QuickBooks Tip: Help Improve Cash Flow with Progress Invoicing and Contractor Direct Deposit

Are you anxious about cash flow? If you’re working to collect payments from customers sooner and with less hassle, there’s good news. Thanks to a new feature in QuickBooks Online (QBO), incremental billing is now easier for contractors and small businesses.

QuickBooks’ Progress Invoicing has been available to QuickBooks Desktop users for some time and was more recently added to QBO. The feature allows you to bill customers for ongoing projects and get paid incrementally as you complete stages of the job.

When you start a project, you establish an overall estimate, then schedule invoices to go out after completing portions of the work. You can also schedule invoices around certain milestones that you set up for the project. QuickBooks automatically tallies how much has been collected and how much of the overall estimate remains.

Help establish more reliable cash flow

Progress invoicing makes it easier for a small business or contractor to improve cash flow by invoicing customers in installments over the entire length of a project while tracking payment progress based on original estimates.

Your customers will be kept in the loop by each invoice, which shows the total amount invoiced, what is still owed, and what has been paid on previous invoices. You can also receive real-time alerts when your customers view and pay invoices throughout the course of the project or contract.

Once the project is complete, QuickBooks will automatically close out the paid invoices for you.

Create estimates and quotes on the go

QuickBooks now makes it easier to create estimates and quotes, too. You can even create an estimate on your phone and have your client sign it on the spot with the QuickBooks mobile app. You can attach photos, add notes, and email a copy directly to your customer for their records.

This new feature allows you to send invoices that include a “Pay Now” button so your customers can instantly pay via credit card, debit card, or a payment service like Apple Pay or PayPal. QuickBooks processes the payment, transfers the funds to your bank account, and keeps track of the details for you.

Pay contractors through direct deposit

Another new, long-requested, feature is the ability to pay Form 1099 contractors through direct deposit the same way you would pay W-2 employees.

In the “Workers” tab of QBO, select “Contractors” along the top ribbon to view a list of your contractors. Next to the name of the contractor you want to pay, select “Pay by Direct Deposit” from the drop-down list.

QuickBooks will track payments made to contractors. Come tax season, you will be able to conveniently find all information needed to accurately and timely file your Form 1099s.

Contact me or another member of Kaufman Rossin’s QuickBooks Consulting team to learn how to get more out of your QuickBooks investment.