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

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0242, And It Will Be About How Can Cause and Effect Analysis Help You Solve Business Problems Today's Guest Article Is From Lori Wade Content Writer And Career Specialist For College Students  ----------------------------------------------------------------- Problems happen in any business. When it comes to small businesses, about two-thirds of them actually survive 2 years, half of them survive 5 years, and only one-third survives 10, according to data provided by Fundera website. The statistics for large businesses is probably as saddening as this one. The problems are what causes businesses to fail. At the same time, fearing problems is not the way out. Instead, business owners need to learn from them as well as learn how to solve them. The challenge lies in how do you solve them. There are plenty of people, who start brainstorming all the possible solutions - and do it until it’s too late. While brainstorming can work for many, it needs to be followed by actions in order

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0241, And It Will Be About Unique Highly Profitable Contractors Use Job Costing And Financial Reports  Successful Contractors Find Keys To Growth And Profit In Their Accounting Halloween is the official Kickoff of the Holiday Season. Kids dress up as anything from Princesses to Pirates and every TV character in between. Time of smiles, giggles and lots of “pixie dust” and “magic wands.” Time for “Santa and his reindeer” to visit the malls with a fresh supply of Cookies and Candy.   Wait, let's not forget Thanksgiving with Turkey, Dressing, Yams, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Fruit Salad, Pumpkin Pie, Ice Cream and lots of Egg Nog. All of this leads to us in January wishing we ate less and exercised more in hopes to keep the pounds on and matched by the pounds off for a net gain of Zero.     Software and the desire to do everything with our phone is the “Grownup’s Version” of the Candy Store all year long. With a couple of clicks on my phone, I want to Buy Something Pay For Something

  This Podcast Is Episode Number 0240 And It Will Be About Construction Accounting Secrets For New Contractors Construction Accounting Basics For Construction Contractors Construction Accounting is not a natural mindset for Construction Contractors. Construction Accounting has own language. Regular Accounting the language is Income Minus Expenses Equals Net Profit. Construction Accounting is Income Minus Cost of Goods Minus Overhead Equals Net Profit. That simple little thing called Cost of Goods Sold is the primary difference between Regular Accounting and Construction Accounting. Understanding that difference and how it relates to Job Costing and Job Profitability can get contractors like you firmly on the road to financial freedom. Then comes Construction Accounting. Income is added up to have Total Income. Cost of Goods Sold included more than the cost of material. Total Income less Total of Cost of Goods Sold equals Gross Profit.   Expenses include a variety of overhead related items. Gross Profit less

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0239 And It Will Be About Essential SEO Tips For Contractors Today's Guest Article Is From Chris Richardson Are you a contractor that is looking to improve their SEO so that you can earn more clients? When it comes to SEO you can always find new ways of doing things in order to improve the quality of the end result, which is to gain higher results in the search engine results pages. This consequently leads to more customers hiring your services as a contractor. Nowadays contractors are responsible for things such as painting, roofing, plumbing and so on. They help homeowners complete the DIY projects that might be too hard for them to tackle on their own. However, getting visibility in the marketplace can be hard for some contractors if they have no idea how to go about advertising themselves. The benefits of SEO for contractors The biggest benefit of good quality SEO for contractors is that a higher number of people in the local area will be able to find out about the contract

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0228, And It Will Be About Unique Ways Highly Profitable Contractors Reduce Taxes Contractors Reflect On This Year's Results As The Last Quarter Begins Going into the last Quarter of the year. Time for some basic reflection about taxes. Officers in S-Corps tend to take payroll later in the year. Now is the time if you have not already been taking payroll. Don't wait until it is time to prepare your Construction Company tax return. Next review your Estimated personal Taxes paid to the IRS. How much did you pay in taxes for the current year? Internal Revenue expects that you have paid a percentage Federal Taxes before the end of the year.   Reviewing Federal Withholding for yourself and your employees to avoid surprises when your annual taxes are filed. Contractors who file as a Sole Prop or as an LLC fining as a Sole Prop tend to forget that payroll taxes on their net income is due. I call this “Chef’s Surprise” as it is based on Net Income. Everyone wants the last few jobs to

