How Would You Account This?

[adt7771]

I need a little advice here. I'm a former builder, no longer in the industry except for the occasional remodel or backyard shed project for friends and family. We recently bought a new piece of property and have been building a barn/workshop for the last couple of months. We're getting ready to start building a new house next door.

I fired up my old copy of QBP, figuring that would be a good way to track bids, estimates, and actual expenses. Took me a while to remember how to get around the application, but I'm now semi-fluent again.

What I'm wondering is, what's the workflow for a job for which there's not really any invoicing? In other words, my "construction" checking account had a $5 starting balance, and I deposited the proceeds from the sale of our last house into the account. I've been paying from this account for the land, lot prep, barn, etc. for several months. I want to know what I've spent on the job, but I don't actually need to bill anything to a customer because the customer is me.

Part 2 of the question: All of the barn stuff is "past" history. All of the house stuff is "future" transaction. I'd like to use estimates for the house, so I can print all the estimates and put them in a binder to use as a sort of guided note-taking system for my wife (who will be doing a lot of the bid-hunting this time around, since I'm employed in a different industry). Also, this project will require a construction loan and, therefore, draws - which will likely require actual invoices. I think I just need to follow the Create Estimate-Receive Bill-Create Invoice-Collect Draw-Pay Bill workflow, but I'm not real clear (getting older sucks).

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

[LIHR50]

Re: How Would You Account This?

Use two chairs at your desk, one for the builder, one for the customer. When billing out, sit in the builders chair, when receiving the bill sit in the customers chair. Put the customers chair next to the printer.

You're thinking too hard.