Hi, Is there a Work In Progress Report?

Henry Holdaway
Henry Holdaway Member Posts: 5
edited September 2020 in Accounts Hosted
Hi, Is there a Work In Progress Report. We would like to have a report that shows all unbilled time and costs on a project so that we can determine which projects have costs that can be invoiced.

Comments

  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    YES, we have it,but you will not find in Reckon at all. go to our website:www.cosmicinnovations.com
    see down load page. We have spent lots of time in developing in this area.
    if you wish to discuss. Reckon reports do not give exactly what you want. i have spent many years in this area. 

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • gazza73
    gazza73 Accredited Partner Posts: 802 Accredited Partner Accredited Partner
    edited February 2017
    Henry:

    For time not billed:

    Reports -->  Time by Detail --->
    <Modify Report>:   Filters:      <Billing Status>   tick:  NOT BILLED

    save that as a memorised report with a name like:  "Time to be invoiced".

    Use the report on one window  whilst preparing invoices in another,  and use the customer:job headings as your guide for the next invoice to prepare.  )(then in the invoice,  choose Time and Costs).


    Take a similar line of processing for the COSTS using
    Reports  -->  JObs.....  _>  Unbilled Cost by JOb.

    Cheers

    Gary Pope
    An Accredited Partner- Consultant  (VIC. Aust)

    "Working with Accountants/Bookkeepers PPs/APs, as an
          independent IT Professional
    and retired FCPA Accountant"

  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    Gary, thanks, there is no proper WIP report in Reckon or old QUickbooks, Spent lots of time on this with Intuits forum as well. You need to be able see in one report, all billable hours in dollars and unbillable hours in dollars,(cost) also all purchase order unused vs used cost estimates vs actual invoiced balance left to invoice or claim . Even Intuits quickbooks which far more advanced then RA does not have it. we did this job a firm i n US.  There is no productivity reports by employees etc and many more.

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • Jason Hollis
    Jason Hollis Alumni Posts: 516 Reckon Staff
    edited September 2020
    Hi Henry,


    In Reckon Accounts Hosted (as this is the Hosted forum section I will assume you have Hosted) and desktop Premier and Enterprise there is a report section called Industry Specific.

    image
     
    Go to Industry Specific > Contractor Reports > .....

    There are quite a few reports here that will assist with job costing and billing. However it is important to note that Reckon Accounts is an accounting application and not a job costing application. Although we have some nice features (which I personally used in the family construction business with great effect for years) it does not track WIP as an asset that can be created and consumed (billed / written off) with a moving balance.

    For this we have add-on partners who integrate with Reckon so that we can do all of the GL (general ledger) heavy lifting and they can concentrate on advanced operational functionality such as WIP management.



    Kind regards,
    Jason
  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    yes, Jason, i have spent about 11 years in this area , working as inhouse and external accountant for builders and developers and contractors. and looking into wip applications. we have created wip aplication in conjuction with building owners and and engineers. Like you said Reckon  or any other 2 packages do not have full wip and committed cost applications. All the reports that is in the Reckon menu i have gone may be 100s of time for last 12 years or more. our job costing application can pick up job costing rates with on cost like payroll tax, super etc, but does not get integrated into accounts,and many more. As you know in the billing area ,there is no cost only hours etc.

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • Henry Holdaway
    Henry Holdaway Member Posts: 5
    edited June 2015

    Thankyou all for your assistance. I have taken the time to look at your WIP report Chandra and I can see how it would be a good fit.

    We are getting closer to making an informed decision on which software to use next financial year.

    Another question that has come up; How does Reckon enable write-up/write-down in the invoicing process?

  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    Ok Henry, we can modify to your particular need, we will give you free use for 60 days.
    sorry, can you elaborate on your last comment...invoice write up....

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • Henry Holdaway
    Henry Holdaway Member Posts: 5
    edited September 2018
    When we have quoted on a job say $1500+GST and the total WIP after completing the project is $1800, we would need to write off $300. How would reckon handle this scenario? For example is a bill with a negative value of $300 entered or do you just edit the final number on the invoice manually?
  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    Henry on the issue of accounting entry, i can discuss with you  on phone , we are also registerd tax agents, no charge to discuss.

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • Jason Hollis
    Jason Hollis Alumni Posts: 516 Reckon Staff
    edited September 2020
    There are a couple of ways to write-up / off. Ghost invoices or journals are the most popular. In most cases (using Reckon Accounts) the business would just invoice the $1500+GST and you would monitor your GP per the Job Detail Report to know if you were meeting your KPIs.

    Classes are another great way to segregate business divisions (or work type such as domestic, commercial etc..) so your KPIs are more meaningful.

    As for employee costs, if you track jobs per pay item line you can get an accurate ACTUAL employee cost vs your estimated labour costs. What you can't account for straight out of the box are on-costs, so I personally build this into the KPI (for one metric) or I export the job detail report and run a factor (eg 40%) across the actual wage costs to measure the GP.

    Products like Chandra's can automate this, and with a free demo, free advice and a 60 day trial it is worth looking at for sure.

    At the end of the day it's all about matching the right software to your business requirements.


