This Podcast Is Episode Number 401, And It's About Hidden Costs When Choosing The Right Construction Accounting Software Typically, in the first month of the year, many contractors with expensive high-end construction software are re-examining if QuickBooks for Contractors is all they need and if switching over to it makes sense. I chat with Contractors every day. You tell me your stories - about your challenges in running a business, keeping up with the bookwork, estimating and bidding jobs, doing the work and collections from clients, and having or not having employees and paying their taxes.  The first thing we ask is which of  best describes your company? Having used several high-end construction software programs costing over $60,000 and a few low-cost programs under $500 like QuickBooks and Peachtree, and some free online bookkeeping programs, I have concluded that for contractors with annual sales volume under $5,000,000, the only answer is QuickBooks For Contractors. For an in-depth comparison of QuickBooks versions, . We started using QuickBooks when it was first released in the DOS version in the early 1990s and had been raving fans of it ever since. It's had problems and growing pains; however, Intuit, the parent company of QuickBooks, is right about finding and fixing the issues as evidenced by the number of contractors using it compared to their competitors. What are the five things to consider? 1. Setup This is the most critical and least understood part of the selection process. A correctly set up QuickBooks contractor file will do everything a contractor with less than $5,000,000 in sales will need, including generating reports for: Monthly And Quarterly Tax Returns Sales Tax Returns Payroll Processing Payroll Tax Returns, 941 and 940 Contractor Invoicing Work In Progress (WIP) Reporting Preparing Pay Application Invoicing For Remodel Preparing Pay Applications For Tenant Improvement (TI) Job Deposit Tracking Retention Tracking Insurance Audit Support Service QuickBooks Financial Reports Job Costing Reports Five Key Performance Indicator Reports for monitoring your business And more Setup is the most expensive hidden cost of all. Anyone who suggests the average contractor can buy construction software and have it up and running in less than 200 hours in a span of several months is stretching the truth. There is a big difference between selling construction software and setting it up to use it. QuickBooks Setup Has Three Main Phases: Chart of Accounts, Item List, Customers, Vendors, Employees, Payroll; Clean up the existing data; and input the behind transactions. You can do it yourself = 200 hours x $10 an hour you could earn flipping burgers (opportunity cost) adds $2,000 to the value of the software. Give it to your bookkeeper = 200 hours x $25.29 () adds $5,058 to the software's cost. In most cases, you can outsource the complicated and costly  and  to us, get it done right in a fraction of the time and cost of any other option, and we can  existing data and input your back-work or as we call it QuickBooks . From our extensive knowledge base of Construction Accountants and studying highly profitable contractor's QuickBooks setup files, we have developed a library of QuickBooks for contractor modules to build your custom QuickBooks Contractor files in a fraction of the time and at a lower cost. It has made us the leader in setup QuickBooks for Contractors. 2. Bloat The more the software costs, the more bells and whistles it has or, as I like to say, "bloat." Software bloat in construction is deceiving because it looks like something you've got to have or you are missing out; the good news is you're not. It merely adds fluff and filler to jack up the price, just like college and university textbooks sold by the pound. 3. Construction Bookkeepers Talent Pool The more expensive the construction software, the more dependent you will be on the...