Contractor Retention Invoice Retainage In QuickBooks Desktop

[@worldwidequickbooks]

Hello to all my friends using QuickBooks desktop for their contractor business or construction company. This contractor’s desktop training tutorial will show you how to calculate and apply job retention or contract retainage to an invoice. This will make retention receivable in the future increase and lower the invoice balance. Don’t worry, It will all be paid to you later at the end of the contract. I hope you will “like” and subscribe! -Mark

[@sandrawhaley1270]

How would I set up and track sub contractors that I hire to do work for me and I want to track the retention (liability) that I owe them?

[@kiradelaney379]

This is incredibly helpful.

[@worldwidequickbooks]

Thank you so much! I’m happy to help. I hope you will click “like” after the ones you watch and I hope you will subscribe. -Mark

[@jennagodbout4722]

Is there a process to apply retentions to vendor bills? Our subcontractors do not calculate the retentions on their invoices. I would like to automatically deduct 10% from the vendors invoice

[@worldwidequickbooks]

Yes, there is a way to do it, but I would need a separate video chapter to explain it.It takes a little bit You would be making a work around but it could be I don't have the video for that I'm making the advanced contractors videos very soon

[@jennagodbout4722]

@@worldwidequickbooks Awesome, thank you! I look forward to those videos

[@cheryllawrence6888]

Question: I'm using Desktop Pro 2019. When I create an Invoice there is a dropdown at the top of the window for Account. My choices are Accounts Receivable and Retainage Receivable. I noticed that your screen doesn't have that dropdown. How do I get rid of it so that I can have my receivables go to receivables and my retainage to retainage? By the way, your videos have been SO helpful. I have 20 years experience on the nonprofit side and need to fix a bad QB setup in my current job for a construction company.

[@worldwidequickbooks]

Thank you Cheryl, You will only have the dropdown in the invoice window if you have more than 1 "Accounts receivable" type of account in your chart of accounts. I know that you realize now, that the "retention receivable" is NOT an "accounts receivable" TYPE of account in quickbooks. So, if you simply remove all transactions from the retention receivable acocunt and then delete the account in favor of the correct type, "other current asset", then you will no longer see the pulldown on the screen. As far as fixing a quickbooks mess, it's sometimes better to start fresh with correct numbers at the begining. This way, all you have to do is follow the steps in the contractor's playlist and all your quickbooks wuill be correct. So, there is a playlist for the set-up starting numbers. If you go to my channnel page and scroll to the bottom, you will find the playlist "quickbooks set-up starting blances or starting numbers or something like that. If you go that rout, that playlist will help you. -Mark

[@Lorry-hz4vx]

I followed the retention instructions, but cannot get it to show properly in my Customer Summary Reports and others. It shows my sales, and then the negative discount for Retention Receivable. I do see on the Balance Sheet as well as the P&L, but NOT my sales reports.

[@worldwidequickbooks]

Thank you but make sure you saw both retention videos If you click on the top right corner of the video then you will get the link to the full playlist. You can go down the playlist and see there are 2 videos for retention. One video shows you how to charge the retention off of the invoice and the other video shows how to record actually getting paid and billing for the retention Please confirm you found both of those and please confirm you did it exactly the way it shows in both videos. If you did it the way it shows in both videos and it still doesn't work. Then please describe the difference and I will be happy to help you Mark

[@karenschoenfeld6196]

Do you know of a way to show the aging of retention? I have it set up very much like you suggest, only difference is I call my "Discount" account something else.

[@worldwidequickbooks]

What's the retention is built for in an invoice, the way the full playlist shows, then it will show the aging and it will show the aging of all the invoices where retention has been With held Click on the top right corner of the video to get the link to the full play list and I suggest you watch it in proper order. You can scroll down towards the bottom and check both videos that relate to retention and if you see the whole method that it will be clear what you're able to do Mark

[@BrandySallee]

How do you show payments received if they pay some before the job is complete?

[@worldwidequickbooks]

You just need to see the next one in the playlist. This is #20 You need #21 . So check this out and see the rest when you can. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYrTY3Z4ad6jgc0 -Mark

[@equinervt]

Thank you so much! I've been doing progress billing with retention held for 2 years now. I've asked everyone at QuickBooks how to accommodate for retention billing and they don't have this built into their software for Contractor Pro edition. I created a retention account but I never thought to send the retention receivable report instead of an invoice. Just one question, how do I accept payment for the retention, if I have not created an invoice? (currently I hold retention on each invoice and create a pending invoice to which I add each month's retention as a separate line item) Thanks again for the informative videos.

