QuickBooks For Architects - Manipulating Your Item List

Don't forget that QuickBooks Online integrates seamlessly with BQE Core, the award-winning project accounting platform built for professional services firms. Core offers business intelligence, project management, time and expense tracking, billing, accounting, and reporting together in one intuitive package. You can integrate Core with QuickBooks, or handle your accounting within Core so it's right alongside all of your other essential business processes.

As you begin to use QuickBooks for your architecture firm you may find that your item list needs some changes. You might even find that you want to completely re-vamp your list if you feel that it does not accomplish what you'd like. As you’ll see in this video this is easier to do before you have data tied into your items, however even with data tied in, it is possible to completely change your item list around to better suit your needs.

Once you're finished here, be sure and check out part 3:

How to Enter Time into QuickBooks

Using the example of what I showed you in last week’s post on QuickBooks for Architects I received an e-mail from Shafat Qazi, founder and CEO of BillQuick. In that e-mail he explained that he was not a fan of setting up the item list using employee roles, but rather to create items that describe the services you offer. Shafat explained that the most common QuickBooks items used by architects are as follows:

• Drafting

• Construction Administration

• Client Meeting

• Schematic Design

Of course there will be others such as Administrative, Postage and Delivery, and QuickBooks has a special item called “sub-total” which comes in very handy.

When you are changing your item list around in QuickBooks you can do 1 of 4 things;

1. Create a new item

2. Delete the item

3. Make the item inactive

4. Merge items

Creating a new item is easy. Simply access the item list and press CTRL+N. Then follow the dialogue and fill everything out. In most cases you will be creating service items.

You cannot delete an item if it has any transactions associated with it. You can either make it inactive, or if you really want to delete it you have to first re-associate all transactions that use the item with a new item. First you will want to run a Quick report for all dates based on that item. Then you can change the transactions one by one. The video shows you how to do this.

If you make an item inactive it will no longer appear in the list (unless you choose to show inactive items). If you decide later that you want to use it again you can make it active and start using it.

To merge items you simply rename the losing item to be the same as the surviving one. QuickBooks will prompt you to be sure you would like to merge them. Once you confirm, all transactions associated with both items previously will now be associated with the newly merged item.

Manipulating your item list is pretty easy to do in QuickBooks. This also means having enough “rope to hang yourself” so to speak so be careful and backup often just in case you want to get back to where you were before.  If you watch the video above you will see exactly step by step how to change your item list around when and as you need to. Over time your business may evolve and accordingly, so should your item list so that it better describes the services you offer.

Once you're finished here, be sure and check out part 3:

How to Enter Time into QuickBooks