5 Surprising Ways To Level Up Your Construction Business with QuickBooks
Construction is already a tough industry.
Your top concerns include ensuring worker safety, adhering to regulations and finding skilled labor. Construction employment hasn’t fully rebounded since the pandemic began. On top of all that, you’ve got to actually run and grow your business.
QuickBooks is the solution we swear by for contractors and construction companies here at Certum Solutions. I started my career processing job cost entries and closing out the books for a local construction company, so I understand the pain points. Today, I steer my construction clients toward QuickBooks as the best way to solve for those pain points – and to help them level up their business across the board.
But QuickBooks is just accounting software, right? Not so fast. QuickBooks can be the source of truth for your business and help your operations run more smoothly. You may be surprised by some of the ways QuickBooks can help you take your construction business to the next level.
1. Use the version of QuickBooks – built especially for the construction industry.
What it is: QuickBooks Enterprise Contractor
How it helps you level up: You get exactly the information you need in an intuitive way, on a platform customized for the construction industry.
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is designed for mid-sized businesses, but it gets better. QuickBooks Enterprise Contractor was built to meet the needs and challenges of the construction industry, and it does a great job of it.
Don’t underestimate the power of leveraging a business and financial management platform that’s custom-built for your industry. I’ve shared some of my favorite features of QuickBooks Enterprise Contractor before. Here are some of the highlights:
It’s the only QuickBooks edition that lets you complete change orders.
It comes loaded with a bundle of industry-specific reports.
It’s set up to let you track estimates and actuals, and to figure job costing.
2. Integrate the construction management apps you already use.
What it is: QuickBooks Desktop app integrations
How it helps you level up: Linking your business tools and automating your processes means spending less time on administrative work.
If you’ve got other apps and programs set up to help your company run more smoothly, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel if you switch to QuickBooks. There’s a good chance that the apps you already use are among the hundreds supported by QuickBooks.
Both Intuit apps – like Field Service Management or QuickBooks Time – and popular third-party construction management apps, such as HammerZen, Method CRM and Armatic, integrate to create a seamless experience across your business. More connections mean more automation, which means you spend less time managing administrative tasks instead of getting your hands dirty.
3. Get advanced time-tracking and location services.
What it is: QuickBooks Time Elite
How it helps you level up: Improve payroll and job costing accuracy with digital time tracking, and build trust with location services.
Workers punch the clock from their own mobile phones with down-to-the-second accuracy using QuickBooks Time Elite, which is built in to some QuickBooks Enterprise editions. The timesheets automatically sync with QuickBooks, so they’re always part of your business data.
Digital time-tracking has two big benefits for your company:
Payroll is accurate, paperless and ready to go on payday.
Job costing is more precise, with detailed data about the time spent per job.
QuickBooks Time also allows you to turn on location services, so workers can automatically clock in when they reach a job site. GPS means you can see where your team members are – whether they’re driving, servicing a home or working at a construction site. Workers know you can trust that they are where they say they are, while they’re on the clock.
4. Manage your business from anywhere.
What it is: QuickBooks Enterprise with Hosting
How it helps you level up: Remote access frees you from your desktop and file cabinet, so you can manage your workforce, projects and finances from the job site or on the go.
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise doesn’t mean you’re tied to the monstrous monitor in your office. Hosting gives you remote access to your financial data in QuickBooks, so you can manage your business while you’re on the go (and we know you’re always on the go!). Access all your information on laptops and tablets, across the Mac and Microsoft families.
Your files are securely backed up on the cloud, which means you can say goodbye to piles of financial statements, reports and other print-offs. Going paperless is better for securing your data, sharing information with your financial team and helping the environment.
5. Make tracking cash flow a cinch.
What it is: Automated financial reports in QuickBooks
How it helps you level up: Knowing your cash flow is crucial to spending and planning responsibly for your business.
OK, this one might not surprise you. QuickBooks is known as accounting software, after all. But it does a brilliant job of showing you one of the most important financial metrics for your business: cash flow.
Cash flow is the money that’s coming into, and going out, of your business. Ideally, your business’s inflow is greater than its outflow – you’re bringing in more money than you’re spending.
Tracking your cash flow is crucial for your business’s long-term sustainability. When you know your cash flow, you can understand how much money is available to spend now – something that profits, alone, can’t show you. Understanding cash flow also makes it possible to plan ahead for lean or flush times in the future.
Financial dashboards and reporting in QuickBooks make it easy to keep tabs on your cash flow. That means you’ve got the data to make better business decisions right there at your fingertips.
QuickBooks Offers Simple Ways To Level Up Your Construction Business
With its custom solutions for construction companies and contractors, we believe QuickBooks is the simple solution to manage and grow your business. If you’d like to get a customized demo or learn more, schedule a free 30-minute consultation with the Certum team.
We’re trained on QuickBooks, so we can help you secure a lifetime discount on your QuickBooks Enterprise quote. Contact us to get your construction company on the path to growth.
