In the first part of this article, we talked about some things to consider if you want to use QuickBooks for construction accounting and offered some hints for installing QuickBooks. Here we will show you how to use QuickBooks to handle a few common construction job cost accounting tasks -- tracking sick days, vacation days, comp time and prevailing wage fringe benefits.

Working with QuickBooks for construction: Tracking sick days, vacation days and comp time

When you’ve got QuickBooks up and running, you’ll probably have some questions. A common source of confusion is in tracking sick days, tracking comp time and tracking vacation days when using QuickBooks for construction. Here are the basic steps:

1. Create a new Bank Account - where the money will be placed.
2. Create an Other Current Liability to track the accrual.
3. Create a sub-account of Payroll Expenses for tracking vacation days.
4. Create a taxable Company Contribution item in your Payroll Item List to record and track the accrual.
5. Create another payroll item to use when the employee actually uses the vacation days that they have earned. This item will be a QuickBooks “Addition” type payroll item.
6. Edit the Employee Record in QuickBooks.

Each of these steps only requires you to fill in a few blanks, but for details and screen shots, you can look at Smyth's Accruing Sick, Vacation, and/or Comp Time When Using QuickBooks.

Working with QuickBooks for construction: Tracking prevailing wage fringe benefits

Dealing with prevailing wage fringe benefits can be particularly difficult when using QuickBooks for construction, as there are several different ways these benefits can be paid out. But no matter which way you’re doing it, QuickBooks should be able to help.

If you’re paying prevailing wage fringe benefits in cash to your employees as part of a weekly paycheck or hourly rate, you’ll need to create a new Hourly Rate Payroll Wage items for each pay group, as well as for overtime and double-time. From there, establish the pay rate for each group and edit employee files to correspond with their groups. Then, use this in the Payroll Item column when you enter your employees’ hours in the Weekly Timesheet. When you create paychecks, the new rates will transfer to the paycheck earnings section. Lastly, be sure to report the correct amounts on your certified payroll report.

If the benefits are paid by the company to approved or bona-fide plans, programs or funds on behalf of the employee, the first two parts are the same. In this case, though, you need to create new Company Contribution payroll items after establishing the pay rate for each group. There should be columns for health and welfare, pension, training and savings. Make sure you check the option to “Track Expenses by Job,” then you can add the new payroll items and union fringe benefits company contribution items to employee records. From there, follow the same steps mentioned before.

Other scenarios when dealing with prevailing wage fringe benefits come up either if they’re dealt with using both of these methods, or if some union fringe benefits are taxable. These can be more complicated, so for more information, including screenshots, check out Smyth's Four Ways Contractors Pay Prevailing Wage Fringe Benefits and How to Set QuickBooks Up to Handle This.