Daily Activity

Our recommended workflow for installed jobs is as follows: You would use CFS to work up and save your estimates and produce a contract for your potential customer. If the customer gives you the go ahead you would load the job in CFS, convert it into a CFS Invoice, and then export it to QuickBooks. All jobs coming from CFS will import as a QB estimate where it can be easily converted to an Invoice, Sales Order, or Purchase Order. In this case you would immediately convert it into a Sales Order. (We have a couple reasons for it importing to an estimate in QuickBooks instead of a Sales Order that will be explained in more detail below.) The job will transfer to QuickBooks whether your QuickBooks company file is open or not but we recommend having it open when you make the transfer because the QuickBooks window displaying the estimate will automatically open if it is. That way you are exactly where you need to be to convert it into a Sales Order.

For material sales you have a couple options. If you are selling a few random parts you would probably just do the entire transaction in QuickBooks although you could channel it through CFS using the Cash Register or Miscellaneous Estimator modules and then export it to QuickBooks. If you are selling a complete, or nearly complete, package of materials for a do-it-yourself customer we recommend you use the appropriate CFS Scratch Builder to estimate the job, convert it to an invoice in CFS, and then export to QuickBooks. Then you can convert it into a QuickBooks Invoice in QuickBooks.

If the list of materials for a job contains an item that is not yet in QuickBooks, the interface will semi-automatically add the item to QuickBooks as part of the job transfer. You’ll be presented with a list of the new items and given a chance to change the default settings, if necessary, for the associated accounts and type of item it will become in QuickBooks.

Credits/refunds will be handled only in QuickBooks.

Why convert a job into an invoice in CFS before exporting? The CFS Cash Register program automatically assigns a sequential number to each invoice. Even though the job is not technically ready to be invoiced yet you would be “borrowing” this CFS mode for a couple of reasons. The CFS invoice number will automatically fill into the memo field of the transaction in QuickBooks. By having this number in the memo field the user will have a quick way to reference the job back to CFS, and, if this procedure is only used for sold jobs, when the user sees this number in the memo field in QuickBooks he or she will know it is indeed a sold job and not just an estimate.

Why do the jobs import into QuickBooks as estimates and not directly to sales orders if we recommend only transferring sold jobs? Some people want to use the QuickBooks estimate mode for the form layout and its emailing ability. If you want to transfer your job into QuickBooks before it is sold, we recommend you do the export in the scratch builder (do not first convert it into a CFS invoice) and instead, send it over in the non-inventory tracking mode so it does not “build” any assemblies or fabricated parts that are in the estimate, if any. Later, if the job is sold, load it again in CFS and transfer it in the inventory tracking mode.

Transaction Summary Option

During the transfer the user may choose a QuickBooks “group” mode. In this mode the items will still be listed individually on the screen in QuickBooks but can print as a group or groups using the job description as the group name. Installation labor would also be included in the group. (QuickBooks is limited to 20 items per group so there could be more than one group in this summary output mode.) This feature reproduces the ‘one line invoice’ feature in CFS.

Setup and Maintenance

Item Transfer

When we first setup the interface for people that do want to track inventory, we will populate the item list in QuickBooks with your commonly sold items in the CFS master file. How this transfer takes place will depend on what items you have in your master file and your account setup in QuickBooks. The Setup & Maintenance module contains a couple options for doing the transfers. A third option is to export all the master file items into a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel, cull it down and format it according to QuickBooks needs, and then import it directly into QuickBooks. It is okay if you already have items in QuickBooks as long as the part numbers of those items in CFS are the same as the item’s part name/number in QuickBooks.

If a new item needs to be added to CFS and QuickBooks, it is recommended for smoother operation that the user put the item in CFS first and then transfer it to QuickBooks as items do not transfer from QuickBooks to CFS. (Items can be entered manually in both programs but this is not recommended for its lack of efficiency and increased room for error.)You would not necessarily need to transfer new items right away as they will get added to QuickBooks as needed if they are on a job getting transferred.