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0237 And It Will Be About Hiring A Construction Bookkeeper Is A Great Investment As a construction business owner, you're likely concerned about every penny you spend. That's a good thing because you need to keep track of your income and expenses. It also means, however, that you might be less likely to hire people who can help your business. People like bookkeepers, who are great investments for any small business.    So what does a construction bookkeeper do? Bookkeepers take care of the daily financial records for your business and make sure your books balance. They create and send invoices, track receipts and reimbursements, reconcile accounts, and prepare specific financial reports. All the frustrating day-to-day financial stuff that you probably dislike they love. Construction bookkeepers are an excellent investment for your small business, for several reasons:   They save you time.   Unless you're great at bookkeeping and enjoy it, you may find bookkeeping a headache. Ch

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0236, And It Will Be About Highly Profitable Contractors Control Who Receives Company Information   You Have Ultimate Control On Who Has Or Receives Information About Your Contracting Company Financials statements are based on the information you provided. I know this is not a statement that any contractor wants to hear about their bookkeeping. It is easier to blame the bookkeeper for missing information. The primary keeper of all the documents is you, your spouse, your employees, your suppliers, your bank, your credit card company. The Key work is done by you, or whoever assists you have the power to give information to outsiders about your Construction Company.   Who wants details about your business?   Internal Revenue Service State Revenue Agencies State Payroll Agencies Other State Agencies Worker’s Compensation Provider   General Liability Insurance Provider Depending on the report it may be monthly (sales tax, business excise tax, other state business tax reports) Quart

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0235 And It Will Be About Key Reports For Your Contracting Company Explained QuickBooks has over a hundred reports that can be viewed on a regular basis You could spend all of your time seeing a report in QuickBooks and trying to find the way to populate numbers in the report. Many reports are designed for specific things. Take for example the view of the Home Page. Just because the feature is on the Home Page in QuickBooks does not mean it is useful for every contractor. Five Key Performance Indicators Every Construction Company Needs To Survive And Thrive! It is not practical or recommended for the Small Contractor or Handyman to track inventory. For most contractors, the material goes from the supplier directly to the job which is not the definition of inventory. Inventory is what goes into the warehouse and stays, and stays and stays. Most contractors do not have the money to invest in inventory. Your supplier is just down the street.  They have on-demand inventory – what

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0234 And It Will Be About 12 Signs You Hired The Right Contractor Bookkeeping Service    If you are a contractor, you know what to look for when you need to hire skilled construction workers. The longer you have been in construction, the more experience you have including a sixth sense about who is likely to be a good fit for your construction company team and who is not.  You can spot wanna-bees, clowns, and firebrands in an instant, and you know that if you are thinking about firing someone; you are already fifteen minutes too late! 99.99% of Construction is "Tangible" which means you can judge it using your five senses. You can See, Hear, Touch, Smell and Taste it and you know when it is good or bad. 99.99% of construction accounting is "Intangible" including financing, taxes, payroll processing, payment applications, financial statements, cash management which means you may have to rely on your gut-feeling to know when someone perhaps is not a good fit. I have a deep backg

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0233 And It Will Be About Contractors Struggle To Save Paperwork Needed For Taxes Tax Time! Corporate Income Tax Returns are due to the IRS by September 15th for S-Corp and LLC’s filing as an S-Corp Other types of corporations may be in a fiscal year with varied due dates. The only exception is any emergency extensions granted due to hurricanes (Harvey) or others. Personal Income Tax Returns are due to the IRS by October 15th which falls on the weekend and extended to Monday, October 16th. Keeping Paper Documents is necessary. Most contractors go from one extreme to the other. One extreme is saving everything for decades, and the other is tossing everything out. What To Save? What To Toss Out? We no longer need to print and save every document in file folders and keep adding new file cabinets. Happiness is every document that can be retrieved electronically at any time in the future. Sharie's Seven Paper Tips... Sharie’s Paper Tip 101 Save your receipts. If you have it i

