I have another question. Is there an easy way to handle taxes on the estimates I write up? I'm all the time getting the wrong tax information, tax code wrong for cities and towns. I use Quik Books. Is there better software to help me? Or should I have someone just do this for me full time? Also is there a way to hook up the time clock to the Quik books or accounting software so that I can know what everyone's hours are soon as they clock in and out without having to spend time manually figuring hours for payroll? Thanks!
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Estimates, Taxes, QBooks
- Thread starter cwb143
- Start date
clarizeyale
New Member
my experience from doing quotes and invoices -> we use XERO (previously used quickbooks, which I've never entered anything in there, just filled out our own custom quote/invoice form) and I believe you can add all the major (or small) cities tax rates and it all shows up in a drop down list. There are options for materials, materials-resale, labor, shipping, etc. Makes invoicing so much easier. I do not have the capabilities to do this myself but after making the transition, it has definitely been super easy writing up quotes/invoices and making sure people pay us on time.
I do not have suggestions for payroll unfortunately.
I do not have suggestions for payroll unfortunately.
equippaint
Active Member
What do you mean by taxes and what state are you in? In Florida, we have different discretionary taxes for each county but when picked up or delivered from here its the same 6.5%. We only deal with differences when we sell vehicles.
Dont know on timeclock but after may different ones, the best is the old school mechanical punch clock. The electronic ones and self calculating area all a pain. It takes 15-20 mins to do it. If its killing you this much, tell your employees to do their own calculation and then do a double check. Ours do and honestly 90% of the time they short change themselves but we fix it.
If you can afford someone to do this full time than yes just pay them. You really have to be smarter than the time clock to make this work.
Dont know on timeclock but after may different ones, the best is the old school mechanical punch clock. The electronic ones and self calculating area all a pain. It takes 15-20 mins to do it. If its killing you this much, tell your employees to do their own calculation and then do a double check. Ours do and honestly 90% of the time they short change themselves but we fix it.
If you can afford someone to do this full time than yes just pay them. You really have to be smarter than the time clock to make this work.
I'd say many of the answers to your questions are driven by the size of your company.
QB allows you to enter sales tax rates by city then automatically applies it to any invoice.
QB also has a time clock app named TSheets that seamlessly imports people's hours into the payroll tools. The cost of TSheets is determined by the number of employees and level of functionality you desire.
We're a small, three person operation and do most of the simple bookkeeping tasks ourselves on a daily basis, but an outside bookkeeper comes in once a quarter and balances the books, sends off tax payments we didn't, reconciles the bank accounts, preps things for the next quarter, etc. Once a year the CPA does the taxes, etc.
Taxes have gotten crazy. Each town and city is different and we have to know about it. So I look up each one that I don't already know and enter it into QB. So if I do it again then I don't have to enter it obviously. It's automatic. But I deal nationwide so it's complicated sometimes. I was just thinking that since the sales tax is already set for each city then there should be a list that can be obtained and entered into QB but that's probably asking too much. The time clock isn't a big deal I just thought it is nice to automate if possible. I really like automation for menial things. lol
2B
Active Member
Exactly, the tax rate is dictated by the town the office is located in.
Example: you live in 123, travel to ABC and install a pole sign. the tax rate for this job is dictated by town 123.
if you have multiple offices, the rate of the office doing the work is used.
As others have stated, the sales tax being imposed should only be the one levied at YOUR location where the work is produced.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
Do yourself a favor and ask a tax attorney or a CPA. If you can't get it straight, have them set it up for you. QB does this and just about any other software will, but YOU hafta know what and how to enter it into your specific needs. Get it right. Don't rely on people from around the country to know this.
BIG EASY DOES IT
New Member
I don't think that is correct. I believe it's where the item transfers ownership. If you ship signs the sales tax is destination based and you are supposed to charge your customers sales tax rate for where they are.
BIG EASY DOES IT
New Member
Quickbooks online now changes and updates sales tax for all over. Might want to switch to something like that if manually entering and checking is getting to be too much.
Yes, Gino I hear ya. I just like to get y'all's take on it. We have someone to come in and clean things up. I like the online quick book idea I'll look into. But seems everytime I want to change software or methods it cost another grand. Tax rules have changed some Toad. If we make a sell out of our building then the tax rate is where our building is. If we ship something and it's paid by a client out of state then the tax rate is where we shipped the goods and not all states require our tax and some states have a Nexus with our state. So its a tax hell sometimes. TAX TAX and more TAX. Thanks to Ronald Reagan, " If it moves tax it."
Todd Jelle
New Member
exactly... if your only selling the sign you charge the rate in your city. ( if they or someone picks it up, or it is shipped)
but.....
In Colorado, I KNOW
If your installing a sign in another city
you must charge the tax applicable to the municipality where the sign is located.
ai...use tax. (sales tax)
you usually need to provide that city the materials vs labor amounts to complete the entire project.
They base the tax off those figure to determine the taxes.
most often this is required to obtain a permit, then that city adds a permit fee.
In most cases makes a mess in quickbooks, unless you figure these as line items, since you have already paid MOST of the taxes.
we then usually only need to pay the state or state & county sales tax ( this is only for projects in other cities, & or counties.)