There are a couple reasons to not populate the QuickBooks item list with all the items in CFS. QuickBooks Premier is limited to 14,500 items and some CFS vendor import modules can include tens of thousands of items in one product line. One large ornamental manufacturer has over 40,000 items by itself. Even though QuickBooks Enterprise can contain 100,000 items, most people do not want thousands of never sold items in their QuickBooks item list. To accommodate for this situation we recommend initially populating QuickBooks with only commonly sold items. Uncommonly sold items would get transferred to QuickBooks only as needed when a job including these parts is transferred as the interface can detect new items and add them to QuickBooks immediately before creating the estimate. Only the products actually sold, out of the complete product line, would end up in the QuickBooks item list. There will also be the option to NOT add uncommon items into QuickBooks by using the non-inventory tracking mode prior to transfer. This will happen by using catch-all items in QuickBooks that can be used over and over again.

Inventory Count

Inventory counts can be transferred from QuickBooks into CFS. The primary inventory tracking and valuation will take place in QuickBooks. The purpose of keeping an at least semi-current inventory count in CFS is for if you want to use the CFS per job inventory status alert feature (lets you know what you are low or out of when figuring a job) and/or the suggested order feature in CFS which is more robust than QuickBooks.

Price Syncing

The retail selling price in CFS can be transferred to the selling price in QuickBooks. CFS contains more sophisticated pricing and markup options, so it will be the primary location for the user to establish the retail prices. We are assuming you want the retail price to be the same in both programs.

The average cost or last purchase price can be transferred from QuickBooks into CFS. This option would be used if you want the cost to be the same in both programs. The other option is to have the replacement cost in CFS which is usually NOT the average or last purchase price in QuickBooks. This way, in CFS, you can establish a retail price based on replacement cost and transfer this retail price to QuickBooks with no affect on QuickBooks costs.

Inventory Tracking Options

There are two modes regarding inventory. One mode tracks individual inventory items, assembled items along with their component parts, and CFS Scratch Builder fabricated items with their component parts. Another mode does not track inventory. In this mode non-inventory items in QB are reused for each job. You will have the option to transfer jobs in the non-inventory tracking mode for individual jobs or all jobs. If you do not need to track inventory but want the interface for the recording of the transactions keep in mind that anything you read below about tracking inventory will not be applicable to your situation. The setup required to implement the non-inventory tracking interface is minimal.

You can start out with the interface in the non-inventory tracking mode and then switch to tracking inventory whenever it is convenient for you. There is no drawback to approaching it this way plus you get the instant benefits; transactions only need to be entered one time to have them recorded as either invoices or sales orders in QuickBooks.

Actually, this interface does even more than providing communication between the two programs. It also increases the inherent value of QuickBooks’ functionality. If you haven’t used QuickBooks for tracking inventory in the past you might not know about this particular feature, and more importantly, how it is implemented. QuickBooks Premier & Enterprise editions support inventory assemblies with component parts. This is the same basic concept as the CFS assemblies (a.k.a. Additional Pricing Functions or fabricated chainlink gates).

Regarding assemblies, QuickBooks uses the term “build”. To “build” an assembly in QuickBooks, the user goes to that module and specifies the quantity of each assembly to build. For each build the component parts are deducted from inventory and the count of the assembly item is increased. An assembly item cannot be invoiced in QuickBooks unless it has been “built” first. Having to “tell” QuickBooks every time a product is assembled or fabricated in the shop in order to later be able to invoice it could be prohibitively time consuming for many fencing contractors, especially the ones that fabricate their own chainlink gates and posts, PVC and ornamental fabricators, and those that add value to wood products before they sell them.

If a CFS job contains a standard assembly, perhaps a metal frame for a wood fence gate or a chainlink commercial drop rod assembly, or has an item CFS fabricated, the interface will automatically add the assembly to QuickBooks if it is not already there, and it will automatically “build” the assembly in QuickBooks so it is immediately ready to be invoiced if need be. QuickBooks requires that there has to be enough of the component parts on hand in order for it to build the assembly. This makes sense since you can’t build something without having its components. Since the builds take place during the transfer, the components need to be on hand for the transfer to take place. Keep in mind this only applies to jobs that contain assemblies or fabricated items and would be the case in QuickBooks whether you were using the interface or not.