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0232 And It Will Be About Contractors Need These Key Resources To Run Their Company Smoothly Contractors Need Additional Resources To Smoothly Run Their Business Running a Construction Business is part serious, part white knuckles, part smooth sailing with moments of fun. Because those moments of fun can be few and far between every Contractor needs to have a little humor. Try to see the glass is half full when it really feels like you are in “The Wizard of Oz, ” and instead of going to Kansas you went somewhere else less fun.     To help free up your time we have numerous FREE Items on FastEasyAccounting.com and located on FastEasyAccountingStore.com. We want to help you make your work time as smooth as possible.  Construction Definitions includes the 8/20 Rule | Chaos | Five At Five For Five | Unlicensed Contractor   https://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/free-construction-definitions-the-work-flow-process Construction Definitions A – Z is filled with Randalism’s including the h

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0231 And It Will Be About Unique Strategy Massively Increases Contractor Cash And Profits Contractors Are Selling Their Time First, Skill Second Value of Time – Your time as the Contractor is the most valuable. I hope you are doing the tasks that only you can do. Yes, you can do your contractor bookkeeping. My question is: Why Would You?   Your answer – I have a cash flow problem. Spending hours doing your bookkeeping will not solve that. In fact, doing contractor bookkeeping yourself will be painful, take time away from the things you do that make you money and take a lot longer than having someone else do it. Why, because every piece of paper has a story and your brain wants to replay the story (fast or slowly depending on the story). Say for example you waste an extra minute on every piece of paper. How long will it take you to finish all of the bookkeeping chores for the day, week, month or longer? This is after you have QuickBooks setup for your construction company and

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0230 And It Will Be About Contractors Make Decisions Every Minute Of Their Day  Making Decisions Never Ends For Construction Contractors Like You One of the basics of good decision making is being adaptable Think of decision making is being in a bumper car. You are constantly driving and trying to avoid the other bumper cars. If you hit one you back up and go again (reminder this is the only safe place to hit other cars). Rest of the time life as a contractor feels more like the Indy 500. You are driving as fast as you can, passing other cars, making pit stops, and scrambling to make it to the finish line. Translate this back to the real daily life of a Construction Contractor For Construction Contractors like you the paper work, processes and decision making are never ending. The concept of time is all about 10 minutes. Your coffee brews in less than 10 minutes.   Take a shower in less than 10 minutes.   Load the dishwasher in 10 minutes.   Take out the trash in less than 5 m

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0229, And It Will Be About Secret To Highly Profitable Contractor Is The Construction Accountant   Contractors Need Help Understanding Role of Accountants Contractors should have two primary accountants. One is the Tax Accountant the other is your Construction Accountant. Tax Accountant who does the Annual tax return for your business and your personal tax return. These are two of the Five Board Of Advisors Successful Highly Profitable Contractors Use To Operate And Grow Their Contracting Company Cash Flow And Profits. Why You Need A Tax Accountant? It is the role of the Tax Accountant to Roll Your Numbers up into a tax return. The first (2) pages of your annual tax return is a summary of all the pages, worksheets that follow. Everything must roll up to those two pages. That means that you could have multiple numbers from multiple pages that might go on a single line. The Tax Accountant manages those numbers. Remember when you were single and could use the EZ form? Then you g

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0228 And It Will Be About Our Proven Paperless Contractor Bookkeeping Replaces Bookkeeper Contractors Want Paperless Bookkeeping Services To Avoid Hiring A Bookkeeper The horror stories about bad bookkeepers (in-house or as 1099 contractors) are never ending. For this reason, Contractors are reluctant to interview or hire an outside bookkeeper. Many Contractors are frustrated that the person they hired costs too much appears to know less about bookkeeping than the contractor themselves. Contractors I have talked to mention they know very little about accounting and do not want to know more. You Want Someone To: Take over the bookkeeping Leave you alone Not ask a lot of questions Have everything ready for the Annual Tax Return Provide Financial Statements when you need them   YOU WANT TO KNOW IF YOU ARE MAKING MONEY NOT THE MIND-NUMBING PROCESS OF ACCOUNTING EVERYTHING SHOULD AUTOMATED AND PAPERLESS  YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING! THE SYSTEM IS THE SOLUTION!     When

