Business owners- Looking for a good source for receipts/estimate booklets A(or apps?)

Piston · Apr 8, 2015

I've been getting more and more jobs with my little side business, and am having trouble keeping records organized. I'm looking for tips and am curious what you use for receipts or estimate forms?

I mostly estimate "from the hip" sorta speak, and give one final figure for everything. I'd like a form of some sort that I can write down, $xx.xx for this part of the job, at xx hours, and so on. Many jobs I do have more than one aspect, and I like to break it down for the customer.

So, rather than showing up for an estimate, and seeing how many stumps need to be ground, how much brush needs chipping, and how much for final grading or power raking, then giving one final estimate, I would like to break it down a bit better and then add up the price at the end.

I also want to have a legit receipt book, where I can list the same thing, and give them a copy, and keep a copy for myself, so when I go back in my records I can clearly see what jobs I did, how long it took, and how much I charged (also helpful for figuring out my profit, and making sure I'm not actually LOSING money on some jobs.)

Also, if you know of any apps that you use on the iphone, I'm interested in that too. For the most part though, I want to keep this fairly simple. I did look on amazon and they have some very generic forms on there....

If anyone could post a source, or even a copy of what you use (or pm so it's not public) I would be very grateful.

pmsmechanic · Apr 8, 2015

When I had my iPhone i used Invoice to Go. Cost was a one time $10 fee. It was a really good program but when I switched to a Samsung I figured $100/year was a bit much to keep the same program. I still keep books with my iPhone but am still searching for a good reasonably priced program for my Samsung

Creamer · Apr 8, 2015

RR Donelly prints many forms for small businesses like this. We used them for multi copy shipping receipts.

Verticaltrx · Apr 9, 2015

For estimates and receipts I just make a document on the computer using one of the templates (with the company letter head and a few other changes to suit my business), then have a print shop print off a box. Most of them can also do carbon copies, which you'll definitely want for receipts, and probably for estimates too. For me these two documents use basically the same form, one says Estimate at the top, the other says Contractor Invoice.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't have a smart phone nor do I want one. Looks like a real hassle to have to enter everything in there, scroll through stuff, etc when I could just write it out on a piece of paper and be done with it. A large contractors clipboard with a planner, 8x12 notebook and my receipt/estimate forms inside does all I need.

One thing I do that has really helped with organization is to keep a notebook with all my clients info and info for each job I do. I do mostly agricultural construction and some grading and excavating as well, but this should apply to most similar businesses. For example, when a client first calls I'll start a new page in the notebook, at the top writing down the date, their name, phone number and address. Then I write down a detailed description of what they want built or done, along with drawings or diagrams, this is either done over the phone or on site depending on the size and scope of the project. Next, back at the shop, I figure out an estimate writing down all the materials, labor, any equipment rental, overhead, etc on the left side of the page. When I do the job I keep a daily log of hours spent on each task with a small description, final actual cost of materials and any other costs. This gets written on the right side of the page. Then I can clearly see what my actual labor and materials were vs the estimate for each job which greatly helps in more accurate estimating and record keeping.

riptides · Apr 9, 2015

My businesses runs off the Microsoft Suite of Desktop products. Specifically for customer estimations and invoices, I use the Microsoft Access database.
Over the years it has become customized and web-enabled.

I think the products, Word, Excel, InfoPath and Access all have templates and wizards to help you get started.

If your PC savvy, and have the suite available, I'd start there.

And I will add, I am not keeping customer data on the web or in a cloud.

joeu235 · Apr 9, 2015

Quickbooks Online is what I use. Pay everything with a debit card, link business bank account with Quickbooks, and periodically categorize banking transactions with Quickbooks accounts. Takes about 15 minutes each week. Estimates and invoices are also done within Quickbooks. Its web based so it works on the laptop and phone. I think I pay $12 each month.

powerscol · Apr 9, 2015

Another good source of help would be your local Small Business Administration or Better Business Office.

I am lucky with having the SBA and their classes. You meet a lot of folks with great tools. For me I went to Office Depot and had them print up some custom pre-punched forms with my company name and the typical blanks I fill in along with a large blank ares for custom stuff or notes (like where water line is buried). These are the duplicate type and I use a aluminum contractor clip board (the one with the storage under the lid). To do the estimate, I pull one out a form off of the pad, and go to work. When done if the client agrees they sign, I give them the copy and put original in my file later.

I too do not use a smart phone. I have been using basic Quicken, but now I am looking at the basic Quick Books as the last SBA class I took someone there had set one up for all the blanks on the Sch F and as the year went, everything was automatically filed in the correct spot from one input screen. He also used a cheap laptop for filling out his estimates at the job site with a small cheap printer in his truck (use a power inverter to run. He got his laptops from the local college during their sales for under $100 each.
Note he always printed out two copies in case the laptop failed, and had a clip board like mine as backup.

Hope this helps

Bottom line, it is whatever works for you and your comfortable with.