The QBO Setup Audit Toolkit. Fix what the audit found.
The QuickBooks Setup Audit grades your books in two minutes. This toolkit is what you use next: a step-by-step setup checklist that walks each fix in priority order, and the Excel audit workbook so you can re-score yourself after every change. Two free downloads that turn the grade into a plan.
"A construction-grade QuickBooks runs the business. A generic one just files the return."
A quick take from Joe on what separates a QuickBooks set up for construction from one that only answers the IRS — and why the eight setup gaps in this toolkit are the ones that decide which one you have.
A checklist to fix it. A workbook to prove it.
Two artifacts, built to work together. Use the checklist to walk each setup gap in priority order, the highest-dollar fix first. Use the Excel workbook to re-run the same eight questions after each change and watch your score climb.
- QuickBooks Setup Checklist — every gap, the fix, and the order to do them in
- Audit Workbook (Excel) — the same eight questions, your scores, a quarterly re-check
- Free. No upsell. Same scoring as the online QuickBooks Setup Audit.
QuickBooks Setup Checklist
The whole fix list on paper: each of the eight setup gaps, what "right" looks like, and the order to tackle them so the highest-dollar fixes come first.
- Split cost of goods sold (materials, labor, subs, equipment)
- Turn on Customers and Jobs, map items 2-sided
- Burdened payroll on the job, sales tax, 1099s
- The priority order, by dollar impact
Audit Workbook (Excel)
A live workbook that mirrors the online audit — answer the same eight questions, set your revenue band, and read your score and the dollar cost of every gap, offline and on your schedule.
- The eight setup questions, scored A to F
- Dollar cost of each gap at your revenue band
- A fix tracker to mark progress as you go
- Methodology tabs — cited, examples, sources
Eight setup gaps stand between a tax return and a tool you run on.
The four below move your score the most. The toolkit also covers sales tax split by materials vs labor, 1099 vendor flagging, monthly bank reconciliation, and location tracking for divisions.
Split your COGS.
One lumped cost-of-goods account hides materials vs labor vs subs. Break it into separate lines and you can finally see where the money went.
Turn on jobs.
Without Customers and Jobs, every cost is company-wide and no cost is job-level. This is the line between a return and a real per-job P&L.
Map items to COGS.
Items pointed at Income inflate revenue and hide cost of goods sold. Make the things you buy 2-sided so purchases land in a cost account.
Burden the labor.
Naked wages understate true labor by 25 to 35 percent. Push burdened payroll onto the job so every margin and every bid tells the truth.
Audit the setup. Fix with the checklist. Re-check with the workbook.
Score your setup
Run the online QuickBooks Setup Audit (or the Excel workbook) for your grade and the annual dollar cost of every gap, ranked by what is costing you the most.
Work the checklist
Open the setup checklist and walk each fix in priority order — split COGS, turn on jobs, make items 2-sided, get burdened payroll onto the job.
Re-score in the workbook
After each change, re-run the eight questions in the Excel workbook and watch the grade climb. Re-check quarterly so a new hire or app never quietly breaks it.
The episode this toolkit was built for.
Joe breaks down the QBO problem every contractor runs into — a default chart of accounts that can't track a job — and walks through the contractor-ready setup these downloads give you. The toolkit on this page is the system from the episode.
Watch on YouTube →
Built to pair with the QuickBooks Setup Audit.
The online audit scores your setup in two minutes — answer eight yes-or-no questions and see the dollar cost of each gap. This toolkit gives you the checklist to fix them and the Excel workbook to re-score offline. Same scoring, designed to be used together.
Open the QuickBooks Setup AuditPair it with these.
Contractor Chart of Accounts
The import-ready QuickBooks chart of accounts that gives you the split-COGS structure the audit checks for.
Get the template →Job Cost Tracking Toolkit
Once the setup is right, track what each job actually made with the 30-job tracker and the margin zones.
Get the toolkit →QuickBooks Setup for Contractors
Why the default QuickBooks can't see your jobs, and the 5 setup fixes that make it construction-ready.
Read more →We'll build your QuickBooks for the way you actually work.
Best Decision Bookkeeping sets up contractors for job costing — the chart of accounts, the segments, the burdened payroll, all of it. 30-minute call. No pitch. We'll walk your QuickBooks and tell you what to fix first.