Until recently QuickBooks users had no ‘change order’ functionality when working with projects. It’s a rare thing when jobs go through their lifespan without any changes.
Most jobs require change orders that specify additional material quantities, alternative products, extra or altered work, unexpected cost increases or numerous other factors that change the estimated job total.
It really doesn’t matter if the changes increase or decrease total cost, or total revenues, there must be a way to track all of the changes against the original estimated cost(s) and revenue(s). To accomplish this, most QBO users have maintained some type of manual or Excel record because QuickBooks Online couldn’t handle this.
But times are changing. With the new Change Order feature, QuickBooks Online Advanced1 Users can now manage their changes directly within QBO and ensure they are impacting total cost or revenues.
When you go to Projects, if you are using QuickBooks Online Advanced1, you will likely see a new pop-up window announcing “What’s new in Projects” including “Change orders and new reports” (as shown below).
Change orders won’t actually show up as an available option until after you have set up a project and project estimate.
Change Orders are their own new transaction type making it even easier to see which change orders are linked to specific job estimate(s) to reflect the specifics of the job including original requirements, as well as the additions and reductions in project scope. It is intended to help all stakeholders by clearly outlining changes in order to maintain transparency and trust.
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From projects select the project estimate needing changes.
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Create a change order requesting the updated costs or services.
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Send the change order to the customer for approval.
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Once approved, the project estimate will be updated to reflect the changes and the project reports like profitability and costs to complete will be updated with the change order values.
If you operate a project-based business, like construction, and you are currently using a version of QBO other than QuickBooks Online Advanced and you need the ability to track ‘Change Orders’ within your accounting software, you really should check out this new functionality as it might make upgrading from Essentials or Plus a benefit to your business.
1 – Intuit reports that this feature is also available in both Intuit Enterprise Suite and Intuit Accountant Suite.
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