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I am in the process of setting up Quickbooks Pro for my remodeling and woodworking business. I have used Quickbooks Pro for the remodeling portion of my business for several years, but now I want to start tracking and job costing my woodworking activities. I am wondering how detailed I should get in setting up items to track my woodworking projects. I would like to know what others have done.
I mostly make built-ins, custom cabinets, shelving and an occasional piece of furniture. I would like the items I setup in quickbooks to also be job codes which I will use to track my time on these jobs. For example milling rough stock, cutting joints, assembly, finishing etc.
I guess I am just wondering if I should break it down to every step of the process or keep it general and simple, just wondering what has worked for others.
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Jeff,
When we first started, we used to count every step, and then compare how long it took us at the end of each task, then the job. Now we baseicaly sell things at a certain ratio to cost of materials. Ex: an easy job may be 4 times mats and a very difficult job might go up to six times cost materials. Generally, we do an estimate anyway, just to compare our materials/labour to our final price. With time, however, I think that we will get way better at it. Funny that you posted this, because I was just wondering myself what the general ratio is for finishing time to building time. No answers for this question yet, though.
Martin
*Martin,Thanks for the reply. I am trying to come up with an accurate hourly shop rate, but at the same time I don't want to go overboard and try to analyze every small detail. So I was thinking I would at least try to track all the major steps from order/picking up the material to installing the finished piece.Your system sounds simple. Maybe after I track my cost for a while I'll see a trend of the ratio of material cost to selling price and can use the same system.
*Jeff, You might find it interesting to check out these older threads from this forum. I'd also do a search over at Fine Homebuilding for similar threads, but these two will get you going. Personally, I find the estimating function in QBPro extremely weak, infuriating, and a pain in the a*se, for the furniture maker, but I think that's more a result of the way I like to estimate than anything else. Slainte, RJ. QBPro. Quick and Dirty estimating.
*Sgian,Thanks for the links they are very helpful especially the Quick & Dirty estimating link...Alot of good information.
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