Recent College Grad Looking For Remodeler Feedback on QuickBooks App
Hey guys! My name’s Cole, I’m a recent college grad, and I just built a QuickBooks app designed to help those in the remodeling industry save hours each week in managing their expenses by:
– Automatically uploading and itemizing email receipts from any retailer (with precision accuracy) into your QuickBooks accounts
– No longer waste time hunting down receipts from your subs
– Automatically remembering item costs for previously purchased items
– Enabling incredibly accurate project estimates
– Automatically grouping receipts into projects, jobs, customers, etc.
– Automatically linking the original receipt to the transaction in QuickBooks
As people in the remodeling industry, it would mean the world to me if you could let me know if you identify with the pain point and think these features could be useful to someone like yourself? If you guys don’t think this could be helpful, then I truthfully don’t want to waste time by continuing to work on this business.
Replies
Automatically sounds great!
50 yrs in the bldg industry, the last 25 as a remodeling contractor.
The first 25 I rcvd a paycheck. Work expenses landed in a paper folder to write off at tax time. The folder went into the file cabinet per each year.
The next 25 I worked a whole lot harder on the business end. The folders got bigger. Subs were now an expense. Went from bid jobs to cost plus estimates so keeping a good record of both sub and material costs was all the more important. Some where in there we discovered a computer.
That was when entering the info into the “mystery box” became important. You could do it every night or put it off till you had “free” time. Great place to keep track of both small and large jobs and to segregate one job from another.
If you didn’t allow for that time in your original bidding, you ate that time.
Also. I mentioned cost plus bidding above. Realize that this still required a pretty good estimate from subs as well as a very close itemization of the material needed to finish the job. Also with experience I didn’t beat up that initial estimate with a big surprise I “couldn’t” see in advance.
So if you want to spend some time here explaining your accounting ideas then I would encourage you to do so. Won’t help me any because I’m done, but this board gets all stages of businesses and those that might want to start one.
This is so helpful @calvin, thank you so much for your feedback. It's nice to hear that you identify with the hassle of collecting receipts, uploading them, and manually itemizing them. I know you said you're currently no longer in the remodeling business but here's a link to the demo video in case you were curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve5GbNb8usU&ab_channel=ReezyReceipts
Thanks, I get some time in the next couple days I’ll have a look.
You realize you’re talking to a guy that’s old, set in their ways and don’t even use antisocial media. This board is different. Only minor slides into the pit and that was a while ago.
Hi Cole, congratulations on your recent graduation and building a QuickBooks app for the remodeling industry! It sounds like your app aims to solve several pain points in managing expenses and streamlining the process with automated features such as uploading and itemizing receipts, remembering item costs, grouping receipts into projects, and linking the original receipt to the transaction in QuickBooks.
I think it's great that you are seeking feedback from potential users in the remodeling industry to validate your idea and ensure that it will be useful to them. By understanding the needs and challenges of your target audience, you can better tailor your app to meet their needs and improve the overall experience.
I would suggest reaching out to individuals and companies in the remodeling industry, conducting surveys or focus groups, or reaching out to relevant industry associations for feedback on your app and its potential usefulness. Additionally, you may want to consider gathering feedback from early adopters or beta testers to get more in-depth insights into the real-world application of your app.
Thank you so much @mr_nick for the helpful advice. I couldn't agree more as collecting beta feedback is the process i'm currently in. Here is a link to a 1 minute demo video if you're curious to see more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve5GbNb8usU&ab_channel=ReezyReceipts&themeRefresh=1
If you're up for it, it would mean the world to me if you could schedule a short 15 minutes with me where I could explain more and discuss potentially beta testing this new app. The app is currently free as I'm really just trying to collect everyone's thoughts. Thanks again Mr_Nick!
Link to my calendar: https://calendly.com/cole-stark9/15min
Cole, It sounds like the main focus of your work is organizing receipts. That is helpful for any of us contractors. I would just add that you should make sure there is an easy way to assign receipts to different jobs after they are automatically imported. There are always receipts that have materials for more than one job, and there are always things that may be business expenses such as you decided to pick up a new hammer at the lumber yard, and they don't get charged to the client. So there is always some looking over receipts and reconfiguring going on. But in general the idea of a preliminary grouping and importing receipts is a winner, if they are at least grouped together you can fine tune them afterward.
Just as an aside I have a contractor buddy and one year when he was doing his taxes he organized his receipts by the ones he stuffed in his desk drawer, the ones he found in his glovebox and "floor receipts" that were in the vicinity around his desk. In general most of us smaller working contractors struggle to swing a hammer and keep up with this stuff.
If you really want to win over contractors I'd love for you to make a better program than Quickbooks. I use it because it's relatively affordable, but it isn't great in my opinion. It's overly complicated for most of us. The estimate and invoice templates leave a lot to be desired, and there are a just some really overly complicated things about it. Good luck
Yes i agree with the comment about Quickbooks being to complicated i use it also but dont realy like it unless you are a Quickbooks expert you cant do very much on itso if you make someting like you describe and the rest very simple you will go a far way because most single man remodellers havent got the time or staff to do the Quickbooks system