are copied to purchase transactions in QuickBooks, depending on the payment method selected when you enter the purchase transaction in Smart Contractor. See Notes About Creating Purchases In QuickBooks below for a full explanation. |
|
Terms List |
|
Created in QuickBooks and copied to Smart Contractor. Recommendation: Enter terms types in QuickBooks and update these to Smart Contractor by running the Update QuickBooks Data utility. |
|
Vendor List |
|
Created or edited in Smart Contractor or QuickBooks. |
|
Vendor Type List |
|
Smart Contractor comes with two pre-defined Vendor Types: "Vendor" and "Subcontractor". Vendor Types cannot be added or changed in Smart Contractor. The update QuickBooks data process adds these two vendor types to QuickBooks.
|
|
Isn't This Complicated? |
|
The details may seem complicated, but you don't have to remember any of it!. All you have to remember is this:
|
|
Update QuickBooks Data Utilities |
|
The Update QuickBooks Data utilities can be run from the Utilities menu, or automatically from the Exit form when you exit Smart Contractor. When you run the Update QuickBooks Data utility, all data shared between Smart Contractor and QuickBooks is synchronized and reconciled according to the table above, and according to these rules:
When the Update QuickBooks Data utilities are run, diagnostic messages generated by the interaction between Smart Contractor and QuickBooks are written to the QuickBooks Interface Log. To view the QuickBooks Interface Log, click on the "View QuickBooks Interface Log" link in the dashboard, or go to Utilities > QuickBooks Data > View QuickBooks Interface Log. Please see the QuickBooks Interface Log help document for information about error messages that appear in the QuickBooks Interface Log.
|
|
QuickBooks stores information about customers and jobs in a single list, called the "Customer:Job" list, whereas Smart Contractor stores information about customers and jobs separately. Records in the QuickBooks "Customer:Job" list can represent a "customer", a "job", or both simultaneously. Additionally, the QuickBooks data interface does not provide a means of determining whether a record in the "Customer:Job" list is a "customer" record or a "customer:job" record. The unfortunate consequence of this is that Smart Contractor is not able to import job information from QuickBooks. This means that Smart Contractor will ignore customer:jobs that you create in QuickBooks, and will ignore any transactions (Invoices, Bills, and Payments) that reference jobs you created in QuickBooks. If you do create jobs in QuickBooks, and enter transactions in QuickBooks for those jobs, those transactions will not be imported into Smart Contractor, and this will be reported in the QuickBooks Data Update Errors report that appears after you run the Update QuickBooks Transaction Data utility.
|
|
Notes About Creating Items In QuickBooks |
|
For a discussion of important considerations for integrating Smart Contractor Job Phases with QuickBooks Items, please see the QuickBooks Item Integration topic.
