Daily Activity
Our recommended workflow for installed jobs is as follows: You would use CFS to work up and save your estimates and produce a contract for your potential customer. Normally, it is only until the customer gives you the go ahead that you would export it to QuickBooks. A job coming from CFS will import as a QB estimate, where it can be easily converted to an invoice, sales order, or purchase order, whichever is appropriate. We have a couple reasons for importing it to an estimate in QuickBooks instead of a Sales Order that will be explained in more detail below. The job will transfer to QuickBooks whether your QuickBooks company file is open or not. We recommend having it open when you make the transfer, because the QuickBooks window displaying the estimate will automatically open, ensuring you are exactly where you need to be to convert it into your desired type of transaction.
For material sales, you have a couple options. If you are selling a few random parts you would probably just do the entire transaction in QuickBooks, although you could channel it through CFS using the Cash Register or Miscellaneous Estimator modules and then export it to QuickBooks. If you are selling a complete, or nearly complete, package of materials for a do-it-yourself customer, we recommend you work it up in CFS first to take advantage of the time savings.
If the list of materials for a job contains an item that is not yet in QuickBooks, the interface will semi-automatically add the item to QuickBooks as part of the job transfer. You’ll be presented with a list of the new items and given a chance to change the default settings for the associated accounts and type of item it will become in QuickBooks.
Credits/refunds will be handled only in QuickBooks.
If a CFS invoice is being transferred, the interface will put the CFS invoice number on the memo line in QB. If job numbering is turned on in CFS, the interface will put that number on the memo line. Either or both of these options could be used to easily track a QB transaction back to the original job in CFS. Jobs that are available for immediate invoicing could be converted to an invoice in CFS before the transfer. This way, if the person viewing the transaction in QB sees a CFS invoice number on the memo line, he or she will know it should be converted directly to an invoice in QB.
Why do the jobs import into QuickBooks as estimates and not directly to sales orders if we recommend only transferring sold jobs? If you are using the interface in the inventory tracking mode, want to use the QuickBooks estimate mode for the form layout, and its emailing ability when the job is not sold yet, it can be transferred in the non-inventory tracking mode so it does not “build” any assemblies or fabricated parts that are in the estimate, if any. Later, if the job is sold, load it again in CFS and transfer it in the inventory tracking mode.
Transaction Summary Option
During the transfer, the user may choose the QuickBooks “group” mode. In this mode, the items will still be listed individually on the screen in QuickBooks but can print as a group or groups using the job description as the group name. Installation labor would also be included in the group. (QuickBooks is limited to 20 items per group, so there could be more than one group. The group description can easily be edited for clarification.) This feature reproduces the ‘one line invoice’ feature in CFS.