WIP For Contractors - Construction

Thanks for dropping your concern here in the Community, @yankeegirl. Let us share some information about your goal. 

In QuickBooks Online, Work in Progress (WIP) is not available. To record the expense, consider creating a bill and posting it to the specific WIP account you created for the corresponding spec build. 

Moreover, I suggest contacting an accountant for further guidance with your concern. If you don't have an accountant, I can help you find one. Feel free to visit this page to find an accountant for your business: Find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.

As a future help, you can create a project rather than manually adding costs to a WIP asset account. Visit this link to understand more about projects: Introducing QuickBooks Projects. 

Reply here on the thread if you have more questions about your concern. The community is here 24/7. Have a great one! 

Seems to me QBO taking away that ability does not give a true account of a business. From my understanding WIP accounts are to be used as those items then become an asset to the company until it is sold. I would have to make each Spec home a customer or one main WIP as a customer with each spec as a project. Either way they are not customers. Being forced to do it in this manner does not give an accurate account of the company as a true whole. 

Hello, Can you share with me your process for Setup/Creating a WIP in QBD?

I always thought this was not possible.

Thanks so much

Kim

Hi there, @Pro Grade Enterprises Inc. I'll help you how you can set up WIP in QuickBooks Desktop.

While QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) doesn't have the WIP feature, we can create an account named Work in Progress. This way, we can track the revenue (as liabilities) and costs (as assets) until the job is complete.

I will guide you through the entire process.

Step 1: Create an account

1. Access the Chart of Accounts in the Lists menu 
2. Select the Account button, and then click New.
3. Choose on Other Current Asset for the account type.
4. Select Continue.
5. For the Account Name, you can put Work in Progress.

I'd also recommend reaching out to an accountant to help you choose the right account.

Step 2: Change the item account

1. Go to the Lists menu and select Item List.
2.  Change the expense account to the asset account that you previously set up.
3. Add Other Charge items.
4. Transfer out of WIP as the account and the amount in the description should be positive.
5. For all your transactions, use the Items tab instead of the Expenses tab.

After finishing the project, create an invoice or sales receipt for the sales price. Then, add the two charged items to ensure a negative amount in transfer to COS. The invoice total must match the sales price. 

I have gathered some articles related to report customization and job costing which you may find useful. 

• Customize customer, job, and sales reports in QuickBooks Desktop
• Track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop

Feel free to reach out to us in the Community if you have any further questions. I am always available to assist you.

Hi there, @Pro Grade Enterprises Inc. I'll help you how you can set up WIP in QuickBooks Desktop.

While QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) doesn't have the WIP feature, we can create an account named Work in Progress. This way, we can track the revenue (as liabilities) and costs (as assets) until the job is complete.

I will guide you through the entire process.

Step 1: Create an account

1. Access the Chart of Accounts in the Lists menu 
2. Select the Account button, and then click New.
3. Choose on Other Current Asset for the account type.
4. Select Continue.
5. For the Account Name, you can put Work in Progress.

I'd also recommend reaching out to an accountant to help you choose the right account.

Step 2: Change the item account

1. Go to the Lists menu and select Item List.
2.  Change the expense account to the asset account that you previously set up.
3. Add Other Charge items.
4. Transfer out of WIP as the account and the amount in the description should be positive.
5. For all your transactions, use the Items tab instead of the Expenses tab.

After finishing the project, create an invoice or sales receipt for the sales price. Then, add the two charged items to ensure a negative amount in transfer to COS. The invoice total must match the sales price. 

I have gathered some articles related to report customization and job costing which you may find useful. 

• Customize customer, job, and sales reports in QuickBooks Desktop
• Track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop

Feel free to reach out to us in the Community if you have any further questions. I am always available to assist you.

You may want to give Knowify a try - We're Intuit's software partner in construction, and help with granular job costing, WIP reporting, budget vs actuals, etc.

(link removed by moderator)

Full disclosure I work there! 

@yankeegirl, your frustration is completely valid. You're used to Desktop's ability to route expenses to an Other Current Asset WIP account, and QBO simply doesn't support that workflow. The "make each spec home a customer" workaround forces you to treat assets as revenue transactions, which is conceptually wrong for WIP under the completed contract method.

The real issue is that QBO was designed for service businesses, not construction. It has no concept of contract value, no cost-to-complete tracking, no percentage of completion calculation, and no way to generate a WIP schedule. The Projects feature tracks income/expenses but not assets.

For spec home builders specifically, your WIP report needs: total budget per home, costs incurred to date, estimated cost to finish, and how that compares to your expected sale price. That's what your lender and CPA need monthly.

Two options that don't require leaving QBO entirely:

1. Manual approach: create an Other Current Asset account in QBO for WIP, post vendor bills there using journal entries, then do a monthly JE to move completed homes to COGS. You'll still need a separate spreadsheet for the actual WIP schedule.
2. I built a WIP automation tool (wipreports.com) that connects to QBO and handles the WIP schedule calculation. It pulls costs/billings from QBO, collects completion estimates from your team, and generates the WIP PDF automatically. First month free.

Either way, the QBO sub-customer approach for job tracking is worth using for cost visibility, even if it's not a perfect WIP solution on its own.

I built ReconcileBook specifically for this automatically tracks costs per job and generates WIP schedules directly from QBO in 30 seconds. No more manual tracking. reconcilebook.com