More About Assemblies

Inventory assemblies in QuickBooks are equivalent to Assemblies (a.k.a. Additional Pricing Functions) in CFS. There are going to be what is referred to as permanent assemblies or reusable assemblies in QuickBooks for purposes of this interface. Even though fabrication charges come into play in CFS, they will not transfer into the components of assemblies in QuickBooks. Regardless, while the cost will be different, the selling price in both CFS and QuickBooks can be the same if the user prefers them to be.

Permanent inventory assembly items are what you would normally think of. They are items fabricated by your business with your purchased raw material. They are normally setup as Assemblies (a.k.a. Additional Pricing Functions) in CFS and may or may not currently be setup in QuickBooks. Assemblies will not be transferred to QuickBooks along with the commonly sold items during the initial setup. They would either get transferred as needed when an estimate containing the assembly is transferred to QuickBooks or the user can create a CFS Miscellaneous Estimate containing up to 100 different assemblies per estimate and transfer the estimate to QuickBooks.

Regarding products that are fabricated by CFS as needed, these products will be treated as assemblies in QuickBooks also but as reusable assemblies not meant for permanent individual tracking. An example of a reusable assembly that would be created in QuickBooks would be a Fabricated Gate. Each time a fabricated gate is transferred in a job to QuickBooks, the interface would reuse an item named FABRICATED but change the description, the component parts, and the cost and selling price. If the FABRICATED reusable assembly is on a Sales Order in QuickBooks the interface will create a new reusable assembly item named FABRICATED 1 for the next incoming gate. When the Sales Order that includes item FABRICATED is invoiced, FABRICATED become available for reuse on the next job transfer.

Another example is a fabricated chainlink post. Unless you have the chainlink scratch builder setup to use pre-built posts on a job, it takes the pipe price/foot item times the feet needed for the post and adds a cutting charge. For these fabricated posts the pipe item in QuickBooks would be for a foot – not a stick – and it would be the feet of pipe that is tracked in QuickBooks. This is a straight forward easy way to track pipe. (There is a way to track sticks of pipe. However, it involves a fairly complicated CFS setup process and is undermined each time a person in the yard does not cut posts from the pipe designated in the program. Please call if you want to discuss this in more detail.) Other items fabricated by CFS that employ reusable assemblies in QuickBooks are PVC and ornamental fabrication module posts, rails, pickets, bottom rail inserts, lattice panels, and sections.

What Your Purchase Costs and Includes

The cost of the interface is $995.00 per year and includes CFS upgrades. (As a point of reference we release an upgrade once a year and the last several upgrades have cost $495.00.) The interface uses the CFS Enterprise Edition features and therefore all the Enterprise features are included, not just the ones needed for this QuickBooks interface. You’ll be able to export the entire CFS Master File to a CSV (comma separated values) file, a format saving option in Excel and other similar programs; use our sample Apps or develop your own; interface CFS to other programs; export some CFS reports only available to Enterprise customers, and receive new Enterprise features automatically as they become available. Please see CFS Enterprise details at www.fencesoftware.com/enterprise.

Confidentiality Agreement Requirement
Because of the ability to export proprietary data into a non-proprietary format we require you to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Other Considerations

When you first install CFS, particularly with chainlink, wood, and fabricated PVC and ornamental fencing, there are a certain amount of customization that needs to take place to the list of items to reflect your particular needs. We recommend that you customize CFS prior to establishing an interface to QuickBooks. We have multiple resources available to help you with that. However, if you do not plan to track inventory, the only critical customization would be establishing your correct selling prices.

If you choose to not renew your QuickBooks interface, the interface and other Enterprise features would stop working but the base CFS program will continue working normally. You also have the option of discontinuing the QuickBooks interface but keeping the Enterprise functionality. Please call customer support about pricing in this circumstance.

Conclusion

If you use CFS now but use QuickBooks to track inventory there is no reason to continue doing manual adjustments to keep your data current. This interface is the solution for you. If you don’t track inventory now but would like to start, this is the solution for you. Even if you have no interest in tracking inventory but only want to record your sales transactions with a single entry, this is the solution for you.