BIG EASY DOES IT
New Member
Like buying a car kind of. You pay sales tax where you register your vehicle in California. Not where you bought the vehicle.
CanuckSigns
Active Member
your tax system down there sounds way more complicated than it needs to be!
Up here if we sell within province, we charge HST, if we sell to another province that also uses HST we charge HST and if we sell to a province that doesn't use HST, we charge no tax and it's up to the buyer to declare it.
we don't separate out materials and labour, both are taxed the same
Up here if we sell within province, we charge HST, if we sell to another province that also uses HST we charge HST and if we sell to a province that doesn't use HST, we charge no tax and it's up to the buyer to declare it.
we don't separate out materials and labour, both are taxed the same
Here in California, it is much more complicated than this. If a customer comes in to our location and pays for something and takes it with them, we charge tax as follows : state, our county and our city tax.
However, if a customer in Califormia orders something over the phone and we use an outside shipping company (UPS for example) to ship the item from our location to the customer's location then we charge tax the same as if they picked it up from our location.
If same customer orders over the phone and we use our own vehicle to deliver the item, then we charge tax as follows: state, customer county and customer city tax.
If an out of state customer orders something over the phone and we use outside shipping service to deliver, we do not collect California sales tax or destination jurisdiction tax. However, the new interstate tax law recently passed may require us to collect destination sales tax if we meet the threshold ($100k sales into destination state per year).
If a customer in the next city orders a sign and we build it here but install it at their location, we charge them tax as follows: state, customer county and customer city tax (assuming we bring the sign with us on our vehicle)
Jerry Brown recently instituted through executive order (no vote) a new tax agency here in California that can get around our state constitution and institute / change any tax it so chooses as often as it likes with no vote from the citizenship or legislature and there is no way to contest any such changes / additions to the local tax system (socialist dream = 100% tax rate). This new tax agency has been feverishly adding new sales taxes to all sorts of things that were never taxed before. One example is LABOR. They are adding labor sales taxes like mad to all sorts of industries. Another notable obnoxious new tax this unelected and unregulated tax body implemented is a real beauty. If a person buys a suit for $500 and pays the $50 sales tax to retailer, the customer now gets to pay the $50 sales tax AGAIN when the tailor at the clothing store hems the pant legs AND the customer has to pay tax on the labor of hemming the pants. To illustrate this better, the customer will pay $500 for the suit, $50 to hem the pants, $50 sales tax on the sale of the suit and $55 sales tax on the $50 tailoring job (yes $110 sales tax on labor!!) for a total sales price of $655 for a $500 suit. This was Jerry Brown's going away gift to all Californians. Try to compete with out of state sellers now.
NONE of the above is tax advice, legal advice, life advice, marital advice or any other advice. I am stating what we have done based on pure ignorance of any tax laws, tax codes, case history. Do not do what we do. Assume we are doing it wrong. CPA, tax attorney and all other professionals should be consulted to get accurate information. This was for entertainment purposes only, and I hope you all had a great laugh.
You mind providing a source for this new executive order the Governor allegedly instituted? As well as where it can be found on the official state taxation board?
When a person uses lots of loaded words like you did, I just expect you to have something concrete to back it all up with.
You do realize that even in what is considered the most socialist country on earth, Denmark, their highest income tax rate is only 40.1%? Which helps pay for one of the best healthcare, educational, financial well being, social safety net systems, etc. on earth. When polled, MOST Americans favor us having those things than the current dod eat dog, mediocre quality of life we have.
BIG EASY DOES IT
New Member
I think this is what he is referring too.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/ess...up-state-tax-agency-1498593946-htmlstory.html
http://www.latimes.com/politics/ess...up-state-tax-agency-1498593946-htmlstory.html
Well, the article states quite clearly multiple times that he "SIGNED A BILL" which refutes the claim that it was an executive order. If fiscal responsibility is what AF wants, it would seem that a bill the legislature crafted, debated and passed that addressed long running problems at the Board of Equalization and the governor passed it, he should be elated. The bill also trims the department staff by 90%, another bold move towards reining in whatever waste was in place before.
As far as it giving the governor unilateral taxing authority with no oversight or checks and balances, I'm not seeing anything that suggests that happened.
Tim, you seem triggered by the term socialism being used in a less than gushing statement. I apologize for upsetting you and your beliefs. The holy grail of socialism is 100% tax as written and spoken by so many luminaries of the ideology over the last 170 years, so I thought it was a great explanation of the 110% sales tax example that otherwise has no reasonable explanation.
Regardless of the how the CDTFA came into existence, the point is that it has been implementing in relentless fashion new taxes. The CDTFA is proud of their tax hikes and they have plenty of documentation on the website of the new taxes as they implement them.
What this means is that we business owners in California are at an even greater competitive price disadvantage with other states. Look for more and more businesses to leave the state (our customer base).
Regardless of the how the CDTFA came into existence, the point is that it has been implementing in relentless fashion new taxes. The CDTFA is proud of their tax hikes and they have plenty of documentation on the website of the new taxes as they implement them.
What this means is that we business owners in California are at an even greater competitive price disadvantage with other states. Look for more and more businesses to leave the state (our customer base).