QuickBooks Quick Tip: When To Use Jobs In QuickBooks

11 Dec QuickBooks Quick Tip: When To Use Jobs In QuickBooks

Even a brand new beginner usually get the idea of customers in QuickBooks.  With the new versions of QuickBooks the start up interview even helps you add them.  It is after that initial step that most people get lost.  QuickBooks has several reports that are driven by the customer list and those reports can be less than useful if the customer list is a disaster.  

The most common issue I see is duplication of customer names within the customer list.  This can often happen as a result of trying to track several different business transactions with a single customer.  The problem with this is if the customer pays with one payment for things you have billed under several customer names accepting payment in QuickBooks, without an extensive work around, is tough.  How do you fix it?  Easy…QuickBooks has a built in solution called JOBS.  Each customer can have various jobs under them.  For example if you are in the carpentry business and do one or two projects for a customer each year but want to see the profitability of each job on its own, just add a job under the customer.  This would work for any company where you want to see one interaction with a customer separate from another.

To add a job:

1. Click Customer Center.
2. On the Customers & Jobs tab, right-click the customer for whom you want to add a job and choose Add Job.
3. In the New Job window, enter a name for this job.

   What if I want the customer name in the job name?

   QuickBooks will never use the job name by itself. It is always used in conjunction with the customer name, so there is no need to make the customer name part of the job name.

4. If anything shown on the Address Info tab is incorrect for this job, change it.

   The information QuickBooks fills in comes from your customer’s record. If you make any changes here, the changes affect only this job. For example, if your customer’s billing address is different for this job, you can enter the job address without affecting the customer’s main address.

5. Click OK to record the new job.