Peachtree Tutorial: Job Tracking and Setting Up a Job

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Setting Up a Job

In Peachtree, you can set up “Jobs” for each client. You can then track income and expenses for specific projects, including payroll hours or amounts. There are advantages to using jobs. You can purchase items specifically for a job. When you invoice the client, you can bill them for the purchased items You can also run several types of reports on jobs. While all Peachtree programs do include “Jobs,” the flexibility and additional features (like Job Costing) are only available in Peachtree Complete.

To set up a job in Peachtree Complete, select “Maintain| Job Costs| Jobs…” from the Menu Bar. In Peachtree First Accounting and Peachtree Accounting, select “Maintain| Jobs…” from the Menu Bar. From the “Maintain Jobs” window, you can set up the jobs for the customers. Let’s look at the fields on the different tabs in the window.

Enter a code for the job into the “Job ID:” field. Then enter in a description in the “Description:” field. On the “General” tab, enter the supervisor for the job into the “Supervisor:” field, if applicable. Select the ID of the customer for whom you are performing the job from the “For Customer:” field. If using Peachtree 2006 or later, enter the job address information into the fields available. Enter the start date for the job into the “Start Date:” field when you begin work. Enter the end date of the job into the “End Date:” field when you finish the job. Also enter the job type in the “Job Type:” field. Job types give you a way to classify jobs that you perform for reporting purposes. Enter the purchase order number from the customer for the job into the “PO Number:” field, if applicable. As you complete the job, you can return to this screen to indicate what percentage of the job is complete in the “% Complete:” field. Notice that there is also a button for beginning balances for the job. If using Peachtree 2008:2009, then also enter the custom field values. In Peachtree 2003-2007, click the “Custom Fields” tab, and then enter information into the fields that you selected to add to the jobs you perform when you set up the “Job Defaults.”

Click the “Estimated Exp./Rev.” tab to enter in the estimated expenses and revenues from this job. Click the “Save” button on the toolbar in this window when you are done.

Setting Job Defaults

If you want to go back and change the custom fields that you use to record job-related information in Peachtree, you will need to access the “Job Defaults.” You can access this information by selecting “Maintain| Default Information| Jobs…” from the Menu Bar. This will allow you to access the Job Defaults window. Here you can set the custom fields (up to five) that you want to track for your jobs that you perform for your customers.

Entering Beginning Balances for a Job

If you have beginning balance information for your jobs, you can record this. You can enter in one figure for the job’s beginning balance. If you use Peachtree Complete, you can make the entries by cost code or job phase. To set up beginning balances for jobs, select “Maintain| Job Costs| Jobs…” from the Menu Bar. In Peachtree First Accounting and Peachtree Accounting, select “Maintain| Jobs…” from the Menu Bar. This will bring up the “Maintain Jobs” window. On the “General” tab, click the “Job Beginning Balances” button to display the “Job Beginning Balances” window. Click the “Job Entries for” tab to make the detail entries for a specific job. Enter a job beginning date for the job beginning balance amount. You can enter multiple balances for each job. Enter an amount for expenses or an amount for revenues. You can’t enter an expense and a revenue on the same line. The total balance for the job will be the net balance between what you have spent and what you have earned. You will see this information on the “Job Balances” tab. When you are finished entering in your beginning balances, click the “Save” button to save the information.

Making Purchases for a Job

As you create purchase orders and enter and pay bills for which you want to invoice the customer, you can simply use the “Job” column at the right end of these screens to assign the amount to a customer job. When you go to invoice the customer in the future, you will be able to bill them for the items and materials that you purchased for their job.