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Are there things you just don’t have time for? Or the knowledge to complete? That thing that always sits on your to-do list waiting to be crossed off, but it just never seems to happen. You know what we’re talking about. We all have that one thing we just don’t want to do, whatever the reason may be.

This is where outsourcing becomes your best friend. For small to mid-size businesses, hiring someone full-time, or even part-time, just isn’t an option sometimes. The funds might not allow it. This is when outsourcing comes into play. Hiring someone outside of the company to do that one thing you don’t want to do saves you money. How? Simple. Rather than paying an hourly or salary employee for being in the office 9 to 5, you can pay someone for only the time they spend doing what you need.

With tax season in our midst, it’s time to get it together and figure out who needs to be issued a 1099.  These are to be sent out each year by January 31st. It can be kind of confusing to figure out who to issue a 1099 and who doesn’t need one. The basic rule is that you must issue one whenever you pay an independent contractor who provides you a service.

When you’re a contractor, you work on multiple projects that need different accounts and we want to make sure the chaos doesn’t turn into confusion. To make sure everything is organized and you know exactly what’s going on in each account, we compiled a list of helpful tips.

1.      Set up your QuickBooks properly at the beginning. You will need a specialized Chart of Accounts and Items for your business. By doing this right the first time, you avoid the very time consuming task of having to clean up your books.
2.      Invest the time, money, and energy to set up QuickBooks to properly track Direct and Indirect Constructions Costs and keep Overheard separate.
3.      Use Estimates to your customers and Purchase Orders to your vendors. Link the two to track your costs by project.
4.      Assign Job Costing to all expenses.
5.      Make adjustments each month to recognize Work In Progress (WIP).
6.      Track your contractors for ease of issuing 1099’s at the beginning of the year.
7.      If this becomes too much to handle, hire a qualified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. The money you “invest” in this will help you save you time, money, and energy in the long run.