|
|
Notes About Creating Purchases In QuickBooks |
|
The Setup QuickBooks Integration form has an option to allow you to control whether Smart Contractor creates purchase transactions in QuickBooks. When the Create Purchases In QB option is checked, Smart Contractor creates purchase transactions in QuickBooks from purchases that you enter in the Purchase Entry form in Smart Contractor. The type of purchase transaction created depends on the payment method selected when you enter a purchase:
When Smart Contractor creates purchase transactions in QuickBooks, it creates a separate line for each cost category in a job item in Smart Contractor. For example, if a job item in Smart Contractor has estimated costs for Materials and Equipment, then a purchase transaction created in QuickBooks will contain two lines: one for Materials, another for Equipment. The items used on these lines are the cost category sub-items that are created by Smart Contractor. See Notes About Creating Items In QuickBooks for information about how Smart Contractor creates items in QuickBooks. Note: Bills that have been paid in QuickBooks will not be updated by changes to Bills in Smart Contractor; Smart Contractor can't change bill amounts in QuickBooks after the bill has been paid. |
|
Notes About Creating Invoices In QuickBooks |
|
Invoices created in Smart Contractor are copied to QuickBooks. Invoices entered in QuickBooks are not copied to Smart Contractor. Do not enter or change invoices in QuickBooks. These invoices will not be copied to Smart Contractor. When Smart Contractor creates an invoice in QuickBooks, it creates one line for each job item in Smart Contractor. For example, if a job item (example: "Backfill Foundation") in Smart Contractor has estimated costs of $300.00 for Materials and $200.00 for Equipment, Smart Contractor will create a single line on the invoice in QuickBooks for $500.00. The QuickBooks Item used on that line will be the non cost category specific item that is based on the Job Phase in Smart Contractor ("Backfill"). Note: Because of limitations of the QuickBooks data interface, invoices in QuickBooks cannot be changed. So, when you make a change to an invoice in Smart Contractor, the invoice in QuickBooks is deleted and then re-added. The result of this is that the invoice number in QuickBooks changes after you change the invoice in Smart Contractor. This does not create a problem for Smart Contractor because Smart Contractor does not use the QuickBooks invoice number. Question: Why do the descriptions in invoice line items have a "~" followed by a number? Answer: When Smart Contractor creates invoices in QuickBooks, it puts a "~" followed by a number in the line item description. The number allows Smart Contractor to tie that invoice line item back to the corresponding job item in Smart Contractor. This is necessary in order for Smart Contractor to be able to retrieve invoice line items if one is changed in Smart Contractor. The "~" character allows Smart Contractor to find the item identification number that follows it. Important: Do not alter or remove the "~" or the number that follows it! If you do, Smart Contractor will not be able to make changes to an invoice after it has been created in QuickBooks. Question: What happens to a "Deposit Apply" when an invoice is created in QuickBooks? Answer: When you apply a deposit amount to an invoice in Smart Contractor (in the Invoice Entry form), Smart Contractor puts the deposit apply amount on an additional "Deposit Apply" invoice line item in the invoice in QuickBooks, with the deposit apply amount as a negative number. This is effectively a "one line credit" that is applied to that invoice. The deposit apply line amount is posted to the GL account that you specify for the Deposit Apply Account in the QuickBooks integration setup form.
|
|
Labor Costing and QuickBooks Payroll |
|
Smart Contractor allows you to estimate and track labor costs as a separate cost category within each item. To do this, make entries in the Labor Hours: and Labor Rate: prompts in the job Edit Job Estimate form. If you do, the program will automatically display labor costs separately in various reports, including the Job Listing report, Job Summary report, Job Recap report, Allowance Variance report, Job Progress report, and the Estimated vs Actual Cost report. Job labor cost information consists of estimated labor hours and actual labor hours. Estimated labor hours are entered in the Edit Job Estimate form. There are two ways to enter actual labor hours:
Labor costs entered in the job progress form are entered as a total of labor hours spent on an item, with a total labor cost per hour. This is a quick way to enter labor cost information, and it is better than not entering any labor cost information, but it is not as accurate as entering hours worked for each employee (time sheets), which you can do in the Labor Hours entry form. The Labor Hours entry form provides a much more accurate way to enter and track labor costs, although it requires that you enter hours worked by each employee. If you are using QuickBooks for payroll, you have to enter time sheets anyway, so you might as well enter them in Smart Contractor so that the program can obtain labor cost information, and then automatically create time tracking records in QuickBooks. See Labor Hours entry form for a discussion. Labor costs entered in the labor hours entry form will supercede labor costs entered in the job progress entry form; if you enter labor costs in the job progress entry form and the labor hours entry form for the same item, the program will only count the labor costs entered in the labor hours entry form for that item.
If You Use QuickBooks For Payroll Processing If you are using QuickBooks for payroll processing, check the Integrate With QuickBooks Payroll: option in the QuickBooks Integration setup form. This will cause the program to copy labor hours entered in the labor hours entry form in Smart Contractor to Time Tracking transactions in QuickBooks.
|