What are the differences between a customer and a job in QuickBooks?
One of the key differences is how your customer list will appear within QuickBooks. In the example below, Babcock's Music Shop and Chris Baker are the customers. Indented beneath each customer name are the jobs that relate to them - for Babcock's Music Shop, there is a job underway called "Remodel" and for Chris Baker, there are two jobs - "Family Room" and "Garage Repair".
This particular business has opted to create a separate job within the customer file to track information that relates specifically to that project instead of "lumping" everything into the main customer account.
For example, when they go to create an invoice, they do it using the name of the job instead of the name of the customer. That creates a separate tracking of revenues for the job.
Another difference is this - you can take advantage of the "Jobs" tab that exists to track information that is specific to that project, as shown below:
If you only use the main customer account, the jobs tab above still appears, but it can only hoold information relating to one job, not all the different ones your business may be performing for a customer.
ARE JOBS REQUIRED?
Keep in mind that the core QuickBooks software is designed to be used by all different types of businesses.
In many cases, this "job" feature of QuickBooks is never used and the business never misses a beat.
In others, the "job" feature is essential to help them track profit and loss by job, estimates vs. actuals by job and other key information the business owners want to see.
HOW TO ADD A JOB
If you need to add a job, it's easy to do. Click the customer where you want to add a job so they are highlighted in your customer list, Then, just head to the top of the customer list, click the New Customer and Job button and then click Add Job. Fill in the details and you are good to go!
Need help sorting all of this out for best use in YOUR business? Click the Contact Scott button below and let's talk about your specific situation to see if I can help...
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Comments