Still managing your projects with spreadsheets and sticky notes? It’s time to upgrade. If you’re not using QuickBooks Projects, you’re missing out on a tool that can reshape the way your business handles its operations.
QuickBooks Projects will change how you handle every aspect of your projects, which is especially important if you’re struggling to maintain more than one.
Let’s explore the common challenges of managing multiple projects and discover how QuickBooks Projects can modernize your workflow and eliminate those headaches.
The Challenge of Managing Multiple Projects Simultaneously
Managing multiple projects at the same time can feel like juggling flaming torches—one misstep and everything can come crashing down. For any business owner, the stakes are high. Each project demands your attention, resources, and impeccable coordination to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Think about it: you’ve got Project A needing materials ordered, Project B waiting on client approval, and Project C where labor costs are spiraling out of control. Without a robust system in place, it’s all too easy for important details to slip through the cracks. And when that happens, the costs can be significant.
What is QuickBooks Projects?
Imagine having a central hub where you can effortlessly manage all aspects of your projects. QuickBooks Projects offers exactly that. It’s designed to simplify project management by consolidating everything you need into one easy-to-use platform.
If you’re tracking expenses, setting budgets, invoicing clients, or monitoring profitability, QuickBooks Projects puts all these tools at your fingertips. You can easily switch between projects, see where each one stands financially, and make informed decisions without getting bogged down by details.
With QuickBooks Projects, you’re not just organizing your tasks—you’re optimizing your entire workflow.
Key Features of QuickBooks Projects
Project Cost Tracking
QuickBooks Projects allows you to meticulously record every transaction related to a project, whether it’s materials purchased, hours worked, or payments received.
By using this feature, you can maintain accurate project financials effortlessly. Imagine knowing exactly how much you’ve spent on Project A versus Project B at any given moment. For instance, if you’re managing a kitchen renovation project, you can track every cost from purchasing tiles to paying your subcontractors, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
This level of detail helps you avoid overspending and ensures you’re charging your clients accurately for all the work done.
Related Reading: Why Accurate Project Time Tracking is Crucial for Your Business
Budgeting and Forecasting
With QuickBooks Projects, you can establish a budget at the outset of each project, detailing expected costs for materials, labor, and other expenses.
Comparing budgeted costs against actual expenses throughout the project’s lifecycle helps you stay on top of your finances. Imagine you’ve budgeted $10,000 for a landscaping project. QuickBooks Projects allows you to track spending in real time, so you can immediately see if you’re exceeding your budget on materials or labor.
This comparison is crucial for identifying areas where you might be overspending or where you can save.
Profitability Analysis
Monitoring each project’s profitability helps you understand which projects are making money and which might be draining resources. QuickBooks Projects provides tools to track income and expenses in real time and generate detailed profitability reports.
So, if you’re running multiple construction jobs, you can generate reports to see which ones are most profitable, allowing you to focus your efforts where they matter most.
These insights help you make informed decisions about where to allocate resources, which projects to prioritize, and how to improve overall profitability.
Invoicing and Payments
Creating and managing invoices within QuickBooks Projects streamlines your billing process. You can generate invoices directly from the project dashboard, ensuring all project-related expenses and work are accounted for.
This way, you can easily see which clients have paid and which ones still owe you money.
Time Tracking
Recording and linking time entries to specific projects is essential for accurate billing and cost tracking. QuickBooks Projects allows you to track the hours worked by employees or contractors and assign those hours to the relevant projects.
Related Reading: A Step-by-Step Guide to Tracking Time and Mileage in QuickBooks Online
Real-World Application: How We Helped A-Team with QuickBooks Projects
At MISSION Accounting, we’ve seen firsthand how QuickBooks Projects can transform the way businesses manage their operations. One of our clients, A-Team, is a prime example of this transformation.
They struggled to track their various jobs’ profitability and manage expenses and revenues effectively across multiple locations.
Managing Multiple Locations
Using QuickBooks Projects, they could now manage and monitor the financial performance of each location independently. This helped them identify which locations were the most profitable and which ones needed more attention.
Multiple Projects for One Customer
A-Team often worked on multiple projects for a single customer. For instance, they might handle both a kitchen remodel and a bathroom upgrade for the same client.
QuickBooks Projects allowed them to track these projects separately while still associating them with the same customer. This meant they could see the profitability of each project independently and answer important questions like, “Did we make more money on the kitchen remodel or the bathroom upgrade?”
This new sense of financial visibility helped A-Team make informed decisions, improve profitability, and manage their business more efficiently.
Which QuickBooks Version Do I Need for QuickBooks Projects?
QuickBooks Projects is a feature available in specific versions of QuickBooks Online. Here are the versions that offer this feature:
QuickBooks Online Plus:
This version includes the Projects feature, allowing users to track project profitability, set budgets, and manage project-related expenses and income.
QuickBooks Online Advanced:
QuickBooks Online Advanced also includes the Projects feature and offers additional advanced capabilities such as more robust reporting and customizable fields, making it suitable for larger businesses with more complex project management needs.
QuickBooks Enterprise:
QuickBooks Enterprise does offer project tracking features, although it is not specifically labeled as “QuickBooks Projects” like in QuickBooks Online. Instead, QuickBooks Enterprise provides robust job costing and project management tools that allow users to track income, expenses, and profitability for individual projects.
Related Reading: QuickBooks for Contractors: 6 Advantages of Choosing Enterprise
Getting the Full Potential of QuickBooks Projects
Regardless of your version of QuickBooks, or if you’re unsure whether you have the right version for your needs, there are ways to make it work for you. One of the biggest pitfalls we see businesses fall into is not utilizing the full spectrum of tools available in the software they’re paying for. This often leads to working harder, not smarter.
If you’re tired of the headaches of managing multiple projects and are ready for a solution that will help you stay on top of your business, now is the time to act!
Reach out to MISSION Accounting today for a free consultation and take the first step toward a more organized, profitable future.