[@worldwidequickbooks]

I'm glad to help you. This is the right way to do it. If you use this method originally, then the video shows you exactly what to do when you get paid. If you were using a different method, then I could not tell you how to record the final retention payment. I hope you will click “like” after the ones you watch and I hope you will subscribe. -Mark

[@louwren429]

Create an invoice for the retention using the retention item. I don't set up the retention item as a discount. I set it up as an other charge so that I can bill it as a positive number

[@worldwidequickbooks]

@@louwren429 Thank you Lou, It's billed as a negative number because it reduces the amount of the invoice that it is listed on. -Mark

[@johnmccartney2579]

@@worldwidequickbooks Mark, thanks for the video. This seems like a great way to handle retention, but I, like a few others in the comments, am wondering how to receive payment for the retention if I have set up retention as a discount item the way shown in the video? Thanks a lot!

[@timmarkel7974]

@@johnmccartney2579 Thank you John. I am not seeing the way to actually accept (and apply) a retention payment

[@marthacressy7543]

Any recommendations for QBO?

[@worldwidequickbooks]

Sure, what do you need?

[@joshgordon2870]

Great Video. Quick Question. Won't your P/L report only show 95,000 (100,000-5,000 retainage) as revenue? At what point does the 5,000 in accumulated retainage become revenue? Thanks!

[@worldwidequickbooks]

Thank you Josh The revenue was already recognized when you made the invoice The revenue was earned when you made the invoice Show the full amount of Revenue is already recorded at the end of the contract The retention item does not change the fact that the entire revenue is earned and billed and recorded The retention items simply creates a separate receivable that you will receive at the end of the. But the revenue has already been earned and recorded as earned if you follow this method I also want to mention that I have to make the sequel and the follow-up to this video which shows how do you record actually getting paid the retention All the missing videos will be put up in August for landlords contractors sales tax and home finance and I hope you'll tune in then to see how it turns out Mark

[@joshgordon2870]

@@worldwidequickbooks Hi Mark. Thanks for the quick reply. One follow up question. If we present the customer a list of the retention instead of generating an invoice, how will the retention get aged? In other words, only the receivables that were generated by through an invoice appear on our aging report. And as I am sure you know, the bank uses our AR aging to validate collateral. Thanks again- Josh

[@worldwidequickbooks]

@@joshgordon2870 To answer that, I will give you a sneak-preview in to the next video. You will make another item on the item's list called "total retenion due". That item will be attached to the account "retention receivable". As soon as the job is done and total work approved, you make an invoice for that customer and put on the invoice "total retention due" item. Then put the toital retention that the report indicates. This will remove the retenion receivable from the retention receivable account and move the balance to normal accounts receivable. You then can have aging in formation as well as charge a finance charge on the balacne of retention. You wil see this in th vidoe I will make soon. I will have 2 or 3 other contracotr videos to add to the course soon. -Mark

[@joshgordon2870]

@@worldwidequickbooks ahhh!! makes sense!!! Thanks Mark

[@worldwidequickbooks]

@@joshgordon2870 My pleasure, I hope you will click "like" on the ones that helped you and I hope you will subscribe. -Mark

[@sandyhabetz186]

How do you apply payment and remove retention amount from retention receivable account?

[@worldwidequickbooks]

The video shows that the retainage receivables will disappear when paid watch the entire video with covers everything including your question

[@sandyhabetz186]

I am sorry that I am not seeing what you are referring to. When we accept retention payment and apply it to invoices, will it automatically zero out retention receivable account?

[@worldwidequickbooks]

@@sandyhabetz186 I'm sorry I don't know what your issue is. why can't you do it the way the video shows?

[@sandyhabetz186]

@@worldwidequickbooks I understand the setup. I am referring to when we actually receive payment for retention amount. I will set it up and see what happens when we do get final payment. Thanks.

[@sandyhabetz186]

@@worldwidequickbooks The video was great, by the way. Very informative and visual was very helpful.

[@pampfeiffer3560]

might want to use spell check -- you have "clients" spelled incorrectly on a few screens

[@worldwidequickbooks]

Thank you Pam. Yes, it stinks when I re-install ofifce and forget to set thye powerpoint spell check to include capital letters in the spell check. KZbin is amazing but once you put up a video, you can't change it without loosing all the accumulated statisticks like all the views and likes. However, many of my students have another language as their first language. In those languages, spelling is never an issue; it's only english that words do not sound the way they spell. Crazy right? I hope you will anyway "like" the videos and subscribe. -Mark