    Regards,
    Jason
  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    Thanks Jason. i think you are a great asset to RECKON since you moved out from Clutcher and Neale accounting firm. I strongly value your knowledge and advise. I remember your days with them, i may have spoken to you when you were there.

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • gazza73
    gazza73 Accredited Partner Posts: 802 Accredited Partner Accredited Partner
    edited December 2016
    TIP:  

    Here's some food for thought, 
    for how and why to manage unders/overs (bills)....


    Looking at the specific point of under/over billed (supplier invvoices aspect of WIP for a moment, in isolation).  (IE:  I'm not addressing accruals here for WIP monies 'yet to be billed',  just tackling Henry's point about under/overs......

    Without distracting readers from Chandra;s solution,  but looking to what is available within Reckon,  one of the aspects of WIP is the way the bills are entered into a customer/job split,  and posted to a 'unscheduled/variation' Cost Of Goods Sold  COGS (unless using stock)  GL code.  The 1500+GST portion goes to the appropriate customer/job as a normal COGS,  and the excess $300 + GST would go to the separate COGS classification:  "unscheduled".  We use memorised reports to extract for management, all the 'unscheduled' amount.  

    In the opposite scenario where the cost ends up only $1400 + GST,.  then the profitability of the job would show that you're $100 up.  (GST all goes to BAS via Balance Sheet of course).

    I'm using these example of a builder for instance, where we break the Chart of Accounts into PHASES (base, frame, lockup, Fixing, COmpletion) for instance (and others if you want to do (pre-construction).

    Assuming you have a good estimating system,  or you diligently track expected bills by raising Purchase Orders up front,  then the 'split'  is quite easy to process.  You ordered $1500 of services/goods.  When a bill comes in for over or under,  yyou either dispute the bill, or you process it, and declare the order closed, and any excess you split to the separate "unscheduled COGS G/L" code. 

    You can make the normal COGS and the unscheduled,  sub-accounts of a primary COGS ctopic,  to hide the clutter when not needed.  ANd you only have to identify the few 'Unscheduled COGS accounts" for tagging to a management report for highlighting the excess costs.  

    As for UNDER-invoiced,  they come up nicely by the job profitability

                                            - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Proper WIP, taking into account either the accrual of bills yet to be received from delinquent suppliers, for jobs already deemed completed (or a phase/progress stage completed),  requires the journaling of an accrual to the Balance Sheet and taking it up into the P&L to align with the income earned,  thus striking a profitability position, whilst also recognising unbilled expenses.   Again, I'm using construction industry thinking here,  and some prefer to run the other way around too,  which is to use the percentage of costs (other than unders/overs) as a measure of percentage complete, and strike an accrued INCOME figure instead.

    The important part of either approach,  is to know:
    a)  when a cost aspect has been satisfied,  splitting away any under/over
    b)  determining the percentage of costs relevant to the (construction) phase completed to date
    c)  and applying a corresponding percentage to determine the deemed income (to this phase) so that a realistic profitability of the job (Project)  is known in the P&L.

    Reckon Products can do all this,  but it is the simplification of that calculation to arrive at the Accrual position, and therefore the WIP position,  that requires some work.  

    Using an ADD-ON partner product that can assist with that calculation is a smart move,  but meantime,  an ability to also see the and highlight the unders (profitable COGS savings) and the overs  (evidenced in the 'unscheduled COGS" accounts,)  makes for a really powerful set of KPI indicators for managers to see where common errors in estimating are occurring,  or why certain jobs (Projects) were more/less profitable that others (or to budget).

    POINT:  It is all about having a way to highlight the 'Elephant in the room' business/cost issues,  so that estimating can be tightened up, and bills don't get accepted when not pre-authorised,  AND: that unders/overs don't offset each other!.   This is an area of interest I have with Home Builders here in Victoria, using Reckon Hosted.

    Without splitting like this,  business runs the risk of grouping unders/overs and by chance the bottom line comes out 'reasonable'.  But the reality, is,  there are hidden good performing suppliers,  and other less so.  Business focus today, needs to weed out the bad performer,s and build relationships and advance their business with the good performers.  So, without splitting bills as above (or some other approach that achieves similar visibility),  such business decisions are harder to make.

    Gary




  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Good One Gary Thanks

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009

  • gazza73
    gazza73 Accredited Partner Posts: 802 Accredited Partner Accredited Partner
    edited February 2017
    Sounds like Henry is in good hands, with Chandra for this one.  Terrific.   Gary
  • Jason Hollis
    Jason Hollis Alumni Posts: 516 Reckon Staff
    edited August 2017
    ... and I should have mentioned the job costing centre in Reckon Accounts Hosted... (for those users who may come across this thread in the future)...

    image


  • cosmic
    cosmic Reckon Developer Partner Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2018
    Any business using hosted RA, who needs Work In Progress, Job costing for Builders and contractors , we will be able to soon provide you these Add on Report Tools. They are already available for Desktop RA. Some more info is available at :www.cosmicinnovations.com
    Also Mobile time sheet will be available too for hosted.
    Mobile Invoice App coming soon ....for RA Premier and Enterprise

    Cosmic Accounting Group

    Accountants and Tax Agents 22397009