Welcome back, AS37,
It sounds like you have a diverse workflow when working with jobs, and I can see how keeping track of each of the details you've highlighted would be beneficial for you. QuickBooks Desktop's option for job costing is a great way to keep track of work you're doing for a single customer. I'm here to help how I can.
Based on what you've described here, I have a feeling you're familiar with the way job costing works in QuickBooks Desktop. If you haven't seen it though, I'd like to direct you to our article about this, which goes over how this feature can make a difference in tracking these projects in your books: Tracking job costs in QuickBooks Desktop
Figuring out how to make this best work for you may take a bit of trial and error. What I recommend is doing some tests of different methods to see if they meet your tracking needs. You can even do this without impacting your books by using a sample file in QuickBooks Desktop instead. Here's how you'd access that.
- If you have your company file open, go to the File menu and choose Close company.
- On the No Company Open window, choose Open Sample Company.
- Choose the one you'd like to open.
These sample files are full of fake data so that you can see how different features work. You can even add details to these files, like jobs, customers, expenses, vendors, and so forth. This will give you the opportunity to try out methods of recording your transactions and then running reports to see if they match your needs. For your reference, here are a couple of articles about reports that can help.
You can also consider connecting with an accountant if you're not sure of the impact of each task on your books. An accountant will be able to guide you on best practices in that area to ensure that your books are meeting requirements and things will be smooth sailing come remittance time. If you don't have an accountant yet, check out our Find an Accountant page to find one that knows QuickBooks Desktop.
You may still get input from other users here in the forum as well, so keep an eye out for other responses.
Wishing you the best.