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0227 And It Will Be About Contractors Need These Key Reports To Operate And Grow Your Company As A Contractor You Want Reports To Effectively And Efficiently Run Your Business You are not trying to make decisions by looking in the rear view mirror. You want to get a sense that there is “light at the end of the tunnel and know it is not an oncoming train” (author unknown) The question is How Much Detail is too much detail? If you are trying to track a job down to the number of 2x4’s, boxes of nails, joist hangers then I would politely suggest that is too much detail. Think in terms of a more broader scope. Common cost codes (commonly known as item codes, schedule of value, NAHB codes, CSI codes). These are all very important is a larger job or if the job is tying back to a Pay Application for the bank. This type of accounting will provide very detailed reports. The question is will you actually use these detailed reports. When you start an estimate are you thinking in that much

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0226 And It Will Be About Unique tax considerations running Contracting Company from home   Today's Guest Article Is From Ryan Tollefsen Planning to Run your business from a home office? Here's what to know about your taxes If you are planning on using your home office or any part of your home for business purposes or if you already do, it is time to address the tax issue. You have probably heard all sorts of different things about claiming a home office deduction and other deductions. As understanding of tax laws varies from person to person, some inaccuracies can occur. Let's take a look at the truth about the tax issues involved with running a business from your home. Deducting Home Office Expenses The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 softened the requirements to determine if the costs tied to a home office can be deducted. However, you can't deduct every single item used in your home office. The costs required to maintain your home office can only be deducted if nuanced IRS guide

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0225 And It Will Be About Successful Contractors Employees Produce Results We are excited that you are busy and hiring employees. How do I know this is true? The number of emails I receive about continuing education that reference employees are increasing. The topics you are sharing include wages, access to company funds, providing employee warm and fuzzies and you want to know what is the true cost including payroll taxes of having a Construction Worker on your payroll. More of your emails make references on How To Protect Your Construction Company from your employees. Employees with too much access to credit card accounts Employees with too much access to bank accounts Employees with too little accountability Paper time cards filled out randomly Protection comes from knowing the rules, putting systems in place, and dealing with the money. What type of compensation is required? What type of benefits are required? How to deal with Travel Pay? What should be reimbursed? How d

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0224 And It Will Be About Unique High-Profit Contractors Need Value From Their Accounting Software Price Vs. Value A Cheap Price does not always give you the “biggest bang for the buck” as the saying goes (author unknown). One of the reasons that we all like unit pricing in the grocery store is that it helps us determine which is the best value when deciding between sizes and between the store brands. Take for example ice cream. There are several main types: Labeled as Non-Fat, Low Fat, Reduced Fat, Sugar-Free, Creamy, Deluxe, Premium. A quick search on the web shows over 100 flavors is available.  We all have our favorite brands. I am a Creamy, Deluxe, Premium double chocolate fudge or dark chocolate usually costing a zillion dollars per ounce and an equal number of calories. Randal and I have brands and flavors we both like, and some flavors only one of us like. Thankfully our Ice Cream budget increased over the years. A low price was important back when we were “starving stud

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0223 And It Will Be About  Contractors Are In The Business Of Being In Business   As A Contractor You Are Either Getting Paid, Paying Someone Or Both Contracting Is All About The Money And Taxes Which is better for you, Employees or 1099 Contractors? In the world of the State and Federal Agencies. Someone who works for you is either an Employee (on W-2) or a Subcontractor. You need to be issued 1099 at the end of the year, and you need be able to prove they are legitimate Subcontractors! What we sometimes forget is the personal side of our life and do not realize we have employees. Nanny tax is for any household employees that you have for yourself, the obvious is the Nanny who provides childcare. It also includes a Housekeeper (unless using a licensed maid service). Reminder from Tax Accountants is the Elder Care market. If you have an individual who is caring for an elderly parent (they are subject to Nanny tax unless you are using a licensed service.) Do you have support peo